Bill Frist

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I move to commit the pending bill, and I send the motion to the desk.

Mr. FRIST. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. FRIST. I send an amendment to the instructions to the desk.

Mr. FRIST. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I send a second-degree amendment to the desk for its consideration.

Mr. FRIST. All right.

Mr. FRIST. All right. Mr. President, we will work out on filing the motion to proceed here, and I will have an announcement. We will have no votes tomorrow. By the end of tonight, we will have Tuesday worked out. We will be debating the asbestos bill on Monday. The next vote will be on that cloture motion, and we will talk about when that would occur Tuesday. In all likelihood, if we have a vote Tuesday, it would be around 6 o'clock at night. There are a number of Members who will want to attend the funeral of Coretta Scott King, and, as I understand it, that will be at noon on Tuesday. Therefore, the next vote that we will have will be at approximately 6 o'clock on Tuesday night. Conflict of Interest

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I have been talking to the ranking member before coming to the floor. I think he explained generally what will take place. I will comment on it after completion of procedural requests. Amendment No. 2707 (Purpose: To provide a substitute amendment) Mr. President, I send a substitute amendment to the desk, and I ask for its consideration.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, as a continuation of the explanation, it has not been my preference to file these amendments, but we have tried over the last couple of days to bring a semblance of order so we can complete the activity that is in the Senate. It was November when we first passed this bill. The House passed a bill. Under the usual circumstances, with unanimous consent, we marry the two bills and it goes to conference. We are spending these 20 hours, and we have had good debate over the course of yesterday and this morning. But we have been unable to get unanimous consent to have a list of these amendments with language which would allow our chairman and ranking member to begin voting on those amendments. Thus, what will happen today is, as the ranking member explained, time will expire sometime around 2:15 today. I don't know the exact time. After that, there will be a series of rollcall votes. The rollcall votes begin with the Talent amendment, which is the pending amendment. After that, others will have the opportunity to offer amendments, and they would be voted on accordingly. I do encourage all of our colleagues to work with the chairman and ranking member, the managers of the bill, so we can have an orderly process and we can stick with amendments that are pertinent and relative to the underlying bill. It means if we work aggressively but work collaboratively over the course of the day we will start voting early this afternoon. We will be voting until we finish this particular bill.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, through the Chair, in response, I certainly hope so. I believe we are in a position to do so, but it depends on how many amendments we have. Once we start voting, we will keep the amendments very tight. Both the Democrat leader and I said we hoped it would not come to this point to have a vote-arama, but that is what it will be. I believe we can finish it tonight. The only hesitation is how much cooperation we get from our side of the aisle and your side of the aisle. If we do not finish tonight, we will continue tomorrow until we complete the legislation.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I have made it clear from the outset we need to finish this legislation this week. Friday is a working day, as we all know. If we have to be here, we will do that. On the other hand, once people understand where we are and that we do not actually have to be doing this, people will step back and be reasonable in terms of the number of amendments, making sure they are amendments relative to the underlying bill. The managers will do this later, but Members need to be clear these are 10-minute votes, as well. I yield the floor.

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

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent that the motion to commit be withdrawn. I further ask consent that amendment No. 2709 be withdrawn and further that the yeas and nays be vitiated on amendment No. 2708; further, that the amendment be agreed to; provided further that the only remaining amendments in order be the following, and further, when a motion to waive occurs, it be in order for each leader to offer up to two amendments to each motion to waive. The amendments are: Talent, child tax credit; Nelson, prescription drugs; Republican alternative to Nelson, relevant; Byrd-Rockefeller-Santorum, mine safety; Conrad, substitute; Dodd, veterans health; Republican alternative to Dodd, relevant; Reed, America's military; Republican alternative to Reed, relevant; Clinton, Katrina commission; Republican alternative to Clinton, relevant; Menendez, AMT; Grassley, AMT; Reid, relevant to any amendment on the list; Frist, relevant to any amendment on the list. I further ask consent that at the conclusion of this unanimous consent, all time be yielded back and the Senate proceed to votes in relation to the following amendments; that all votes in the sequence be limited to 10 minutes each; that following the reporting of each amendment, the amendment be considered as read and there be 2 minutes equally divided prior to the vote in relation to the amendment; finally, that following disposition of amendments, the substitute be agreed to, the bill be read the third time, and the Senate proceed to a vote on passage of the bill, with no intervening action or debate. The amendments will be considered in the order sent to the desk.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, on behalf of Senator Talent, I would like to call up his amendment.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. Presient, on behalf of Senator Santorum, we yield back the remainder of our time.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, tonight it has taken a long time to get where we are. We are going to have 10-minute rollcall votes, so everybody needs to stay in the Chamber. We are going to cut everybody off. We have agreed to 10 minutes. It has been a long day already. We know what we are going to be doing the rest of the night. We have the amendments laid out, but it means everybody has to stay here. It will be 10-minute votes. Everybody stay here. Second, we have a request from the other side of the aisle that after this series of amendments there be a rollcall vote on the extension of the PATRIOT Act. We will run through the series of amendments as outlined and then, in discussion with the other side of the aisle, they are requesting a rollcall vote on the extension of the PATRIOT Act following these stacked votes on the amendments. I yield the floor.

Mr. FRIST. If there are no votes tomorrow.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, for the information of colleagues, we do have two remaining votes this evening. The next vote will be on passage of the Tax Relief Act. And following that vote, we will have 10 minutes of debate and a vote on passage of the PATRIOT Act extension. That will be the last vote. So, Mr. President, two more votes. We will be in session tomorrow, but there will be no votes tomorrow. The next piece of legislation we will be considering is the asbestos legislation, and it will be necessary to file cloture on the motion to proceed to that bill.

Mr. FRIST. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I will have a few announcements to make, but, first, I ask unanimous consent that following the vote on passage of H.R. 4297, the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 4659, the PATRIOT Act extension. I further ask consent that there then be 10 minutes of debate, equally divided, and that following the use or yielding back of time, the bill be read a third time and the Senate proceed to a vote on passage, with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. FRIST. That is correct.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. FRIST

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. I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding the resolution of the Senate of January 24, 1901, the traditional reading of Washington's Farewell Address take place on February 17 at a time to be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the Democratic leader.