[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 139 (Friday, October 3, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12477-S12478]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       ACCOMPLISHMENTS THIS WEEK

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, at this juncture I wish to take a second to 
thank everyone for their assistance throughout this week. It has been a 
busy week. We have accomplished a great deal. Earlier this week we 
began consideration of the Iraq supplemental request. We made good 
progress on the supplemental request and, as we had discussed, we will 
complete action on this request during the first week we return.
  We also considered this week the DC appropriations bill. Although I 
am disappointed we were unable to finish that bill, we had very 
important debate and discussion, much of which centered around the 
opportunity scholarships for impoverished children in the District, 
support for public charter schools, as well as additional support for 
public schools in the District. We were not successful in passing that 
bill.
  I do want to assure my colleagues that we will be coming back and 
addressing that important issue of opportunity scholarships for 
impoverished schoolchildren in the District. We have addressed it and 
we will continue to address it with the leadership of Mayor Anthony 
Williams as well as other local leaders.
  Last night, we reached an agreement for final passage on a genetic 
nondiscrimination bill, which I spoke to in detail last night. The vote 
on final passage of that bill will occur at 2:30 on October 14. Last 
night, I commended the tremendous work on both sides of the aisle in 
addressing this legislation, under the leadership in large part of 
Senator Olympia Snowe, someone who has been working on this issue for 
at least 6 years because I know I have been working for at least the 
last 6 years on that important legislation. We completed debate on it 
last night. We will vote on it Tuesday, October 14. At that juncture, 
we will have addressed the issues of civil rights protections and the 
importance of preventing the use of genetic information in a 
discriminatory way. I look forward to that vote on October 14.
  In addition, this week we passed H.R. 1925, called the Runaway 
Homeless and Missing Children's Protection bill. This is the House 
companion bill to Senator Hatch's bill which we passed earlier.
  In addition, Chairman Shelby helped in securing passage of S. 1680, 
the Defense Production Act. We are grateful for his efforts as this 
legislation expired earlier this week.
  We were also able to pass TANF this week, the Temporary Assistance 
for Needy Families extension. Senators Grassley and Baucus were 
instrumental in ensuring this was completed on time.
  Chairman McCain and the Commerce Committee finished up and the full 
Senate subsequently passed S. 1261, the Consumer Product Safety 
Commission reauthorization.
  In addition, just a few moments ago, I read S. Con. Res. 66, which 
was a resolution commending the National Endowment for Democracy for 
its contributions to democratic development around the world. That 
resolution has been introduced and addressed because it is the 20th 
anniversary of the establishment of the National Endowment for 
Democracy. The sponsor of that resolution was Senator Lugar.
  I just wanted to mention that because I had the opportunity to sit 
through a board meeting and a review of the important programs the 
National Endowment for Democracy does, the programs reflecting the 
tremendous work in promoting democracy in countries all around the 
world. I am proud this body has passed this very important resolution 
to commend that organization for the productive and very important work 
around the world.
  Finally, a short while ago, we were able to confirm, along with seven 
judges from earlier this week, a series of executive nominations. One 
of these nominations was Randall Tobias to be coordinator of U.S. 
Government activities to combat HIV/AIDS globally with the rank of 
Ambassador. This particular position, in essence, is the person in 
charge, the point person for the United States of America, in terms of 
our global efforts to address one of the greatest moral, humanitarian, 
and public health challenges of the last 100

[[Page S12478]]

years; that is, the global threat of HIV/AIDS, a little virus that we 
in this country knew nothing about just 25 years ago in 1980. It never 
had been in the United States. It didn't exist as a virus. But since 
that point in time it has taken the lives of over 40 million people, 
and is likely to take the lives of 10, 20, 30, or 40 more million 
people. The President of the United States in a bold initiative has 
committed $15 billion over 5 years to address the humanitarian 
challenge--a bold initiative, an unprecedented initiative on a single 
disease, a single entity. Randall Tobias, now Ambassador Tobias, will 
be the coordinator for that overall effort.
  In closing, I thank my colleagues for cooperation during this work 
period. I encourage all to rest. Most are going back to their home 
States to be with constituents. I encourage them also to rest their 
batteries because we will return for a very busy final few weeks of 
this first session.

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