[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 135 (Saturday, November 20, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11665-S11667]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, today we are convening for this unusual 
Saturday session with the hope of finishing our work and adjourning the 
108th Congress. We anticipate the omnibus conference report will arrive 
from the House of Representatives today. In all likelihood that would 
be early to midafternoon. I hope we will be able to have a short period 
of debate and then proceed to a vote on adoption of that conference 
report.
  Once the report arrives officially from the House of 
Representatives--again, I think it is going to be early to 
midafternoon, possibly around 2 o'clock--we would like to go to that 
bill at that point in time. As you can see before me, we have the 
copies, both here and each of the cloakrooms have several copies at 
this point in time. I know people have been interested and have been 
looking through the copies of that report. But we will be prepared to 
go to it this afternoon.
  One of the issues we will be checking with also, over the course of 
the rest of the morning and early afternoon, is to ask Members how much 
time they do want to spend on debate and how much debate time will be 
necessary in order that we can advise our colleagues with regard to 
their schedules.
  In addition, over the night--which was a long night for many people, 
both staff as well as Members, in bringing to a close the 108th 
Congress--there was a lot of work on the intelligence reform bill, the 
9/11 intelligence reform bill. Huge progress has been made over the 
last 24 hours under the leadership, from the Senate side, of Senator 
Collins, joined by Senator Lieberman and, indeed, they have done 
yeoman's work in bringing us to this point. So if that conference 
report becomes available, we may also be considering intelligence 
reform over the course of the day.
  A third issue that we have spent a lot of time with yesterday and 
through last night and over the course of the morning is the 
nominations. People do not realize that in our calendar right now there 
are over 200 nominations pending that we either need to wrap up today 
or it will be in the next Congress. It is not 10 or 20 or 50 or 100; it 
is almost 200 nominations that have been held up for various reasons. 
But they made it to the calendar and I am very hopeful that over the 
course of the next several hours we can reach an agreement to address 
all 200 or so of those pending nominations. Many people are working on 
that. I just encourage our Members to continue to work on that.
  These individuals have accepted the call to public service in many 
different capacities. Yet because of inactivity on the floor of the 
Senate, they are going to be just a name in that book where if we can 
act on that, they will be allowed to proceed. They have gone through 
the entire process. I know it is incumbent upon us to act. We just have 
to find a way to confirm these noncontroversial executive nominations 
before we finish our work.


                           Middle East Peace

  I want to comment on two things. First is a resolution we passed 
yesterday, last night, in support of democracy in the Middle East. On 
November 12, the President of the United States and the Prime Minister 
of England articulated their joint resolve to press for a peaceful 
resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Specifically, they 
support the creation of a Palestinian State that is peaceful, that is 
democratic, that is free, and that is based and grounded on the rule of 
law, that will include free press and free speech and an open political 
process and religious tolerance.

  Last night, here in the Senate, we voted unanimously to ratify this 
vision. It is our hope that both parties to the roadmap will follow it 
to a peaceful resolution. With courage and determination on both sides, 
we believe, in fact we know, that peace can be achieved.

[[Page S11666]]

                          Politics of Decency

  One final issue I want to spend a few minutes talking about is the 
people's expectation of how this body should function as we come 
together after what we know have been tough, competitive elections. Two 
days ago I had the opportunity to travel with Senator Daschle and a 
number of Senators and House Members to the opening of the Clinton 
Library, and it was remarkable, while I was there, the number of people 
from other countries--there was a huge delegation from other 
countries--who came forward and spoke about the remarkable flexibility, 
pliability, resilience of America in coming together after tough 
elections, aggressive elections. Within a week or 2 weeks, we come 
together. That is what the American people expect and that is 
characteristic of America.
  To accomplish the people's work, the Senate and Senators, the Members 
of this body, must work together and do work together. They must work 
toward consensus. They must conduct their affairs with respect for each 
other and with civility. They must practice those politics of decency.
  In my office, just down the hall, one of my predecessor Republican 
leaders, Everett Dirksen, has a portrait on the wall there. It reminds 
me that he was often an ardent antagonist of Democratic 
administrations. He broke with some in his party to lead the Nation's 
Republicans in support of the laws that ended legal racial 
discrimination in this country. He acted because he knew he was doing 
the right thing and the reasonable thing and the moral thing. He acted 
because the Nation needed, the Nation deserved, racial equality, and in 
acting he had to work with members of the other party. Indeed, he did, 
and he could. He had strong personal relationships with President 
Lyndon Johnson and the Democratic leader, Mike Mansfield. He worked 
alongside them to pass the historic 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 
groundbreaking 1965 Voting Rights Act. But without his will to 
cooperate, in all likelihood, neither would have become law.

