[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 120 (Thursday, September 4, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11051-S11052]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SCHEDULE
Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, the Senate will resume debate immediately
this morning on the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill. It is the
first bill we are addressing coming back from our recess. We made
significant progress on the bill on Tuesday and on Wednesday. I thank
our colleagues for coming forward and offering their amendments. Today
will be an important day as we wrap our hands around how many
amendments we have so we can systematically address those and engage in
debate and vote accordingly.
I inform all Members that rollcall votes will occur throughout the
day today. It is our intention that we can set a vote on one or more
amendments to occur this morning. Members will be notified when the
first vote is scheduled.
I wish to make one final plea: That people come forward as soon as
possible to talk to the managers and make it clear what their
intentions are on the various amendments.
The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, while the majority leader is still on the
floor, I would like to renew the managers' plea for amendments to come
to the floor. There has been good cooperation with the distinguished
assistant Democratic leader about moving toward the preparation of the
list. If we are to finish this bill and get it completed before
September 30, we are going to move ahead with expeditious diligence. If
we do not get it completed by September 30, we are going to lose $3
billion. This is a very tight bill as it stands at the present time.
There is always concern about what is going to happen on Friday. In
my capacity as manager of the bill, it is my desire to move ahead and
have substantive votes tomorrow morning. Our custom is to conclude by
noon, but I believe we are going to have to do that if we are going to
finish this bill in a timely way.
There is word that there are 13 amendments ready to go today, which
is good. But we may be a little slow getting out of the box here with
amendments being ready to come to the floor as early as 10 o'clock. The
Senator from Florida, Mr. Nelson, is ready to go. But that may be a
short amendment.
I think it would be advisable to work on into the evening with the
stacking of votes tomorrow morning early. There might be an earlier
departure, if we have a list, if we know where we are going, and if we
see that there would be a conclusion, say, next Tuesday.
This is an issue where we have already been advised about the need to
bring some Members in from the other side of the aisle.
We prefer not to schedule in accordance with the Presidential
candidacies. But we understand that people can talk, and we want to
work it out on a cooperative basis. That would be a Tuesday target to
wrap it up completely. To accomplish that, we are going to have to go
into the evening and have votes tomorrow morning--at least until
midmorning, and perhaps until noon. At least that is as this manager
sees it.
We did not complete as much work as we should have yesterday. The
quorum call was on for a considerable period of time. As I have said
repeatedly, that is sort of the bane of a manager's existence--trying
to do third reading and go to completion.
The majority leader advised everyone on August 1--more than a month
ago--to be ready with amendments. It is my hope that our colleagues
will come forward with amendments so we can get a list and see
precisely where we stand so we can accommodate a lot of conflicting and
competing interests on schedules.
I hope we will proceed with amendments today. If we work into the
[[Page S11052]]
evening, we could stack votes early in the morning and have a departure
which would not be too late to accommodate the schedules of many
Members who would like to understandably depart going back to their
home States.
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