[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 116 (Thursday, September 23, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9539-S9540]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this morning, the Senate will conduct a 
period of morning business for up to 30 minutes, with the first 15 
minutes under the control of the majority and the following 15 minutes 
under the control of the Democratic leader or his designee. Following 
morning business, we hope to begin consideration of the Foreign 
Operations appropriations bill under a limited agreement on amendments. 
It is very important we address that bill. We have made good progress 
this week on the appropriations bills. As we set out last week, for 
this week the focus needed to be to address as many of the 
appropriations bills as possible. It is my hope that following morning 
business we can go directly to the Foreign Operations appropriations 
bill, deal with those amendments today, and vote on that bill today.
  We are also waiting to receive the family friendly tax cut conference 
report from the House of Representatives later today. We will complete 
action on that measure before we adjourn for the Yom Kippur holiday, 
which begins tomorrow evening.
  I know both of these issues are issues people have been addressing 
and have thought about, and I am confident we can do those over the 
course of the day and/or tomorrow morning. I do want, because I know 
people have travel plans for tomorrow afternoon, to be able to complete 
that either this afternoon or tonight or tomorrow. Again, I think we 
can do them both today. I just want all of our Senators to work 
together and talk to the managers of both bills, if people have 
concerns, over the course of the morning.


                Speech of Prime Minister Allawi Of Iraq

  We have just completed a wonderful and, I should add, inspiring joint 
meeting of Congress with Prime Minister Allawi, just 15 or 20 minutes 
ago. Indeed, he laid out both the great progress that has been made but 
his absolute commitment to free and fair elections in January in Iraq, 
making the statement that he understands that, because of the intent of 
terrorists to disrupt those elections, it is going to be very tough.

  He looked at it very realistically. He said the elections will be 
fair and free, recognizing that in other great countries today, when 
they had their first elections, as they moved toward democracy, it was 
challenging. He recognizes those challenges. But again and again, to 
standing rounds of applause, he expressed his commitment to those 
elections in January.
  Mr. President, I will close by saying Members can expect a busy 
afternoon with votes throughout the day. If we are to finish those 
bills, and we cannot do them over the course of the afternoon, we might 
well stay into this evening. So I encourage people to keep their 
schedules flexible. If we finish our business today, of course, we 
would not have to vote tomorrow morning. But these are two important 
pieces of legislation that we need to address.
  Next week--and the reason there is this time sensitivity--we will 
have an issue which really rises above all others; that is, the safety 
and security of the American people. We have been addressing 
appropriate intelligence reform, addressing it in committee very 
satisfactorily in a very productive way

[[Page S9540]]

over the course of this week. That intelligence reform is now out of 
committee and ready to be brought to the floor, or will be shortly 
after the appropriate paperwork and processing is done. The intent 
would be to go to that Monday as the next order of business. That is 
why we really need, as leadership from both sides of the aisle, to have 
people focused on the immediate business before us, in an orderly, 
systematic way, so we can turn our attention on the floor to the report 
that has come out of the Governmental Affairs Committee as it deals 
with intelligence.
  With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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