Bill Frist

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent 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. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 4326, which was received from the House.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, in closing our comments on this bill, I also thank my staff who have been shepherding this for me for the last 3 years, Liz Hall, Jennifer Romans, and many others. The real significance is that patient care will be improved. It will get the waste and abuse out of the system. It makes the health care system more efficient. I am excited about it. Having interoperable standards that people begin to agree with means you will have an influx of private capital which will help with the spreading of this information technology infrastructure over time.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, the Senate just passed a bill that takes a major step--major step--to bringing health care into the information age, finally. This bill, the Wired for Health Care Quality Act, reflects the hard work by Senator Enzi, to whom I will turn the floor over shortly, myself, Senator Kennedy, Senator Clinton, and many others. This bill will do as much as anything we have done in this Congress and the last Congress and the Congress before that to cut waste and inefficiency out of our health care system. What the bill does is encourage the use of secure and interoperable health care records, electronic records, electronic medical records. This has a huge benefit for every American. It reduces waste and inefficiency. It reduces medical errors. It improves the quality of health care. It reduces health care costs throughout the system, raising quality. When you lower costs and you raise quality, by definition, you improve access as well. This bill will help empower patients to become full partners in what we all have as a vision; and that is, a patient-centered, provider- friendly, consumer-driven system that will be driven by information, and be driven by choice, and be driven by control. Patient privacy is protected. This secure exchange of lifesaving information improves efficiency throughout the system. It will allow, for the first time, because there are interoperable standards that are set, the exchange of information, which will seamlessly help integrate health care delivery from the time a patient first presents to see a physician or a nurse to ultimate discharge and treatment. So this really is a pivotal moment. I encourage the House to act quickly on the legislation. Again, I thank Senator Enzi for his leadership. Without it, this moment simply would not be possible. I thank Senator Clinton who has stressed, from day one, the importance of having quality injected into this bill, and Senator Kennedy. I thank them all for their commitment to this effort. I thank the staff who have worked many hours: Andrea Palm, Katy Barr, Steve Northrup, and David Bowen, and many others. Mr. President, I do want to at least turn to my colleague to thank him and so he can make a few comments because this is truly historic legislation. And although it is mighty early in the morning now--late at night or early in the morning--this really is a historic time for health care and health care delivery.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I am pleased to speak in support of S. 1418. I share an important goal with Senators Enzi, Kennedy, Snowe, Stabenow, and Clinton--to improve health care quality and reduce costs through the use of health information technology tools. I spent 20 years as a physician and heart surgeon before coming to the Senate. Like most physicians, I wanted the latest and best medical technology, anything that could make my patients healthier or more comfortable, while reducing health care costs and increasing efficiency. But amidst the artificial heart assist devices, lasers, CT Scan machines, endoscopic devices, digital X-Rays, and digital thermometers, doctors today keep patient records the same way I did and the way my father did 50 years ago: on paper, in manila folders in file cabinets, in the basements of clinics and hospitals. Yet computers, and computer technology, is everywhere, both inside and outside the hospitals and clinics. From bedside monitors to massive MRI machines, computers power almost all of the diagnostic devices we rely on. S. 1418 represents an important and crucial first step towards recognizing the importance of computers and the electronic medical record in contemporary health care. Establishing interoperability of the electronic medical record, an essential hurdle towards effective use of health information technology, is a priority. Proposals for providing Federal financial incentives for physicians, community health centers, community mental health centers, hospitals and skilled nursing facilities like that introduced by Senator Snowe and Senator Stabenow need to be considered. Assuring proper funding of health IT is an issue of major importance for the Senate to consider in the coming congressional session. I will work with the chairman and ranking member of the Finance Committee and the chairman and ranking member of the HELP committee as well as Senators Snowe and Stabenow to encourage these committees to schedule, at the earliest opportunity, consideration of legislative proposals to ensure creative and reasonable Federal funding for such an important and relevant mission. I will also work with relevant committees to encourage consideration of legislation that would enable providers to connect to a secure, interoperable network for the electronic exchange of health information.