[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 109 (Tuesday, September 14, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9155-S9156]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, today we have a period of morning business 
for up to 60 minutes, with the first 30 minutes under the control of 
the Democratic leader or his designee and the final 30 minutes under 
the control of the majority leader or his designee.
  Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of 
the Homeland Security appropriations bill. As I understand, there are 
approximately five pending amendments the chairman will review to 
determine when we will be disposing of them. Therefore, Senators should 
expect numerous rollcall votes over the course of the day as we move 
toward completion of that bill.
  We do have our recess between 12:30 and 2:15 for the weekly party 
luncheons.
  While I mentioned we will have numerous rollcall votes, and I see the 
assistant Democratic leader, one thing we must do over the course of 
today and tomorrow is limit the amount of time for Senators to vote in 
the specified time. We have Senators who straggle in. Everyone has an 
excuse. We have been too liberal in allowing people to come in late. In 
order to finish the bill, especially as we want to pay appropriate 
respect to the Jewish holiday tomorrow, I plead with our colleagues 
that they come as soon as they are notified there will be a vote. We 
give everyone a heads-up when there will be a vote. Come and vote and 
leave and efficiently use that time.
  Mr. REID. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. FRIST. I am happy to yield for a question.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I am so gratified to hear the leader 
speaking on this topic.
  Yesterday, we had a vote that took 45 minutes. I suggested to the 
floor staff maybe we should do away with the 15-minute limitation and 
wait until the last person shows up. It is unfair to this body. I don't 
think the leader should plead with people to come. They would come very 
quickly if we start cutting off the votes. It is unfair to this body to 
wait around here while somebody is finishing a phone call or a workout 
in the gym while the rest of us are waiting to get work done.
  Also, if I could, through the Chair, we want to finish this Homeland 
Security appropriations bill. We have been working through these 
numerous amendments. We are at a point where I believe we could 
finalize this bill.
  Finally, as the leader knows, we wanted to have a cutoff on this. I 
understand the leader decided yesterday to take a look at it to see if 
there is something we could do to help the situation in Florida through 
this bill. I said yesterday--and still say this--let's finish this 
bill. We want to help Florida as much as we can, but I think, by trying 
to tie these two things together, it is not going to work very well.
  I respectfully submit to the leader, let's try to push forward and 
have a timeline when we can finish this bill. It is an important piece 
of legislation. We understand that. But it would set such a good tone 
if we could finish that prior to the holiday beginning tomorrow.

[[Page S9156]]

  Mr. FRIST. I thank the Senator.
  Mr. President, I do again restate and reemphasize the importance of 
finishing this legislation, either this evening or early Wednesday 
morning, so Senators can observe the Rosh Hashanah holiday 
appropriately. We want to allow people to have travel time tomorrow as 
well. But we must finish this bill. Again, the plea for efficiency, for 
amendments to be brought forward, and that we vote on time is all to 
restate the importance of dealing with this very important bill and 
completing this bill in a timely way.
  We may well have, in addition to a busy session today, a busy session 
tonight in order to complete the bill. I know the Members continue to 
make inquiries as to whether we will finish tonight or in the morning. 
All I can say is we have to finish the bill. The holiday starts 
tomorrow, late afternoon, but it means, to give people appropriate 
travel time, we need to finish it, and we have time to finish it 
tonight or tomorrow. But I think how things go today and tonight will 
determine the schedule over the course of the day, tonight, and 
tomorrow. I will have further updates on that as we progress on the 
bill.

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