Bill Frist

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. That is where we disagree.

Mr. FRIST. But you get a vote.

Mr. FRIST. But he voted, and that is the point.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, it doesn't say in the Constitution that you can vote; it says you can give advice and consent and that the Senate makes the rules as to whether you vote or not. We just disagree. Obviously, this goes back to the whole filibuster argument for judicial nominees. I simply believe in the principle that once someone comes to the floor, they deserve, in order to give advice and consent, an up-or- down vote.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I yield to my colleague from Kentucky.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I am going to close by saying I very much appreciate the colloquy, the back and forth we have had over the last hour. These are important issues when you are talking about nominations for the Supreme Court, which will far outlast, once confirmed, many of us in this body, and the importance of this process. I believe what is important for the American people to understand, even in this back and forth now, is we are committed to a fair process and a process that should be dignified; that we need to have civil debate, and we will have that on this particular nomination, which is where the focus is, where I want to rest so we are not talking about what we will do from that side or this side, but focus on the fact that among all the responsibilities that we have, that we are given in the Constitution, this nomination process is one that is important, that should be dignified, especially if we want people to continue putting themselves forward as potential nominees. We should not be in the business of character assassination, and we should not be in the business of not giving people the opportunity to fulfill a process and have it unfairly blocked as we go forward. I think it is important--again, not as Democrats or Republicans or party or partisan issues--to not allow the debate to get so hot, high, and heated that we interrupt the process. We are about midway through the time Judge Alito has been nominated. I am very pleased by our leadership at the Judiciary level, with Senator Leahy, Senator Specter, and the committee, in terms of their approach. They have a tremendous working relationship, which is very important as we go through these hearings which will begin on the 9th. Those hearings will be several days. They will be thorough; they will be exhaustive. It is important to this body to have the information to know how to vote--not whether to vote but how to vote, and questions, I am sure, will arise from the hearings--and that we be able to have both the appropriate amount of time for discussion and then come to the floor and have a full debate, and then approve or disapprove of that nomination. Again, I appreciate the chance to have this discussion. I know the distinguished Senator from Massachusetts has been waiting an hour to speak. We will continue the dialog. I very much respect the comments of my distinguished colleague from West Virginia. He teaches me all the time. I listen, and he knows I listen as we go through. We disagree on certain principles. I know one is not freedom of speech, or respect for the Constitution, or respect for this institution. I yield the floor.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, once again I thank my distinguished colleague from West Virginia for his insightful comments. I do want to keep the focus at this point--I have a feeling he is going to want to say something after I close, but I think it is time to put partisanship aside.

Mr. FRIST. To put threats of filibuster aside before we have even had the hearings. I am not bringing up filibuster.