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate proceeds to H.J. Res. 72 on Friday, that Senator Harkin be recognized in order to offer an amendment related to CSBG, which is at the desk. I further ask consent that there be 20 minutes for debate in relation to the amendment, no other amendments be in order, and that following that debate the Senate proceed to a vote in relation to the Harkin amendment; further, that following that vote, the joint resolution be read a third time and the Senate proceed to a vote on the joint resolution, with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 287, S. 467.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, very briefly, I want to comment on this bill as well. This is the Terrorism Risk Insurance Extension Act of 2005. We are doing this by unanimous consent which reflects a tremendous amount of work by a range of Senators over the course of the last several months, weeks, days, and especially over the last few hours. This is a bill that has been subjected to a lot of debate, and that debate has culminated in a lot of agreement. I appreciate the great work of Senator Shelby, Senator Dodd, and so many others. The House hopefully will act on terrorism risk insurance shortly. It is a very important bill to our economy. I ask unanimous consent that the amendment 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.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Today, we will start with a 30-minute period for morning business. After morning business, we will resume consideration of the tax reconciliation bill. This morning when we return to that bill, there will be 10 hours remaining under the statutory time limitation. If all time is used, the debate will not run out until 8 tonight, at the earliest. I hope that we will not need all of that time. I encourage the chairman and ranking member to yield back time if it is not necessary so that instead of finishing at 8, within that statutory limit, it would be earlier. If there are to be a series of votes, we could start those votes at a much earlier time. If all of that time is used until 8 and we have votes, it is going to be a very long night. So, again, I encourage the chairman and ranking member----

Mr. FRIST. I would be glad to. Order of Procedure

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, again, because it is so unclear to people, what we have said is it will not be before December 12. It will not necessarily be on the 12th either but during that week. I think all of our Members--because there are a lot of travel plans that have been made and people are going back to their States and overseas, we are going to have to keep that week flexible, but it would be the intention to come back as late in that week as possible, in large part because we are waiting for the House to catch up--that is the way I think of it in my own mind--to catch up with legislation. I think that we need to keep flexible. My intention is not to bring people back for an entire week. Again, on scheduling, the Democratic leader and I talk about it every day, so we will keep people posted, again recognizing the importance of that time to be spent with constituents, family, and overseas.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, there is a lot going on in Washington. The environment seems to be very partisan. When we look at the newspapers, we see the comments that have been made back and forth, but I have to take a couple of minutes and restate what I have mentioned and implied over the last several days; that in spite of all of that, in spite of the vitriolic comments that are being made, the Senate, this institution, is doing its work. It is governing in a way in which I think we can all be proud. If we look over the last 48 hours, one will see how our overall agenda of renewal and reform is being accomplished. We have had several legislative advances that do make America safer and more prosperous. As I mentioned, we will be continuing our work through today, tomorrow, and possibly Saturday, delivering these meaningful solutions to the real challenges and real problems that everyday people are having across this great country. It is important for people to be reminded of that. I think of four things that have been started in the last 48 hours: The Defense authorization bill, a very important bill that we spent a good amount of time on with a lot of amendments, but ultimately it underscored our absolute commitment to our troops overseas and to the goals that have been set out by this administration. So I am very proud that we did pass that bill. It gives our soldiers the resources, the training, the technology and the support they deserve and that they absolutely need to win the global war on terror. I refer to it occasionally--I actually put it on my Web site on the front page, the Zawahiri and Zarqawi letter which outlines what the intentions are of al-Qaida in this war on terror. The appropriate responsiveness of this body in this Department of Defense authorization bill speaks very importantly to the response that we need to give to these challenges. From cutting-edge technologies to the personnel protection systems, the bill keeps our military strong so that we absolutely will win this war against terror. We