[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 98 (Monday, July 7, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8869-S8870]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, today the Senate returns from the Fourth of 
July recess, and I do hope everybody had a safe and restful period. As 
I announced before the recess, there will be no rollcall votes during 
today's session. The next scheduled rollcall votes will begin tomorrow 
at 11:45 a.m.
  The first vote will be on the confirmation of David Campbell to be a 
U.S. District Judge for Arizona. The second vote will be invoking 
cloture on the nomination of Victor Wolski to be a judge for the U.S. 
Court of Federal Claims.
  I would like to take a minute or two to talk about this month's 
schedule. We are now entering a very busy legislative session for the 
Senate. There is much work to be done, and we have only 4 weeks to do 
that. One major focus for the Senate this month will be the 
appropriations process. Senator Stevens will be working hard to prepare 
the spending bills for floor action, and we will be scheduling these 
for floor action throughout the month.
  In addition, this month we will complete consideration and passage of 
the Energy bill. Both consideration and passage will be before the 
August recess. I am committed, along with Chairman Domenici, to pass an 
energy bill that will enhance our country's national energy security. 
There are many remaining amendments, as we all know, to debate and 
dispose of, but I do want to be clear: We must pass a bill as soon as 
possible to establish a clear national energy policy which will reduce 
our dependence on foreign oil.
  Third, we have a lot of remaining work to do on executive 
nominations, especially judicial nominations. I urge my colleagues 
again to allow the Senate to work its will on these nominations and 
give them an up-or-down vote. I will continue to schedule consideration 
of nominations as they become available with the hope that we can move 
forward and give the individuals their due process. Advice and consent 
means allowing Senators an up-or-down vote on the President's 
nominations.

  Fourth, today we will begin to address the crisis of medical 
liability. Prior to the recess we attempted to reach consent to begin 
consideration of S. 11, the Patients First Act of 2003. We are in 
desperate need of medical liability reform in this country, and now is 
the time for us to act. Unfortunately, there was an objection prior to 
the recess to proceeding to this bill. Today if we are unable to reach 
that consent, it would be my intent to move to proceed to that bill and 
file cloture on the motion if that is necessary. If that is the case, 
the vote would occur on Wednesday of this week. Senator McConnell will 
be here later this afternoon to discuss the medical malpractice crisis.
  Also this week we will consider other authorization measures, 
including the State Department authorization. Chairman Lugar has 
indicated the bill will be ready for the floor this week. We hope we 
will be able to complete action on this important bill in a day or two.
  These are just a few of the issues we will be addressing during this 
legislative session. A lot of that will be done this week. To get our 
work done, it is going to take the cooperation of all Senators. We will 
schedule these items for consideration from Monday through Friday. 
Having said that, I alert Members they should prepare for full days of 
voting that includes Mondays and especially Fridays. That includes this 
Friday. Senators should arrange their schedules accordingly and plan to 
be here in the Senate each day of the week unless I specifically say we 
are not having votes.
  I do want to thank my colleagues for their attention and look forward 
to work together with them in a collaborative way in what will be a 
very busy 4 weeks.
  I yield the floor.

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