Bill Frist

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution and preamble be agreed to; that the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table; and that any statements relating to the resolution be printed in the Record.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 33, which was submitted earlier today by Senators Stevens and Byrd.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution and preamble be agreed to; that the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table; and that any statements relating to the resolution be printed in the Record.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.J. Res. 13, which is at the desk.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the joint resolution be read three times, passed, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until 11 a.m., Thursday, January 30. I further ask unanimous consent that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and there then be a period for morning business until 1 p.m., with the time equally divided and Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, for the information of Senators, we do expect a couple of nominations to be available for the Senate's consideration during Thursday's session. We now have a consent agreement for the consideration of the nomination of Gordon England, to be Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security. Votes are, therefore, possible during tomorrow's session. We will alert all Members as the voting times become more certain.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I understand that S. 241, which was introduced earlier today by Senators Snowe and Kerry, is at the desk. I ask for its first reading.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, the reason there is some discussion is that we do need to be out of the Chamber by 5 o'clock to prepare for this evening; so if we can have some modification of the time----

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, today the Senate will be conducting morning business to allow Senators to speak and to introduce legislation. Under the previous order, at 12:30 p.m., the Senate will recess until 2:15 p.m. for the weekly party lunches. As previously announced, there will be no rollcall votes today. This evening, the President will deliver his State of the Union Address. I ask all Members to be in the Senate Chamber by 8:30 p.m. so we can proceed as a body to the House Chamber for the President's speech which will begin promptly at 9 p.m. For the remainder of the week, the Senate will consider any legislative or executive matters that become available. There may be some additional nominations that are reported by the committees of jurisdiction, and it is my hope that the Senate will be able to act on those nominations in a timely way. In addition, it will be necessary to act on a further continuing resolution this week. Therefore, rollcall votes are possible this week. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the morning business time ordered for today be divided as follows: The time from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. be under Republican control; the time from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. be under Democratic control. I further ask unanimous consent that upon reconvening from the party lunches recess, the time from 2:15 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. be under Democratic control; the time from 3:15 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. be under Republican control; finally, that the time from 4:15 p.m. to 5 p.m. be equally divided between the two parties.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I, too, will encourage our colleagues in the Senate and in the House of Representatives and the administration with regard to having an expeditious process. We all did work very hard. We had a recess that had been initially planned, and with the goal of being able to accomplish what we all set out to accomplish--and that is completion of these appropriations bills--all of us came back from that recess, worked together hand in hand, and accomplished a lot. So over the course of today, we will be talking to our colleagues on both sides of the aisle, and bicamerally, so we can expeditiously bring this legislation to a conclusion.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, over the course of the week, as I mentioned, we will likely have votes. We will be dealing with the continuing resolution and, I am very hopeful, nominations as they come forward. With respect to Friday, I expect there to be no rollcall votes, and we likely will not be in session on Friday out of consideration for the Democratic gathering and planned meeting. That will be similar to the following Friday as well. We will have further announcements on that schedule during the course of the week.

