Bill Frist

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate en bloc consideration of the following bills reported out by the Energy and Natural Resources Committee: Calendar Nos. 307, 308, 309, 310, 311, 312, 313, and 314; that the Energy and Natural Resources Committee be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 4195, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent the amendments at the desk be agreed to; the committee-reported amendments, as amended, be agreed to; the bills, as amended, if amended, be read the third time and passed; and the title amendment be agreed to, all en bloc.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 4508, which was received from the House.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

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. 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 Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be discharged from further consideration of S. 863 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent that the amendment at the desk be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. FRIST

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

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 4 p.m. on Saturday, December 17. 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 proceed to 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, tomorrow we will return to session. As I stated this morning, we are waiting for additional legislative items to come from the House. The House may vote on the Defense authorization conference report later this evening or tomorrow morning. I am unaware of anyone who has requested a rollcall vote on that conference report and, therefore, we expect to debate that during tomorrow's session if that measure is received. We also have a number of nominations we have been working on over the last several days. We expect to get those wrapped up tomorrow. At this point, we anticipate acting on those nominations without the need for rollcall votes. Having said that, we will be in session working on the important business that remains. At this juncture, after discussion with the Democratic leader, we do not anticipate a need for rollcall votes tomorrow. I want to say that in a very careful way because we have so much happening right now and, as I said, we will be working through much of the night, and we want to continue to move forward on measures. Senators have been patient. We have said for some time that we would be in this weekend, Saturday and in all likelihood Sunday as well, working through our final business. Tomorrow, I will continue to work with the Democratic leader to clear as much as we possibly can by unanimous consent. We also expect the Defense appropriations conference report to be ready at some point this weekend, and we will turn to that measure just as soon as we possibly can, as soon as it is ready. We will remain in session to receive items from the House, and we will remain available to begin any necessary procedural options that are warranted. We will need to act on a continuing resolution tomorrow, and we will pass that when received from the House. As I mentioned, Members continue to ask about the schedule. We are doing our very best to keep our colleagues apprised as we go forward. There is a lot of work going on with negotiations off the floor. We will monitor those discussions and alert all Members as we get closer to having these last bills ready. Again, at this point, I do not see a need for rollcall votes tomorrow, although we will have to wait to see what we receive from the House. With regard to a Sunday session and Monday session, just as soon as we make final decisions in terms of timing, we will let people know as quickly as possible. If we do not vote on Sunday--and we are not prepared to say that yet--we would notify people as soon as that decision could be made. We are going to have a very busy Monday and votes will in all likelihood begin early Monday morning. This will not be a typical Monday where we do not vote until late in the afternoon. Again, I will have more to say regarding Sunday's schedule tomorrow.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to immediate consideration of Calendar No. 329, S. 1312.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the McCain amendment at the desk be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, later this morning the Senate will vote on the issue of whether to limit debate on the USA PATRIOT Act. I urge my colleagues to support the cloture motion. The PATRIOT Act passed with near unanimous support 4 years ago. Since its passage, this commonsense law has proved to be one of the most useful, important tools we have in our antiterror arsenal. If we can take ourselves back to that morning on September 11, many people were at work, many others on the way to work when we all heard and soon saw that shocking news that 19 young men had hijacked four passenger planes and slammed them into the World Trade Center and into the Pentagon, 3 or 4 miles away. A fourth plane was en route, and its fate was unknown. The oceans separating us from them suddenly vanished and America was struck with a horrific force we had never seen before. Three thousand innocent Americans lost their lives, and we learned on that dark day that out there, hiding in the shadows, is a patient and brutal enemy, determined to inflict colossal violence on our shores. This enemy does not wear a uniform or march under a national banner. It hides among us as neighbors and coworkers, at subway shops and at cyber cafes. It hides in plain sight, plotting and planning until the moment comes to inflict its massive and terrible cruelty. On 9/11, our enemy declared war on the American people, and war is what they got. We toppled the Taliban in Afghanistan. We brought down Saddam Hussein and dismantled his tyranny. Yesterday, under the protection of brave American and Iraqi soldiers, 11 million Iraqi people streamed to the polls to freely choose, for the first time in the country's modern history, a permanent, democratically elected government of and by the people. It was a historic milestone for the Iraqi people. It was a historic milestone for freedom. It proved once again that every day we are making progress. We are fighting the terrorist enemy at home and in the mountains of Afghanistan, on the worldwide Web and in the streets of Baghdad. We are coordinating our efforts both inside and outside our borders so that we never have to suffer another terrorist attack. In the