  And Dirksen cared about keeping a civil atmosphere in Washington, DC. 
In 1969, he even rode in that Presidential inauguration with President-
elect Nixon and President Johnson in an effort to smooth the troubled 
relationship between those two statesmen.
  In the last 4 years, with civility and the will to work together, we 
set tough new standards in fields such as education, with No Child Left 
Behind. We created the Department of Homeland Security, again coming 
together and working on the issue with great civility. I have been 
proud to work with numerous colleagues on issues important to me--with 
Senator Kerry aggressively, over a period of about a year, on issues 
surrounding AIDS and malaria and tuberculosis. I was deeply proud to 
work with my distinguished colleague from Louisiana, John Breaux, as we 
fashioned over the last several years, culminating last year, a 
Medicare modernization package that extended, for the first time in the 
history of Medicare, prescription drug coverage to seniors; and with 
Senator Ron Wyden on flexibility and accountability in education, and 
Senator Kennedy on issues surrounding public health and bioterrorism.
  Throughout our history, indeed, America has been governed best when 
the women and men of the Senate--and I should also add the House of 
Representatives--and the Executive have treated each other with respect 
and with civility and with decency. A lot of it comes down to personal 
relationships, which a lot of people don't see but really is the heart 
of this body. Rule XIX says--I don't need to remind my colleagues of 
the clear message of rule XIX of this body:
  No Senator in debate shall, directly or indirectly, by any form of 
words impute to another Senator or to Senators any conduct or motive 
unworthy or unbecoming a Senator.
  The American people have sent us a clear message as well. They want 
to move America forward, but they want to make sure we do it in a way 
that shows respect for one another. They reelected a Republican 
President, chose significant Republican majorities in both the House of 
Representatives and the Senate, but regardless of whether we are 
Republicans or whether we are Democrats, we all take the same pledge, 
which our new Senators will be doing in early January, to defend the 
same Constitution. It is our duty to represent all Americans. The 
American people expect us to work together, the American people want us 
to work together, and they deserve to have us work together.
  I know that all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle share the 
same ultimate goal of a safer America, a more prosperous America, and a 
healthier America, and that none of us want to be thought of as blanket 
obstructionists to accomplishing this goal. We want to move with 
civility, with cooperation, working toward consensus. But all too 
often, as we all know--we have seen it in this body and outside the 
body and in committees--people tend to lean to partisan bickering. We 
need to move away from that because we have all seen that it does get 
in the way of our genuine, our shared desire to move America forward.
  Many believe things have worsened over time here in comparison to the 
way it may have been 15 years ago or 30 years ago. It is true that 
Senators of different parties rarely get together, or clearly don't get 
together as much as they did in more distant times. We come together 
for floor votes and we come together for occasional Senate dinners and 
we come together for weekly prayer breakfasts, many of us, but clearly 
we haven't generated those opportunities nearly as much as they were in 
the past.
  Every year, more and more people are commenting on the partisan 
divide and the bickering and the sniping back and forth. As my 
distinguished colleague, Senator Daschle, has said, it is not enough to 
say that society has become divided and throw up your hands. We have a 
higher responsibility, he says, and I quote his words, ``to try to 
bridge the divide, not simply mirror or exploit it.'' I simply could 
not agree with that more.
  At the Clinton Library opening 2 days ago we had the opportunity to 
spend a couple of hours together. It was a tremendous ceremony, the 
opening of that library. But as we sat there, we very specifically 
talked about how best this institution can be served by moving toward 
greater civility, more opportunities for us to come together. Civility 
in this body has eroded over time, and it will take time and a renewed 
commitment, maybe a new commitment for many, but a renewed commitment 
to regain it. But we have got to begin.
  I think we have a great opportunity to begin in the coming weeks. We 
have had other Members of this Chamber who have already begun much of 
this task. I want to highlight the recent bipartisan orientation 
sessions that the Senator from Delaware, Mr. Carper, along with my 
colleague from Tennessee, Senator Alexander, along with Senator Mark 
Pryor and Senator George Voinovich, put together. When they first 
brought this idea to us, both Senator Daschle and I said: Yes, 
absolutely, let's do it. Indeed, over 4 days this past week, starting 
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, the nine newly elected Senators 
from both parties were together for the better part of each and every 
one of those days addressing how they can best serve their constituents 
and, indeed, the American people. They were joined by their spouses. 
They had lively discussions. They had meals together. They had dinner 
and conversation well into the night each of these evenings. I think it 
is a tremendous foundation for what we all need to make a renewed 
commitment to do in the coming weeks and months in this body.
  Tip O'Neill, who would sit and swap stories with President Reagan 
after hard days fighting on everything from appropriations to welfare 
reform, liked saying, in a quotation we all hear again and again, ``We 
should all be friends after 6 p.m.''
  At the same time, we all know that in this body, we have two parties 
and we have two very different views of how to get to that common goal. 
So we don't expect Senators to compromise their principles in any way. 
We don't expect Republicans to stop being Republicans or Democrats to 
stop being Democrats, and it takes effective spokesmen on both sides of 
the aisle to articulate those principles. The principles we stand for 
both as parties and as caucuses do reflect some very different visions. 
In some cases, they can