Mr. FRIST. I so modify my request.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. For the information of Senators, we will shortly proceed to the Hall of the House of Representatives for the President's State of the Union Address. Following the address, the Senate will adjourn over until 12 noon tomorrow. Votes are possible tomorrow as the Senate may consider any legislative or executive items that are available. I yield the floor.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I now ask for its second reading, and I object to my own request.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I understand that S. 228 is at the desk. I ask for its first reading.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this morning there will be a period for morning business until the hour of 10:45 a.m. At 10:45 a.m., the Senate will resume consideration of H.J. Res. 2, the appropriations bill. Under the order of last night, at 11 a.m., the Senate will proceed to a series of up to three votes in relation to the pending amendments to the appropriations measure. The first vote will be in relation to the Feingold amendment No. 200 regarding expanded international military education. The second vote will be in relation to the Mikulski amendment No. 61 on public-private competition. The third vote will be on the Murray amendment No. 39 regarding the community action program. Following those votes, the managers will continue to work through any remaining amendments. It is hoped we will be able to complete action on this bill at a reasonable time today. I thank the Democratic leader and whip for their assistance in reaching short time agreements on the amendments that were offered yesterday. We made tremendous progress over the last 36 hours. I thank all Members of this body for their cooperation in coming to the Chamber to offer their amendments and limiting their remarks. A great deal of progress was made yesterday, and if we are able to continue that good work over the course of today, I believe we will finish this bill and complete these 11 appropriations bills sometime today. Again, I announce to my colleagues if we complete this bill today, there will be no session of the Senate on Friday.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Using leader time, I just want to make a very brief comment because this is a very important issue, an important issue to the many seniors who are listening to this debate, and individuals with disabilities, the physicians, the hospitals, the health care providers. It is very clear to me that health care providers today are being inadequately paid under the Medicare Program, and that is why I, as has been pointed out earlier, regret the fact that we finished, adjourned the 107th Congress, without passing legislation to provide seniors with prescription drug coverage and have more comprehensive strengthening of the Medicare system. But now, once we get finished with some of the unfinished business such as the appropriations bills, we have a new Congress, we have new leadership, and we absolutely will address strengthening Medicare head on, including provider payments, including a prescription drug benefit package for our seniors and individuals with disabilities. This particular amendment has not been considered by the Finance Committee. There are urgent needs that we are addressing in the underlying Stevens amendment. It has been mentioned one of those is a flattening of this decrease in payments that we have seen for doctors over time, by freezing what otherwise would be a 4.4-percent cut for physicians. The underlying Stevens amendment addresses that. What the Senator from New York has proposed--part of that is contrary to the specific recommendations of MEDPAC, which is the advisory commission specifically set up for us, in terms of learning what we should be doing. A package such as this, as the Senator from Oklahoma pointed out, does deserve careful vetting, careful consideration. We simply have not had that opportunity to date. Let me make it clear once again. My priority as majority leader, as a physician, is to address in a comprehensive way, legislation that will do things such as provide access to seniors, strengthen and improve the Medicare Program, as well as address provider payments, which this particular amendment attempts to do. I look forward to working with my Finance Committee colleagues. I do want this to go through the Finance Committee where we can have careful vetting and consideration as we develop this legislation which will strengthen Medicare. In closing, I urge Senators to vote no to waive the Budget Act.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this amendment by the Senator from Massachusetts would increase funding by nearly $600 million. It would increase funding for programs at the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, the Office of Minority Health at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Office for Civil Rights at HHS, the Department's Minority HIV/AIDS initiative, and the Health Resources and Services Administration's (HRSA) Health Professionals Training for Diversity Programs. I support these programs. In fact, many of these programs were established or authorized by legislation that I authored, including the Minority Health and Health Disparities Act of 2000 and the Health Professions Education Partnership Act of 1998. However, this amendment provides no offsets for these spending increases. At a time when we are facing significant spending pressures, it is irresponsible to propose such spending without specifying how to pay for them; and, although I support and will continue to support these programs, I must oppose this amendment. I would also note that the bill we are considering already contains significant increases in many of these programs, and I would commend Senators Stevens and Specter for their good work in this area. In fact, for the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities and for the Office of Minority Health, the bill before us today contains exactly the same funding levels as the Democrats provided in their July 2002 Labor-HHS Appropriations bill. In the case of Health Professions' programs in general, and the Health Professionals Training for Diversity program in particular, the bill already contains a drastic increase from that provided in the Democrats' July bill. For the Health Professionals Training for Diversity program that this amendment targets, I would point out that the underlying bill contains $125 million--an increase from the previous fiscal year--and that this program was zeroed out by the Democrats in July. For them to now say that we are not providing sufficient funding is disingenuous and disgraceful. I am disappointed by this attempt to politicize an important issue that we have successfully worked in the past to address on a bipartisan basis. I have made this issue of health disparities a priority over the past several years, and hope that, together, we can make additional strides in an area of health disparities in the coming year.

Mr. FRIST. It would be more appropriate for you to go ahead.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, before doing that, I would be happy to yield to the Senator from New York. Was she about to respond?

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask to speak using leader time for approximately 3 minutes.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, shortly we will be having our last vote of the evening on passage of the appropriations bill. I congratulate our two managers, and I thank all of our Members for their cooperation. I will outline what our schedule will be so Members can plan. The Senate will be in a pro forma session on Friday. No business will be conducted tomorrow. The Senate will not be in session on Monday. We will next convene on Tuesday. As a reminder, the President will deliver his State of the Union Address on Tuesday evening and Senators are asked to be in the Chamber beginning at 8:30 that evening. I expect there will be several important nominations available for consideration next week. In addition, there may be other legislative matters and therefore rollcall votes are possible during next week's session. I do not anticipate any rollcall votes prior to Wednesday of next week. There will be further announcements as scheduling of those votes becomes more clear.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I want to express my deep appreciation to the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, to the distinguished ranking member, Senator Byrd, and to their staffs who very patiently for the last week have been working on this literally 24 hours a day. Terry Sauvain and Steven Cortese have really showed great leadership throughout on the completion of a very critical bill. I especially thank the staffs very much but also the chairman and the ranking member.

Mr. FRIST. I join my colleagues in their comments, and I am committed to bringing legislation to provide appropriate compensation to the floor promptly and to address legitimate funding needs.