made the clear-cut statement in this bill that America is not going to cut and run, as some would have us do; that we are going to support and continue to train the Iraqi forces until they are strong enough to fight on their own. Also, we expressed our absolute support for this President and his policies through this bill. The second issue, along with defending our national security, we are strengthening America's retirement security. Ten days ago, people said there is no way this pensions bill is going to get through the Senate. Yet yesterday we passed it, and it spoke very loudly to the fact that the defined pensions benefit system is a ticking timebomb, that over 44 million Americans who are legally covered by the American Government's guarantee are in jeopardy of losing their hard-earned retirement benefits. This bill makes it clear that promises made by employers are promises to be kept to their employees. So we passed that bill yesterday, again a major step forward. The third area, the vital function of Government. Yesterday, we passed the Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill. Along with funding these Federal agencies, the CJS bill includes significant Katrina-related responses. As we all know, more than 350,000 families have been made homeless by the Katrina disaster. A number of us have participated over the course of this past week in a Habitat for Humanity bill project at the Capitol. It reminded me how important it is to marry the nonprofit sector, with the nongovernmental organizations, with what we on this floor have done in response to Katrina and the natural disasters that have struck both this country but indeed around the world. That CJS appropriations bill, in part, reflects the public response in that it provides Federal housing assistance for up to $600 per family per month for up to 6 months to help get those families back on their feet. This body continues and will continue with its commitment to assist this renewal and recovery from one of, if not the greatest, natural disasters this country has ever seen. Looking a little more globally, another bill that was passed last night that reflects America's compassion for neighbors around the world was a bill that means a lot to me personally. It is a bipartisan bill in this body called the Water for the Poor Act. This bill addresses the issue that 1.2 billion people in this world do not have access to what we have sitting on our desk as we are here speaking--clean water. Mr. President, 1.2 billion people do not have access to water they can look at and say it does not have bacteria or viruses in it that will make me ill. The lack of clean water kills more kids under the age of 6 than any disease in the world today, although most people don't pay a lot of attention to it, so this body passed a bill last night that addresses that, the Water for the Poor Act. We had bipartisan legislation on the floor of the Senate sponsored by myself and the Democratic leader upon which this bill is based. It establishes for the first time as a part of our foreign policy the development of water interests as we consider foreign development aid, this whole provision of safe, clean, renewable water for poor countries. It recognizes that unsafe water in developing countries kills a child every 15 seconds. Every 15 seconds a child dies because of lack of access to that clean water. It contributes to poverty, it contributes to unstable governments, and thus the importance of having clean water be a part of our foreign policy, foreign development assistance to these countries. In combination with the $200 million recently enacted for safe water in developing countries, this is a critical first step in beginning to solve what is a seemingly insurmountable problem but is a solvable problem. It looks at compassion, it looks at protection, it looks at accountability, all of which must be injected in our foreign policy when it comes to foreign aid. One last issue. In terms of progress made over the last 40 hours, the Banking Committee reported Tuesday the nomination of Ben Bernanke to succeed Alan Greenspan as the next chairman of the Federal Reserve. I am pleased the committee has acted on Mr. Bernanke's nomination and that he has pledged to maintain the Federal Reserve's statutory independence while also maintaining stable, progrowth monetary policies. Chairman Greenspan's 18 years of service will not officially end until the end of January. Therefore, the full Senate will confirm Mr. Bernanke as one of its first actions beginning the second session of the 109th Congress. I have run through those five--I said four but five--legislative successes that do demonstrate this body continues to move along, responding to the needs and appropriate desires of the American people. At the beginning of the year we set big goals and every day on this floor we are working hard to meet them, and again we are being successful meeting each one of these benchmarks. Yes, we have had Katrina, we have had Rita, we have had the natural disasters--the tsunami in Pakistan, we have consistently supported our troops overseas, and in addition we are addressing the issues that, domestically, are on the minds of the American people. I look forward to completing our work this week. It is one of the reasons I outlined a few minutes ago the things we have to do before we leave for our Thanksgiving recess. When we do return to our States, there will be a lot we can point back to, responding to the needs of the American people, and we will be absolutely comfortable in looking them in the eye and saying, yes, we are delivering meaningful solutions to your, the American people's, everyday challenges. Together we are moving America forward. I yield the floor.