Bill Frist

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask that the Senate stand in adjournment under the previous order.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate immediately proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination on today's executive calendar: Calendar Nos. 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, and 75. I further ask unanimous consent that the nominations be confirmed en bloc, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate then return to legislative session.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this morning the Senate will resume consideration of S. Con. Res. 23, the concurrent budget resolution. The time until 9:45 a.m. will be used for debate, prior to the first vote which will begin promptly at 9:45. Order of Procedure I ask unanimous consent that following the first vote, the time until 10:45 be equally divided for debate between the chairman and ranking member or their designees; provided further that the next vote in the sequence begin at 10:45.

Mr. FRIST. There will be one vote at 9:45, and then we will depart. We will resume voting at 10:45 or thereabouts.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, last night the chairman and ranking member of the Budget Committee reached an agreement for the consideration of the first 10 amendments today. With the first 10 votes scripted, it will allow Members to review and prepare for the first couple of hours in the voting sequence. I encourage Members who intend to offer amendments to notify the chairman or the ranking member so that their amendments can be placed in the sequence of votes. At this time, we are not encouraging further amendments. However, if Members feel compelled to offer them, I ask courtesy of that notification. I remind all Senators that once the voting sequence begins at 10:45, Senators should remain in the Chamber or close by to avoid missing any votes. We will need to limit the votes in the sequence to 10 minutes each. We will stay until this resolution is completed. It may be a lengthy session today in order to conclude the process. I thank Members for their cooperation.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I enter a motion to reconsider the last vote.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I will give everybody an outline of what we can expect over the next 24 hours before we begin what will be the last vote of the evening. Following this next vote, which will begin shortly, there will be approximately 5 hours remaining for consideration of the budget resolution. Our plans are that we will stay in session tonight. The chairman and ranking member will remain this evening to debate the amendments with others, and to participate in that debate until all time has expired. The plan will be to reconvene tomorrow at 9:30 in the morning. And it will be a long day. At 9:30 we will begin our rollcall votes, a series of rollcall votes. I know the two managers are committed to try to make this an orderly process as we complete the budget resolution. That, in part, means they need to have all amendments, and they will accomplish an ordering of those amendments so we can start right in at 9:30 and start clicking through the amendments at the appropriate speed tomorrow. I do ask Members to notify the managers if they intend to offer an amendment during the voting sequence tomorrow. Once the voting begins tomorrow, we will remain until the budget resolution is completed. I thank all Members for their real cooperation today. Again, it was a challenging day for all of us. And it has worked out almost perfectly, seamlessly in many ways, as we were able to recognize the service of our military personnel and the President of the United States and at the same time continue the budgeting process.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, indeed, those statements, written and oral statements, will appear at the appropriate place in the Record. Also, we would encourage people tonight to take advantage of the fact that we are going to be here in session. We have agreed that that time will be on the budget, the 5 hours that are remaining. I think it is 5 hours. And people are welcome to speak tonight. Again, I remind people they will have other opportunities to express themselves on support for the troops, as well.

Mr. FRIST. Yes.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, with regard to the 9:45 start, the surgeon in me says we ought to start at 8 o'clock, but we will start at 9:45.

Mr. FRIST. Was there a second request?

Mr. FRIST. Yes.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, it is in order to do so. But I will turn to the two managers of the bill to respond to that. If statements are made, part of the 5 hours will be used up for the statements.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, that is correct.

Mr. FRIST. I will yield in 1 second. A discussion with the Democratic leader and myself today was under the understanding--again, no unanimous consent agreement--under the understanding that if people were going to be talking about the Iraq resolution, time would be coming off the time on the budget. Let me also clarify the earlier statement. If our side is speaking on the Iraq resolution, it will come out of the 2 \1/2\ hours of our time. If your side is speaking on the Iraq resolution, it will come out of your time. I yield to the Senator from Oklahoma.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, with that, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of the resolution which is at the desk.

Mr. FRIST. Has all time expired?