Mr. FRIST. I didn't bring it up yesterday. I responded to a question, and then I did cite what six Democratic Senators have said and what eight newspapers have said about what is coming from the other side. But I think it is time to put it aside and to focus on the nomination. Freedom of speech, which is important, which I love, I cherish, that is why I am here, we can debate that. I am not sure what we are debating. We can debate that. I thought we finished that. We talked about filibusters 6 months ago. It is time to focus on this nomination, which is what the American people want us to do. We are talking about one of the most fundamental responsibilities in this body, and that is looking at an individual--and I would argue a very qualified individual--having a process that is fair, that is dignified, that is respectful and gives people the opportunity to give advice and consent. That is my goal, and that is what I am going to do my best to achieve. I think that is going to be the last thing I say. But I thank the Senator very much. I appreciate the comments from the distinguished Senator.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, Thursday night, on the eve of Veterans Day, we passed the Foreign Operations appropriations bill with near unanimous, bipartisan support. I commend my colleagues for their cooperation on this bill which is so critical to America's security. I especially recognize Senator Mitch McConnell for his steady leadership. Diplomacy and foreign policy are essential pillars of our national security. They reflect America's values, principles, and vital interests. This $21 billion appropriations bill promises to promote democracy, stability, and prosperity, and strengthen America's security here at home and around the world. It also promotes America's leadership in the arena of international aid. Targeted foreign assistance is an invaluable instrument for spreading democratic values, and improving the health and welfare of our neighbors close to home and around the world. It can promote economic growth and opportunity in even the poorest of nations. The Foreign Operations appropriations bill includes several provisions that advance these efforts. I would like to take a moment to share some of them. The defeat of Global HIV/AIDS is one of the world's greatest humanitarian challenges. In many countries, an entire generation of productive adults has been wiped out by this one, tiny, malicious virus. The funds set aside to battle the HIV/AIDS virus target relief where it can do the most good and make the biggest difference. Under this legislation, America is committed to providing $2.82 billion for Global HIV/AIDS relief. That includes: $2 billion for the Global HIV/AIDS Initiative; $250 million for HIV/AIDS from the Child Survival and Health Programs Fund; and a $450 million contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. By providing this desperately needed help, we save lies, strengthen alliances, and promote peace and stability. I have often talked about humanitarian aid as a currency for peace. The Foreign Operations appropriations bill wisely sets aside targeted funding for global health programs to advance that cause. A1ong with tackling the Global HIV/Aids crisis, the Foreign Operations appropriations bill supports the Child Survival and Health Programs Fund. These funds help reduce child mortality and morbidity, and combat other, serious public health problems. One of the most important public health crises this bill addresses is the lack of clean, drinkable water in many regions of the world. Every 15 seconds a child dies because of a disease contracted from unclean water. Fully, 90 percent of infant deaths can be attributed to this one, basic cause. 1n total, water-related disease kills 14,000 people a day. That is over 5 million people a year, not counting the millions who are debilitated and prevented from leading healthy lives. Cholera, typhoid, dysentery, dengue fever, trachoma, intestinal helminth infection, and schistosomiasis can all be prevented by simply providing clean, drinkable water and proper sanitation. Funding for the Safe Water: Currency for Peace Act, which I cosponsored earlier this year, will go a long way to providing this simple, but profound necessity. In addition to providing Foreign Operations needed and targeted humanitarian aid, the Foreign Operations appropriations bill advances the critical work of stopping the spread of WMD. We are working closely with our friends and allies to secure stockpiles of WMD-related materials and technology and to make sure our allies have the ability to protect these sensitive materials. The Foreign Operations appropriations bill provides over $410 million toward our nonproliferation, antiterrorism, and demining efforts. One of the gravest threats we face is the threat of WMD falling into our enemy's hands. We cannot, we must not, let this happen. Ultimately, the goal of each and every one of our foreign operations programs must be to promote America's security and America's values. And as the last century taught us, our security and our values must go hand in hand. Whether for humanitarian, diplomatic or security purposes, effective foreign assistance advances our vital interests and protects the homeland. The United States remains committed to eliminating poverty, expanding prosperity, and strengthening domestic institutions abroad. And by doing so, we advance our security and prosperity right here at home.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, today we will get off to a quick start in the Senate. We actually left not that many hours ago, and we are making real progress in terms of moving the Nation's business forward. This will be a very busy day. In a moment I will call up the continuing resolution which will keep Government operations funded beyond midnight tonight. We are starting that early. We are voting early this morning, in large part to get it completed here and sent to the President so it can be signed by midnight tonight. Senator Harkin will have an amendment which we expect to vote on at or around 9:30. After that, I will have more to say on the schedule itself. But we do have the continuing resolution, we will have the Harkin amendment, we are waiting for several pieces of legislation from the House of Representatives and several conference reports: MilCon or Military Quality of Life, Transportation TTHUD bills, the PATRIOT Act. We also have an adjournment resolution we must pass later today and several other conference-related matters. It is going to be a very busy day. I do ask for the cooperation and patience of all Senators as we cover a lot and have a number of rollcall votes over the course of the day. In terms of the schedule for tomorrow, or Sunday, or Monday--as the day proceeds, as soon as I have information brought to me and we determine the best way to handle that on the floor, I will be making those announcements over the course of the day.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I now ask unanimous consent the Senate begin consideration of H.J. Res. 72, which is at the desk.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, the issues the distinguished Senator from Louisiana comments on and mentions are something we take very seriously here. As she well knows, my personal commitment, the commitment of leadership on both sides of the aisle, is to address the issues. We have worked very hard, both in a personal sense and in an institutional sense. With regard to the latter, we passed 21 separate pieces of legislation that have responded to many of the immediate needs. I well recognize these needs are ongoing. We are going to need to stay on top of them, which I pledge and leadership pledges to continue to do. We will be coming back in December, depending on the outcome of today, in all likelihood, and we will continue to address these very important issues. Several issues we will be addressing over the course of the day as well.