[[Page S11667]]

be serious and in some ways quite fundamental, but when it comes to the 
details of policy, we can and should move together and have discussions 
with civility to move toward consensus.
  We face an imperative to reduce the deficit by keeping spending in 
check, but without raising taxes and stifling job growth.

  We must transform our health care system into one that puts people 
and their doctors first and puts the doctor-patient relationship in 
charge.
  We do need to confirm judges who justly and independently interpret 
the law.
  We can't move America forward unless we do these things, and we can't 
do these things unless we do work together. Doing this and improving 
the environment and the tenor of this body is going to require a lot of 
hard work. We will need more good ideas devised by Senators Alexander, 
Carper, Pryor, and Voinovich.
  We should give strong consideration to the proposals my colleague 
Senator Daschle made several months ago such as all-Senate policy 
forums to discuss the issues of the day, and bipartisan leadership 
meetings which bring leadership together. These are all great 
suggestions, fruitful suggestions, and great starting points and 
productive ideas.
  Senator Reid and I have already begun to discuss ideas on how to 
achieve this, again working together to make my ideas and his ideas a 
reality.
  Senators on both sides of the aisle should know that as we approach 
these issues, accomplish this, and their ideas we ask them to bring 
forward.
  In closing, the traditions, rules, and customs of the Senate rest on 
a foundation of civility. That is why we have rules that are in print, 
a body of rules. Then we have this whole element of tradition and 
precedent which is so important to this body.
  We have essential work ahead of us as we all begin to plan and look 
at the next Congress. We are stewards of rich Senate traditions and 
stewards of constitutional principles that simply must not be undone. 
We are leaders elected by the American people for one simple purpose; 
that is, to move America forward. Doing it is going to require a lot of 
work. It will require a lot of consensus building, and above all it 
will require civility.
  I look forward to working with our leadership and working jointly 
with the Democratic leadership to make that our goal and to implement 
and incorporate whatever we need to do in this body so we indeed can 
achieve that goal.
  I yield the floor.

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