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the time on our side be managed by Senator Warner.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I will keep my opening remarks short, as well, to restate the support that the resolution addresses very directly, which is, support for the President of the United States as Commander in Chief, for our troops, for the military families, for the civilian families, in support of our military. The President has ordered the first salvos in Operation Iraqi Freedom. It was a moment that all of us had hoped to be able to avoid. We prayed for peace. We worked for peace. But the Iraqi regime chose a different destiny. Now our mission is clear: to use the full might of the American military to disarm Saddam Hussein and liberate the Iraqi people from his oppressive rule. American warships and planes have been employed to attack enemy targets throughout Iraq, and hundreds of thousands of American troops are fighting their way across the Iraqi border. Our men and women in uniform are in harm's way. They are engaged in battle as we speak. We all pray for their safety and for their success. I am confident of their victory, and I am confident it will come at the earliest possible moment. Ours is the best equipped, the best trained military in the world. They know they have a job to do. They know how to do it, and they know how to do it with extraordinary skill. And as they do, they have the full support of this body and the American people behind them. I also applaud the President of the United States, who has shown bold leadership and strong leadership and visionary leadership over the last several months. Our prayers are with him. Through tremendous diplomacy, he has assembled more than 30 countries to join us in this cause. We are grateful for his leadership and the support of our allies. And to the families of our men and women in uniform, I know they are concerned about the safety of their loved ones. The President and Congress are concerned, too. We are doing all we can to ensure your loved ones return home as quickly and as safely as possible. America is grateful for your sacrifice. This war is justified by our own laws, by international laws, and by the laws of nature, which state all people are created equal and with a right to live in liberty. Let there be no mistake, we are defending our own liberty. We have already seen what terrorists can do with the combined power of only three jet aircraft. We are now at war so we will not ever see what terrorists will do if supplied with weapons of mass destruction by Saddam Hussein. We also fight to liberate the Iraqi people. For those in Iraq who have suffered daily terror from this oppressive tyrant, for those who have survived torture and imprisonment, for those who have watched family members die in agony from chemical weapons, their moment of freedom is near. For those who will defend this dying regime, the moment of reckoning has come. Mr. President, I welcome the strong bipartisan support that this resolution has and will receive. It is an honor to stand here side by side with my colleague, the Democratic leader, to send a clear message to those brave Americans who are risking their lives for us on the battlefield: Our prayers are with you. Godspeed toward victory.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I thank the Democratic leader because all of us know we are trying to accomplish a lot this week. We have been able to work together in an orderly way thus far this week. It will get increasingly hectic over the next 48 hours. We have an orderly process which would mean the resolution will be introduced now. Over the next several hours we will have ample opportunity for people to make their initial remarks of support. We have a series of votes that begins at 4 o'clock today. As the distinguished Democratic leader said, our intention is to follow those votes with this vote on the resolution for support. Following whenever that vote is--and again I encourage our colleagues to keep remarks short so we can get to that vote because that is the real signal that we send out from the Senate once we actually vote on that resolution--following that resolution we will come back to the budget and continue the excellent debate, focusing on various amendments today and tonight. We will be here late tonight. There has been time yielded back, from our side, to facilitate that process. I think what we would like to do--it really depends on how the afternoon and night goes--is to begin the series of votes after all time is exhausted, which would be sometime late tomorrow morning. Again, I do not know exactly what the time would be like. And then it really depends on how many votes we have as part of the so-called vote- arama. It is our intention to finish this budget this week. As I said this morning, if it is Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, it is important, we all believe, to complete this budget this week. That is a rough outline of how we would like to see things play over the next 48 hours.