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that following the vote in relation to the Coburn amendment the Senate proceed to votes in relation to the following amendments in the sequence ordered; provided there be 2 minutes equally divided between the votes and that no second degrees be in order to the amendments prior to the votes: Grassley amendment No. 2654, Durbin amendment No. 2596, Obama amendment No. 2605, Kennedy amendment No. 2588, Reed amendment No. 2626, Feingold amendment No. 2650, and Sununu amendment No. 2651.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, we will be voting tomorrow morning at approximately 9:30. We will do the continuing resolution. We have an amendment on the resolution in the morning. There is going to be a lot going on tomorrow. We will not be able to further clarify the schedule until tomorrow. We will have multiple votes tomorrow morning beginning at 9:30.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, tomorrow morning after we convene, we will immediately proceed to the continuing resolution. Senator Harkin will have an amendment which will require a vote. Therefore, Senators should expect a couple votes early in the morning. Those votes will occur at approximately 9:30 in the morning. Following those votes, we expect to have a better idea of what additional business will be available on Friday. There are a couple of appropriations conference reports that will likely be available, the PATRIOT conference report, the House message on the spending reconciliation bill, as well as other legislative and executive items we are trying to clear. Therefore, additional votes may occur and will occur, and we will try to clarify Friday's schedule as early as possible. I remind everyone that a weekend session is expected and Senators should remain available Friday and Saturday and beyond until we finish our remaining work. I will have to say, starting now about 3 weeks ago we set out a very aggressive agenda, and to date we have stayed right on target to accomplish that agenda. The House is in session right now and is voting actually right now, and I understand they will be conducting more business tonight and in the morning that we will have to act on after they act on much of the legislation they are considering. So it will be a full day tomorrow. I expect to have a number of votes over the course of tomorrow. And again, as we have said for the last 3 weeks, it will be important for our colleagues to keep their schedules flexible through tomorrow and Saturday, Sunday, and possibly beyond that.

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. I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following treaties on today's executive calendar: Nos. 4, 6 and 7. I further ask unanimous consent that the treaties be considered as having passed through their various parliamentary stages up to and including the presentation of the resolutions of ratification; that any committee conditions, declarations, or reservations be agreed to as applicable; that any statements be inserted in the Record as if read; and that the Senate take one vote on the resolutions of ratification to be considered as separate votes; further, that when the resolutions of ratification are voted upon, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, the President be notified of the Senate's action; and that following disposition of the treaties the Senate return to legislative session.

Mr. FRIST. I ask for a division vote on the resolutions of ratification.

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, tomorrow morning after we convene, we will immediately proceed to the continuing resolution. Senator Harkin will have an amendment which will require a vote. Therefore, Senators should expect a couple votes early in the morning. Those votes will occur at approximately 9:30 in the morning. Following those votes, we expect to have a better idea of what additional business will be available on Friday. There are a couple of appropriations conference reports that will likely be available, the PATRIOT conference report, the House message on the spending reconciliation bill, as well as other legislative and executive items we are trying to clear. Therefore, additional votes may occur and will occur, and we will try to clarify Friday's schedule as early as possible. I remind everyone that a weekend session is expected and Senators should remain available Friday and Saturday and beyond until we finish our remaining work. I will have to say, starting now about 3 weeks ago we set out a very aggressive agenda, and to date we have stayed right on target to accomplish that agenda. The House is in session right now and is voting actually right now, and I understand they will be conducting more business tonight and in the morning that we will have to act on after they act on much of the legislation they are considering. So it will be a full day tomorrow. I expect to have a number of votes over the course of tomorrow. And again, as we have said for the last 3 weeks, it will be important for our colleagues to keep their schedules flexible through tomorrow and Saturday, Sunday, and possibly beyond that.

