[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 135 (Monday, September 29, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12105-S12106]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, today we will be in a period of morning 
business for the purpose of making statements and introducing 
legislation. At 2 o'clock this afternoon, the Senate will resume 
consideration of the District of Columbia appropriations bill. It is 
still our desire to finish this bill this week. The managers were here 
Friday and will be here again today ready to make progress on the bill.
  I announced last Friday that any amendments offered during today's 
session will be stacked for votes beginning at approximately 5:30 p.m. 
today. If Members do not come forward with their amendments, it would 
be my hope that the bill could be brought to third reading and the 
Senate will then vote on passage of the bill.
  On the issue of DC school choice, we spent significant time last week 
on it, and the Mayor came to the Capitol imploring us to allow the 
District of Columbia schoolchildren to receive a decent education. We 
heard a lot of arguments from the other side as to why this should not 
happen. We heard from the other side that the District's public 
schoolchildren should be only allowed to go to a better school if the 
District's nonpublic schools submit a new, onerous, burdensome set of 
regulations. In other words, the nonpublic or private schools should 
have to pay for the failure of some of the District's schools. The 
logic of this type of argument simply is not clear. Children are not 
horses. They cannot be traded and they should not be traded.
  We also heard that because this plan is modest and cannot provide 
scholarships for all of the District's children, then none of the 
District's children should have this opportunity to benefit. William 
Raspberry today in his syndicated column said it very well when he 
said, ``How does it follow that nobody should get life vests, because 
there aren't enough to go around?'' That is a good question, made even 
more puzzling by the fact that the same critics who charge the program 
for not being generous enough say it is a radical departure from the 
status quo.

  Thomas Sowell, in his syndicated column today, likens this to the 
classic complaint that the food doesn't taste good, and even worse, 
there is not enough of it.
  Well, the fact of the matter is we have had three full debates on 
this topic of the District appropriations but concentrating on 
education in the District. Today will be our fourth day of debate and 
discussion on this issue.
  Despite all of these alleged concerns, the other side--the 
opposition--has not yet offered any amendments. We have not had them 
come forward and say this is our amendment; let's have a vote on the 
amendment. Thus, I am left with the conclusion that the opposition 
would prefer the schoolchildren in the District remain trapped in 
schools that are not giving them the opportunities to learn and to 
grow. I hope this is not the case and that we will press forward and 
work together to achieve passage of the bill this week.
  If we are unable to make progress on the bill today in terms of 
amendments, we will have votes this afternoon on our judicial nominees. 
Seven additional judges were reported last Thursday, and we will begin 
ordering votes on those nominations this week.
  This week, as I stated a couple of weeks ago now--almost two weeks 
ago--my intentions are to have the Senate begin the urgent supplemental 
request for Iraq and Afghanistan security. That discussion and debate 
is very important, and I have set aside this week, recognizing that we 
are going on recess next week, to address this very important issue, 
which is important because it looks at security in Iraq and in 
Afghanistan with a real focus on our troops who deserve that support. 
The full Senate will begin consideration of that bill as soon as it 
becomes available for floor action.
  I know we will have full and complete debate, looking at the various 
aspects of that bill on the floor of the Senate, and thus as we talked 
about on

[[Page S12106]]

the floor at the end of last week in colloquies going back and forth, 
late nights are to be expected.
  We are at war. There is a war against terrorism. We are talking about 
security in Afghanistan and Iraq. It deserves the focus of this body. I 
have asked my colleagues to make their schedules available so we can 
have full participation. It does mean that during the days and, I 
suspect, well into the evenings this week, we will be participating in 
that debate. We do want to finish this emergency appropriations bill 
this week.
  Again, as I mentioned, next week we will be out on recess and into 
the week after that. The President has made it very clear that the 
urgency demands we address this bill as soon as possible. That will be 
this week, and it is our intention to complete that this week.
  I thank my colleagues in advance for what will be a challenging week 
for all of us. I expect the American people can be proud this week as 
we deliberate on the many complicated issues on which we will have 
votes to decide those issues and we will then complete our work on this 
request by the end of the week.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

                          ____________________