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, the Democratic leader and I have been in discussion on a resolution in support of the President and the Armed Forces of the United States. We are now prepared to offer that resolution and allow the full Senate to express its support. As people have watched the course of today, we are all aware that there is a lot of activity going on in Iraq as we speak and we believe it is very important that Members be given appropriate time to express that support and thus believe this resolution is a wonderful way for us to send a signal, today, of that support. I know a number of Members will come to the floor to express that support over the next couple of hours. They will be making brief remarks. Over the course of the coming days, we will have ample opportunity to expand upon those remarks. Senators, clearly, will want to speak on the resolution, but I do want to encourage people to keep their remarks short so we can eventually get to the vote as early today as possible to express that support with the full support of the Senate. We have talked back and forth as to whether we need specific time limits, in terms of how much time to spend on this particular resolution. We have agreed not to have strict time limits because we do want to give everybody that opportunity. But we have agreed we will have a vote on this resolution of support for our troops today. Again, it is imperative, I believe, that the Senate express its support today through this resolution. We will resume the budget resolution following the conclusion of the resolution of support. There are about 5 hours, I believe, remaining on the budget resolution; therefore, we will finish that resolution this week and we will talk a little bit more back and forth in a few minutes about what our expectations are for later tonight and tomorrow. I know the managers on both sides of the aisle have encouraged Members to submit their amendments. I hope Senators are listening and working with the chairman and ranking member so we can have an orderly process. Although we have all tried on both sides to avoid a vote- athon, there is going to be a vote-athon tomorrow. But we want to have an orderly process. To do that, we want to make sure we have those amendments this afternoon so we can go through and prioritize and then be able to plan for tomorrow. Before I formally call up the resolution, I yield to the Democratic leader for his comments.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, let me respond and say there is a difference, I believe, in that I believe we express strong support for our troops, for our Commander in Chief especially; that we can do that and at the same time carry on our responsibility. It is a difference in approach. I guess that is why the last Congress, under other leadership, failed to pass a budget. Look where it got us--where the first 40 days of this particular Congress, we had to clean up a process which was left because of that same prioritization, that a budget is not important. We believe that a budget is important, that it prioritizes the needs of defense, of health care, of education. Thus, under this leadership, we are going to proceed with the budget. We are going to pass that budget resolution. We are not going to delay. Now I am beginning to sense a little bit that we want to delay the budget, put it off a week, a month, a year, or maybe into the next Congress. It is simply not going to happen. We are going to proceed. We have 14\1/2\ hours on this budget. We are not going to pay respect to the fact that some people say the budget is just not important now. We believe that budget is important.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Yes, indeed.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, the Senate will resume consideration of S. Con. Res. 23, the concurrent budget resolution this morning, with a total of 14\1/2\ hours left for debate on the resolution, 6\1/2\ hours remaining under the control of the chairman of the Budget Committee and 8 hours remaining under the control of the ranking member. In view of the military action taking place in Iraq, the Senate will consider today a resolution of support for President Bush and the troops. The final wording on the resolution itself is being worked out by Members on both sides of the aisle. I had an opportunity to talk to the majority leader a few minutes ago and we discussed the wording of the resolution. By late this morning or early afternoon the specific wording will be worked out. I envision sufficient time for Senators to speak. A number of Senators have expressed their desire to speak in support of our troops, and we will accommodate that. Senators will be advised as to the time for this discussion and debate as well as when the vote on the resolution of support will take place later this morning or early afternoon after we have had a time for Members on both sides of the aisle to discuss the appropriate timing for that. Both today and tomorrow will be very busy. We will complete action on the budget resolution this week. In order to provide adequate time for people to both express their support and at the same time finish the budget resolution this week, we will be in very late tonight, and I would assume tomorrow, and late tomorrow night, and possibly go into Saturday. Again, we will finish the budget resolution this week. There are currently three amendments pending: The Kyl amendment regarding the estate tax, the Durbin amendment regarding a prescription drug benefit, and the Rockefeller and Collins amendment regarding aid to States. Under the previous order, the votes on these amendments will be stacked to occur at 4 o'clock today. Those votes will be the first votes today. There may be other votes stacked as well depending on what amendments are offered over the course of the morning. We were here late last tonight. Again, I make the appeal that people file their amendments and talk to the chairman and ranking member, the managers of this important piece of legislation, so we can progress within the time elements that have been laid out, the 14\1/2\ hours remaining for debate on the resolution.