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, today we will have a 1-hour period for morning business, which will follow the remarks of the two leaders. After morning business, the Senate will begin consideration of the pension security bill under the time agreement which was reached last night. Under that order, there will be 2 hours of general debate on the bill and substitute, with two additional amendments in order limited to 30 minutes each. We will finish that bill today with probably three rollcall votes. We will also vote on the adoption of the conference report to accompany the Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill that was debated yesterday. The vote on final passage will be stacked with the pension votes that we will have a little bit later this morning. In addition, yesterday the Finance Committee reported the tax increase prevention bill. That is the tax reconciliation bill, and we will begin that measure today as well. Hopefully, we will be able to get to that bill as soon as possible in order to begin the clock running on the 20-hour statutory time agreement and, hopefully, we will be able to facilitate a very busy schedule this week by beginning that tax measure early this afternoon and using some of that time to get the clock started. In addition, we have conference reports that will be coming over from the other side. We will continue to consider any of those available conference reports as they arrive from the House. I will be back to the floor to update Members on the schedule for the remainder of the week as these conference reports become available. As I have mentioned, we have a lot of business to do today. Although we have made huge progress over the course of yesterday, much of which is seen on the floor, and we had a very successful day, there is much of which people do not see that is occurring in these conferences that are ongoing. We do have a lot to do. I know there are a lot of Members who are asking about their schedules, whether we will be out Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday. Again, things are coming along nicely to be out at a reasonable time, but a lot depends on how efficiently we can work together. I am pleased with the progress that has been made over the last 48 hours.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I have been working with my colleagues for 3 years to reform our asbestos litigation system. It is a system that today is unfair and unjust. Because of that, people suffer, jobs are lost, and bankruptcies occur. The day has come for us to fix it. I am pleased to inform my colleagues that asbestos reform will be the first major legislation that we consider in late January when we return. In January, asbestos reform will be the first major legislation that we consider. I commend my friend, Senator Specter, chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Rarely a day goes by that we have a conversation that he does not mention the importance of this bill that he, working with the ranking member, Senator Leahy, has spent so much time and focus on. I commend them for those tireless efforts to forge a bipartisan--and we do not hear that word very much around here--consensus. I had hoped that the Senate would be able to bring the legislation to the floor some time in the last several weeks or months and that we could debate it and pass asbestos litigation reform this year. Unfortunately, as we all know, there have been a number of circumstances, with Katrina, the fact that we have indeed taken each of the appropriations bills across the floor individually, the Supreme Court nominations, all of which have slowed down our work on asbestos in terms of bringing it to the floor. Now that wait is over. No more delay. After 4 hearings--10 including markups--2 years of intense negotiations, the Senate will finally resolve the asbestos litigation crisis that currently is clogging our Nation's courtrooms and threatening America's economic health. There is wide agreement that the current asbestos litigation system is disastrous. It is disastrous for everybody. It is disastrous for victims who suffer from asbestosis or mesothelioma. It is disastrous for an ever-widening circle of companies that it bankrupts. It is disastrous for the tens of thousands of jobs that are lost, and it is disastrous ultimately for the American people. More than 700,000 individuals have filed claims with at least 8,400 defendant companies. More than 300,000 claims are currently pending. More than $70 billion has already been spent trying to resolve these claims that have bankrupted nearly 80 companies. It is time to fix the system. The system is out of control. It is time for commonsense reform. According to the 2002 study by Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, asbestos bankruptcies have cost nearly 60,000 jobs and $200 million in lost wages. That is wrong. Employees' retirement funds have shrunk by 25 percent. Meanwhile, the sickest victims of asbestos exposure are not getting their efficient compensation or their fair compensation. Instead, they are waiting in line behind thousands of claimants