[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 57 (Thursday, April 29, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Page S4723]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                PROGRAM

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, on Monday following morning business, the 
Senate will resume consideration of the FSC/ETI JOBS bill. The chairman 
and the ranking member of the Finance Committee have already worked 
through a number of amendments, and they will be here on Monday to 
continue processing those amendments. There will be no rollcall votes 
on Monday, but Senators are encouraged to come to the floor to offer 
and debate their amendments. Any rollcall votes ordered on Monday will 
be set aside to occur on Tuesday.
  Mr. President, we began this week 4 days ago with the objective of 
taking up the Internet bill and, indeed, several hours ago passed a 4-
year extension of an expired moratorium with protection of DSL and 
protection of broadband. In this bill, we address voice over Internet 
protocol. Also in the bill we reserve the right of States to collect 
the traditional telecom taxes.
  It was a long 4 days in order to accomplish this end, but it really 
took a lot of work from both sides of the aisle. There were a number of 
our colleagues who participated. I will mention a few, recognizing that 
there are many that I leave out. We tried once before to bring this 
bill to the floor and had to come back to it, but we were successful 
this time under Senator McCain's tremendous leadership. I will mention 
Senators Allen, Wyden, Lott, Alexander, Voinovich, Enzi, Feinstein, 
Dorgan, Sununu, and Stevens, and the list goes on.
  I appreciate the manner in which everyone handled this bill and 
allowed for the issues to come forward. I was so pleased that at the 
end of this week we accomplished what we set out to do.

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