days following 9/11, we learned that the enemy had been able to elude law enforcement, in part because our agencies were not able to share key investigative information. Once we understood this awful reality, we swiftly took action. Within 6 weeks of the attacks on America, the Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act with overwhelming bipartisan support. The Senate vote was near unanimous, with 98 Senators voting in favor. The PATRIOT Act went to work tearing down the information wall between agencies and allowed the intelligence community and law enforcement to work more closely in pursuit of terrorist suspects. Since then, it has been highly effective in tracking down terrorists and making our country safer. Because of the PATRIOT Act, the United States has charged over 400 suspected terrorists. More than half of them have already been convicted. Because of the PATRIOT Act, law enforcement has broken up terrorist cells all across the country, from New York to California, Oregon, Virginia, and Florida. In San Diego, officials were able to use the PATRIOT Act to investigate and prosecute several suspects in an al-Qaida drug-for- weapons plot. The investigation led to several guilty pleas. The PATRIOT Act also allowed prosecutors and investigators to crack the Virginia Jihad case, involving 11 men who had trained for Jihad in northern Virginia, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. It specifically encourages information sharing among the many branches of Government so that our crime-fighting officials can adapt and respond more effectively to the terrorist threat. It also levels the playing field, so that law enforcement utilizes the tools they already have in other kinds of criminal cases, such as drug trafficking and mob activity. It is now easier for law enforcement at all levels to appropriately investigate and track suspected terrorists already in the United States. The conference report to reauthorize the PATRIOT Act includes all of these provisions and goes further to strengthen and improve America's security. It enhances vital safeguards to protect our civil liberties and privacy, and it contains new provisions to combat terrorist financing and money laundering, to protect our mass transportation systems and railways from attacks such as the ones on the London subway last summer, secure our seaports, and fight methamphetamine drug abuse, America's No. 1 drug problem. The clock is ticking. We do need to take action now. In just 15 days--December 31--nearly all of the provisions of the PATRIOT Act expire. If they do, we are right back to where we were pre-9/11. The information walls go right back up. We cannot let this happen. We cannot lose ground. The House, as we all know, acted last week. They passed a conference report with a bipartisan vote of 251 to 174. Now is the time for the Senate to follow suit. The choice is clear. Should we take a step forward in making America safer or should we go back to the pre-9/11 days when terrorists slipped through the cracks? I believe the answer is clear, and I believe we have only one choice. I ask my colleagues who are threatening to filibuster to take a closer look at that PATRIOT Act conference report. This reasonable compromise reached by Senate and House negotiators may not contain everything that each and every Member in this body would like, but it is much closer to the Senate bill that passed unanimously than it is to the House bill. It includes 4-year sunsets on the most controversial provisions, just as in the Senate version. And like the Senate version, it includes extensive privacy and civil liberty safeguards, as well as enhanced congressional oversight. As we prepare to vote on cloture later this morning, I urge my colleagues to join in support of this essential legislation. The FBI, the intelligence community, and our law enforcement need us to act. The American people want us to act. American national security demands that we act. A nation in fear cannot be a nation that is free. I urge my colleagues to stand up for freedom and security for the United States of America. I yield the floor.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Reserving the right to object.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, with regard to the unanimous consent request, I need to be clear once again, and I have over the last couple of days, that I absolutely oppose a short-term extension of the PATRIOT Act. The House of Representatives opposes such an extension and the President will not sign such an extension. Extending the PATRIOT Act does not go far enough. It is time to bring this to a vote this morning. We will see what the outcome of that vote is in terms of ending debate. I don't understand why opponents of the PATRIOT Act want to extend legislation at this juncture that has been fully debated, that has been the product of reasonable compromise and in a bipartisan way over the last several weeks and months. With an extension, if that were to be the case, we would not be able to take advantage of the civil liberty safeguards that have been placed in the conference report, the additional provisions on protecting our ports, on addressing money laundering by terrorists, protection of our railways and mass transit systems, fighting methamphetamine abuse. The PATRIOT Act represents a historic choice, a clear choice: Should we take a step forward or should we take a step backward in keeping America safe? I object.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this morning, after 30 minutes of morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of the PATRIOT Act conference report. At approximately 11 a.m, the Senate will vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the PATRIOT Act. It is my hope cloture will be invoked and that we could then adopt the conference report during today's session. Senators should anticipate additional votes on legislative and executive items we must complete action on before breaking for the holidays, including a number of judges and other nominations. As all of our colleagues know, we have a lot of work to do and a lot to accomplish over the next several days before we break for the holidays. I thank our colleagues for their patience and their hard work. We are working in a bicameral way. As our colleagues know, much of this legislation has to originate now and pass through the House before coming to us. We are working with the House to get that legislation appropriately.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, on leader time?