who are themselves unimpaired. A recent RAND study put the number of unimpaired claimants at 60 percent--6-0 percent. Even if after years of waiting and an ill claimant finally does get a court settlement, that award is whittled down, gets smaller and smaller because of lawyer's fees and other expenses until it is less than half of the original sum that was awarded. It is too little too late for far too many people. We do have a solution, and we will bring that to the floor. The $140 billion fund that is on the table will ensure that victims receive proper compensation without delay. Unlike the tort system, the $140 billion trust fund--and this is not taxpayer money--will provide certainty and fair relief. The money will go to the victims instead of to the trial lawyers. Mesothelioma, just to give an example, is a devastating disease. In the mid-1980s I spent almost a year in England operating, doing thoracic surgery, chest surgery, lung surgery, at South Hampton Hospital in South Hampton, England. It was not unusual to see mesothelioma, which is an asbestos-related disease that encases the lung with thick fibrous plaques which restrict the expansion of the lung, and people end up suffocating to death. Under this bill, a victim suffering from mesothelioma will get $1.1 million within months to help pay for medical expenses and the suffering. It will not be delayed 6 months, 1 year, or 2 years. The entire $1.1 million will go to the victim instead of half of it going to a system that is out of control. A person suffering from asbestosis, which is a manifestation of asbestos exposure, will receive as much as $850,000 under this bill. The fund provides significant compensation because we recognize that these are serious illnesses. These are dire illnesses that can be caused by asbestos exposure. They are life threatening and life altering and the victims deserve that fair, just, and timely compensation which they are not getting today. I commend both Chairman Specter, Senator Leahy, and all of my colleagues on the Judiciary Committee for tackling asbestos reform. Again, we will bring that to the floor in late January. The committee is holding a hearing on asbestos on Thursday, tomorrow. I applaud them for moving forward on this bill to help people understand what is at stake. I call upon my colleagues to work directly with Senator Specter and Senator Leahy over the next few weeks so that this bill can be considered and approved expeditiously in January. I know there is bipartisan support for S. 852 in this Chamber. I understand that it will involve debate and amendment, and that is appropriate. Yet I am confident that by pulling together we can pass S. 852 and put the asbestos crisis where it belongs, and that is behind us. I look forward to getting this done, and I look forward to continuing to deliver meaningful solutions to the American people. I yield the floor.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I think it is a reasonable request by the Democratic leader so we can get on with this vote and go to our caucuses. The reason there was an initial objection to it was because Senator Shelby, chairman of the committee, had something he had to move. But we will work it out and start at 2:30. We will have plenty of time for our caucus lunch. iraqi military equipment

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this morning, following leader remarks we will begin a 30-minute period for morning business. That will be followed by an additional 30-minute period of time which has been set aside for closing remarks on the Defense authorization bill. At approximately 10:50 or so this morning we are scheduled to begin a series of votes which will end with a vote on passage of the Defense authorization bill. Those stacked votes include the Warner amendment on Iraq; a Levin amendment on Iraq; Senator Bingaman's second-degree amendment relating to detainees; Senator Graham's underlying amendment on detainees, and then final passage of the bill. Therefore, we should complete our work on the Defense bill by the start of our policy lunch recess. Yesterday, I mentioned the many items that we will need to consider prior to adjourning for Thanksgiving. The tax reconciliation bill may be available as early as later today, and we will proceed to that bill under the statutory time limit as soon as possible. We will know a little bit later this morning. We will continue to expedite consideration of the other appropriations conference reports as they arrive at the desk and we can clear them with short time agreements. We will also consider other conference reports I mentioned yesterday, the PATRIOT Act, as well as the pension bill under an agreement now being negotiated. That is the pension bill. If we use all of this time wisely we can get through our remaining business in this week. I hope we can work together during these final days so we do not have to work into Saturday or longer to complete the items that remain. We will have to gauge our progress over the next 24 to 48 hours in that regard, and I urge everyone to keep a flexible schedule over the next several days. I yield the floor.