[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 14 (Friday, February 6, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S691-S692]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                PROGRAM

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I will restate what you just heard. We will 
resume consideration of S. 1072, the highway bill on Monday. It has 
been a challenging week in lots of different ways. We have had this 
incident in my personal office and a lot went on here on the floor, 
with progress.
  I know the ranking member and the managers of this bill have been 
frustrated in that we have not made as much progress as they would have 
liked. They would like to have this bill signed, sealed, delivered, and 
done. We did have good debate on the highway bill. Important points 
have been made throughout the week. We have the foundation to complete 
action on this bill next week. You just heard that we will be working 
through the afternoon. There will be people working tonight and people 
will be working tomorrow, as you have just heard, on Saturday and 
Sunday, in preparation for coming back in at 1 o'clock on Monday.
  We have a lot to cover next week on this bill. It is an important 
bill. I argue that it is a vital bill to support the infrastructure we 
are all so dependent upon each and every day in our activities, whether 
it is during the weekends, or going to school or work, or as part of 
our business. We have an obligation to continue to address it and to 
complete this next week.

  Since we are closing down for the week, it has been only 5 days since 
this letter with this toxic substance was directed at this institution. 
As I have said before, I have been very pleased with the response in 
terms of the coordination, the communication. It is not perfect; it can 
be better; but I assure people we will take each incident and do our 
very best to communicate as well as we can, review procedures, and 
review systems, and we are doing just that.
  I just finished a conference call for 30 minutes with the 40 employee 
staff members affected most directly from my office and from the EPW 
office and Senators Jeffords' and Inhofe's office, answering questions. 
There are a lot of unanswered questions. We will answer those and meet 
with them and come up with different and better procedures as we go 
forward.
  The fact that the chairman could say the Hart Building is open 
tomorrow is music to my ears. We were able to open it ahead of 
schedule. The Russell Building got opened and the Dirksen Building, 
which is still closed, will be opened Monday morning. It is right on 
schedule.
  I thank everybody for coming together and working through a broad 
range of both national agencies and agencies here on the Hill. First 
and foremost is the safety of our Senate employees, and we responded in 
such a way that I am happy to say nobody has been hurt. Everybody is 
OK, in spite of the fact we had this assault.
  Also during this week, in Chairman Gregg's HELP Committee, we passed 
S. 1879, an extension of the mammography quality provision. In Chairman 
Collins' committee, we worked on S. 1612, which established a 
technology equipment and information transfer program with the 
Department of Homeland Security. We passed that this week. The Senate 
confirmed a U.S. district judge this week for the Northern District of 
Illinois. We will be back in Monday. The chairman encourages members to 
have amendments and contact him. His staff will be working through the 
weekend.
  As the assistant Democratic leader mentioned, we will not be voting 
on Monday, but we will be working. I will consult with Senator Inhofe 
and the Democratic leadership as we go forward. I hope we will be 
prepared for a vote early Tuesday morning. We will keep people posted 
in that regard.
  I did mention this earlier. Do you know what your blood pressure is? 
Fifty million people have hypertension, which causes stroke and heart 
attacks. A third of the people don't know they have it. If you know you 
have it, we have ways to treat it these days. The Medicare bill we 
passed means you can diagnose it because, for the first, in an entry 
level physical exam which is part of Medicare, you are going to be able 
to have hypertension treated. If you don't know what your blood 
pressure is, go home tonight and think about that and have it checked.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, it is called the silent killer.
  Mr. FRIST. Yes. People don't know they have it. Probably about a 
fourth of the people listening to me have hypertension, and a third 
don't know it, and they will die prematurely. It is pretty interesting.
  Mr. REID. It doesn't make you sick, does it?
  Mr. FRIST. It is silent. You don't feel it until you have a stroke or 
heart attack. There are ways to prevent it. It is the silent killer. 
That is what the American Heart Association says. February is heart 
month, and right now

[[Page S692]]

the First Lady has a real initiative for women's heart disease. More 
women die of heart disease than men. I bet you didn't know that. A lot 
of people think it is more men.

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