[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 176 (Tuesday, December 9, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Page S16082]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   RECOGNITION OF THE MINORITY LEADER

  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Democrat leader is recognized.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I join the majority leader in welcoming 
our colleagues and our staff. I, too, hope they all had a good 
Thanksgiving holiday, and I appreciate the work that has been done at 
the staff level over the course of the last couple weeks as we have 
prepared for this day.
  I look forward to our discussions in the next couple of minutes with 
regard to how we might proceed. I have a more extensive statement with 
regard to the omnibus appropriations bill that I will make at a later 
time.
  Obviously, there are some executive nominations that we believe could 
be addressed. We have been working together to find how we might move a 
large number of them today, and I hope before the end of this day we 
will have completed our work on that as well.
  I look forward to working with the majority leader and our colleagues 
in the hope we can make this a very productive day.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader is recognized.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, the Democratic leader and I will be in 
discussions over the next several minutes, but I suggest we go ahead 
into morning business at this juncture.

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