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I obviously am committed not only to what is in the supplemental, but I think we need to make it very clear to our colleagues and to the people in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, where I have personally visited very early on and have visited after that again and again, that in terms of responsiveness, we have been responsive in many ways. When I say 21 pieces of legislation, people say, What does that mean? Let me give examples. In terms of things that have been enacted or cleared for the President, we have passed the emergency supplemental, No. 1, which was $10.5 billion in Public Law 10961. We passed another emergency supplemental for $51.8 billion. We passed a Katrina short-term tax relief bill for $6.1 billion; flood insurance borrowing authority, H.R. 3669, for $2 billion; the TANF disaster relief bill for $.3 billion; the unemployed insurance provisions for $.16 billion. We passed a bill for redistribution of campus student aid, another bill for Pell grant relief, another bill for the Community Disaster Loan Act, for a total of $70.9 billion. Those are the things that have passed the Senate and the House. If you look at the things passed by the Senate, there are another nine bills for $9 billion: the Deficit Reduction Act, Sarbanes housing amendment, the Snowe small business amendment, the Katrina education reimbursement bill, the Baucus economic development amendment, the Byrd unemployment HHS IG amendment, the Harkin legal services amendment--all of which have been passed by the Senate, this body. I want my colleagues and the American people to understand we are acting and we are moving. We have a lot more to do, which I think is the importance of the supplemental. The distinguished chairman, who is here on the floor, knows we are focused on it and there is going to need to be more assistance there in order to renew and rebuild and respond. This body understands the importance. We are absolutely committed to that continued support for our appropriate renewal.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask that the Chair lay before the Senate a message from the House to accompany H. R. 3010, the Labor-HHS appropriations bill; provided further, that the Senate request a conference with the House, and that the Chair be authorized to appoint conferees. I further ask that prior to the Chair appointing the conferees, Senator Specter be recognized in order to make a motion to instruct the conferees on the issue of LIHEAP; provided further, that there be debate divided with Senators as follows: 10 minutes for Senator Reed, 7 minutes for Senator Harkin, 5 minutes for Senator Specter, 5 minutes for Senator Cochran. I further ask that following that time, the motion be temporarily set aside and Senator Durbin be recognized to make a motion to instruct relating to NIH, and there be 15 minutes for debate for Senator Durbin on that motion, and that following the use or yielding back of debate time, the Senate vote on the motions to instruct in the order offered, and following those votes, the Chair then immediately appoint conferees on the part of the Senate.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask for one modification, that Chairman Specter be given 5 minutes to speak on the motion to instruct relating to NIH following Senator Durbin.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, in a few moments, I will propound a unanimous consent request. In essence, what we will be doing in about an hour is having another vote on going to conference on the HHS appropriations bill. We will ask unanimous consent for that shortly and divide up the time accordingly. It will be approximately an hour from now that we will have another rollcall vote. As soon as we have the word on the unanimous consent request, I will be propounding that. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I think that would be ideal. I still think we might be able to yield some time back in addition to that. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that all time required for voting be part of the 10 hours that remain in terms of the statutory limit.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, in addition to that, I know everybody is concerned about travel plans and when we are going to leave. I have been very clear throughout that we have business to do. This is the last legislative effort before we leave for Christmas, but it is also important that we recognize we still have four conference reports that are open that we are waiting to bring and take to the floor. So I encourage our colleagues to try to close those reports as soon as possible. Again, there are four that are outstanding. In addition, I made it very clear that we are going to address the PATRIOT Act legislation before we leave. There are good discussions underway. I know those discussions were continuing late into last night. I encourage all of our colleagues to understand the importance of that legislation. We want to get it right and make sure that it is in good shape to bring to the floor, but we do need to address that before we leave. Terrorism reinsurance, TRIA, is another issue that is coming along well. It is very important legislation, and there has been a lot of work, but we need to actually bring that to the floor as soon as possible. We have a number of nominations that are being considered, and we will have to make certain decisions on those over the next 24 hours. Lastly, I am running through the list in my own mind of things we have to do before we leave, a continuing resolution--I was talking to the Democratic leader about the continuing resolution which we have to do to keep the Government open--will be coming from the House sometime today. Because the President has to sign that by tomorrow night, we need to act expeditiously on that continuing resolution because we actually have to physically send that to the President, who is overseas at this point. So we have a lot of work to do. We will stay here tomorrow and into Saturday and, if we have to, go into the early part of next week, which we should not have to do but we will in order to finish the Nation's business. The time that we come back in December, if we come back in December--and I think that the Democratic leader and I have been very open that we have to plan on coming back for a short period of time, not knowing what we are going to be able to finish today, tomorrow, Saturday, and Monday, but in all likelihood we will have to come back for a couple of days in December, but that is not a time that we will be doing new legislation. I do not want anybody to think that if we do not do it now, we are going to be doing it in December because December will be to come in for as brief a period as possible to put the final touches on bills we cannot finish. So we have to finish the work right now. I am going to make a brief statement on another issue but will turn to the Democratic issue on the schedule.

Mr. FRIST

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

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until 9 a.m. on Friday, November 18. 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, and the time for the two leaders be reserved.

Mr. FRIST

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

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 178, S. 1418.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Enzi substitute at the desk be agreed to, the committee-reported amendment, as amended, 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.