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, the PATRIOT Act expires on December 31, but the terrorist threat does not. We have a clear choice before us today: Do we advance against terrorism to make America safer or do we retreat to the days before 9/11, when terrorists slipped through the cracks. Advance or retreat? It is as simple as that. Some Members of Congress have called for a retreat-and-defeat strategy in Iraq, and that is the wrong strategy in Iraq, and it is the wrong strategy here at home. A vote against the PATRIOT Act amounts to retreat and defeat here at home, against terrorism. To those who still harbor concerns with this bill, I have a simple reply: We have more to fear from terrorists than this PATRIOT Act compromise. The compromise includes more civil liberty safeguards than in current law, more congressional oversight, more judicial review. The same people who criticize the lack of civil liberties in current law are arguing for a 3-month extension. That makes no sense. It is time to come together to advance, not retreat, from terrorist threats. I urge my colleagues to vote yes, to advance against terrorism, to make America safer, and to safeguard our civil liberties. Cloture Motion

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I now enter a motion to reconsider the vote by which cloture was not invoked.

Mr. FRIST. Reserving the right to object.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, as I stated earlier this morning and yesterday, I oppose a short-term extension of the PATRIOT Act. The House opposes such an extension. The President will not sign such an extension. Why? Because extending the PATRIOT Act for a short period of time simply does not do enough. The same people who criticized the lack of civil liberties safeguards in current law are arguing for an extension. That does not make sense. This compromise we have discussed over the last several days does address more civil liberty safeguards than current law, more congressional oversight, more judicial review. Thus, I object.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, the PATRIOT Act remains on the floor. I switched my vote in order to recommit. So in essence, it is 53 to 47. I simply ask that debate continue. Let everybody look at what is in the bill. We have had excellent debate the last couple of days. What this vote has basically said is that we don't stop debating it. I encourage people, especially those who voted against cloture, to take advantage of this opportunity to discuss and debate and come forward. We remain on the PATRIOT Act, and the vote right now speaks for itself. We accept that. But the debate will continue on this very important bill. Again, we will not see a short-term extension. I yield the floor.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 256, H.R. 2520, the cord blood stem cell bill.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be authorized to meet in open Executive Session during the session on Friday, December 16, 2005, immediately following a vote on the Senate Floor, tentatively scheduled to occur at 11:30 a.m., in the President's Room, S-216 of the Capitol, to consider favorably reporting the nominations of Antonio Fratto, to be Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Public Affairs, U.S. Department of the Treasury, Washington, DC; David M. Spooner, to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Import Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, DC; David Steele Bohigian, Assistant Secretary of Commerce, Market Access and Compliance, U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, DC; and, Richard T. Crowder, to be Chief Agricultural Negotiator, Office of the United States Trade Representative, Washington, DC.