Bill Frist

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I asked consent that second-degree amendments be filed by 10:30 a.m. tomorrow, and that unanimous consent request is still pending?

Mr. FRIST. The unanimous consent request, Mr. President, was that the Senate proceed to a period for morning business--we are calling it morning business--for up to an hour, a total of an hour, with 30 minutes under the control of the Democratic leader and 30 minutes under my control, which allows us to be on the bill.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until 9:45 a.m. on Tuesday, May 2. I further ask that following the prayer and the pledge, the morning hour be deemed to have expired, the Journal of the Proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved, and the Senate proceed to a period of morning business for up to 1 hour, with the first 30 minutes under the control of the Democratic leader or his designee and the final 30 minutes under the control of the majority leader or his designee; that upon the use or yielding back of the time, the Senate proceed to the consideration of H.R. 4939 and immediately proceed to a vote on the motion to invoke cloture. I further ask unanimous consent that second-degree amendments be filed by 10:30 a.m. tomorrow.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, it will probably be more likely around 11 o'clock or 10:50, 10:55 tomorrow morning, maybe 11 o'clock, that we will have the cloture vote on the emergency supplemental appropriations bill. That will be the first vote of the day, and that is when the clock will start ticking. Remember, Senators have a filing deadline for any second-degree amendments at 10:30 tomorrow morning. We have a lot of amendments to work through over the course of the postcloture time and will likely be having votes throughout the day. I know a number of people will be coming up to push votes until after committee meetings and hearings. We have to keep effectively and efficiently going through the votes in this postcloture period. I do expect cloture to be invoked, and we will need to vote on those pending amendments which are qualified under the cloture rule. It is my expectation to continue to run postcloture on Tuesday and Wednesday until we complete the bill.

Mr. FRIST

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

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 457, which was submitted earlier today.

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that it be in order to resume the supplemental appropriations bill; provided further that the following amendments be considered and agreed to: Nos. 3791; 3648, as modified; 3630; and 3631. I further ask unanimous consent that the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table and the Senate resume a period of morning business.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Armed Services Committee be discharged from further consideration and the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 415.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider laid upon the table.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I understand there is a bill at the desk that is due for a second reading.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, I object to further proceeding.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there now be a period for the transaction of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I now ask for a second reading and, in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, I object to my own request.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that first-degree amendments to the supplemental be filed at the desk in accordance with rule XXII no later than 2:30 p.m. on Monday.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee be discharged from further consideration and that the Senate now proceed to S. Res. 412

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the en bloc consideration of S. Res. 451, S. Res. 452, S. Res. 453, and S. Res. 454, which are at the desk.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to, the preambles be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, all en bloc.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until 2 p.m. on Monday, May 1. I further ask 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, and the Senate then resume consideration of H.R. 4939, the Supplemental Appropriations bill.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, today we will start with a 30-minute period of morning business. Therefore, shortly after 10 a.m., we will return to the consideration of the supplemental appropriations bill. We now have approximately 13 amendments pending. One of those has been divided into 18 divisions; therefore, that amendment could require up to 18 votes before we dispose of it. Needless to say, we will have rollcall votes throughout the day as we work our way through these amendments. At this point, there appears to be an unending flow of amendments and we will gauge our progress at the end of business today. I want Members to have the opportunity to offer amendments, but at some point it may be necessary to file a cloture motion to ensure that we finish this emergency supplemental sometime next week. In the meantime, I encourage Senators to work with the managers to schedule their amendments, and perhaps there will be an opportunity for some of the votes to be accepted without the need for floor debate or a vote. I will have a brief statement on another issue, unless the Democratic leader wants to comment on the schedule. We are going to have a busy day. I ask our colleagues to be cooperative. This is a supplemental emergency bill and we need to proceed efficiently--with patience but efficiently. I wish to comment on another very important issue. We have so many things going on today and over the course of the week, with a focus on energy, with a lot of work being done not on the floor but in committees and in working groups and task forces to address the skyrocketing prices of gasoline. We have a pensions conference report on the way, and a tax increase prevention act conference report is underway.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, there is another issue we have made slow progress on recently that we need to accelerate and that is the judicial nomination process. Throughout my time as leader, I have done my very best to stand on the principle of having fair up-or-down votes for each of the judicial nominees. I believe it is our responsibility, our constitutional duty, grounded in the advice and consent clause of section 2 of the Constitution, and it is reinforced by over 200 years of Senate history; it is a duty we have in the Senate. I compliment the body on the two Justices who were confirmed--a Chief Justice, an associate Justice, and all the district court judges who were confirmed. In the coming weeks, we need to continue building on this progress, as with all the rest of the issues coming before us. We will confirm new nominees to fill vacancies on the Federal bench. As we all know, we need our courts to have judges who are well- qualified, mainstream judges, who demonstrate the highest integrity, and who will practice judicial restraint and will respect the rule of law and the Constitution. After consulting with Chairman Specter, Senator McConnell, and many of my colleagues, I am pleased to announce that in the coming weeks we will move forward on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. I will make every effort to see that he gets a vote before the Memorial Day recess. President Bush nominated Mr. Kavanaugh on July 25, 2003, 3 years ago. He has been waiting for that up-or-down vote on the floor of the Senate since that time. That is almost 3 years ago. That is a long enough time for us to bring that nomination forward to the floor and to act on that nomination. He is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School, and he is also a former Supreme Court clerk. He has sterling credentials. Most of us have studied his record. Mr. Kavanaugh has a broad range of experience as a prosecutor, as a lawyer in private practice, and as a trusted counsel and adviser to President Bush. Throughout his entire career, Brett Kavanaugh has demonstrated the fairminded temperament and intellectual prowess that is needed to serve as a Federal appellate judge. There will be a lot more to say about him in the coming weeks. We will talk about that nomination. For now, I urge my colleagues to refocus on the nomination process and make sure it will work fairly. I want to be able to approach the process and dignify it in a civil way, rejecting the obstruction and personal attacks that have arisen on the floor in times past. Let's embrace the principle of a fair up-or-down vote. It is right to do for the nominees--to treat them in a dignified way--and for the American people, who depend on fairminded judges to resolve disputes and interpret our laws. I yield the floor.

Mr. FRIST

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

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I had hoped we could have made further progress on the emergency supplemental bill. Unfortunately, today we were only able to dispose of two amendments with rollcall votes--only two amendments. I am disappointed that the Senator from Oregon prevented us from voting on some of the amendments that had been in the queue, in line, and ready for votes. Having said that, we know this is an emergency bill, supplemental emergency spending. Time is of the essence. Tomorrow there is a retreat on the other side of the aisle, and therefore we will not be able to make further progress. For that reason, I will send a cloture motion to the desk to ensure we can finish this emergency bill at a reasonable time next week. Cloture Motion I now send that cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the live quorum be waived.