[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 73 (Friday, May 21, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6051-S6052]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this morning we will return to 
consideration of the Department of Defense authorization bill. Senators 
Warner and Levin are here to consider cleared amendments from both 
sides of the aisle. Also, some Members will wish to speak on the 
pending amendment which was offered by Senator Graham of South 
Carolina. That amendment was offered yesterday morning. Unfortunately, 
we were unable to vote on that amendment during yesterday's session. I 
had hoped we would be able to vote on that amendment and move forward 
with the bill. However, that appears unlikely. Therefore, no rollcall 
votes will occur during today's session.
  Once again, I hope we could limit amendments to the overall bill. I 
know the chairman has a list of Republican amendments he will begin to 
work through. It would be helpful if we could lock in the list on both 
sides of the aisle, to give managers an idea of what to anticipate, 
both in terms of making progress and ultimately finishing the very, 
very important bill.
  We did make good, reasonable progress on the bill this week. I hope 
Members will alert their respective chairman or ranking members about 
their amendments so we can continue to move ahead on this bill.
  When we return from our recess, I do still plan to go to class 
action. As I have stated on numerous occasions, starting actually a 
couple of months ago, I will be talking to the Democratic leadership 
about proceeding to that bill. We will say more at the close of 
business today, after we see what progress can be made on the 
Department of Defense authorization bill in the course of today.
  This week I was pleased we were able to reach an understanding on 
judicial nominations, I think a very fair and balanced approach to 25 
of these nominees. We will vote on these pending nominations and we 
will continue to press on for votes for all of the judicial nominees in 
addition to those 25.
  We also need--and I mentioned it last week and the week before--we 
need to

[[Page S6052]]

press on for nonjudicial nominations as well. There are approximately 
60 nonjudicial nominations, including very critical Ambassadors, that 
remain pending on the calendar. I know there have been a lot of 
discussions back and forth about how best to proceed on these 
nominations. We must find a way to schedule consideration of these 
individuals. We need to continue to work to do that. There are 60 of 
them on the calendar. We need to proceed in good faith.
  The fact that we made such good progress on the judicial nominations 
this week leaves the door open to a good way of addressing many of 
these nominations that are on the calendar. We need to allow the Senate 
to begin a process to confirm these people. When you look at the 
calendar itself, these nominations are page after page--14 pages of 
these nominations that are awaiting our action.
  I look forward to bringing them to the floor at the appropriate time, 
with discussion with the Democratic leadership.
  I yield the floor.

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