[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 46 (Monday, April 18, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Page S3863]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                PROGRAM

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, tomorrow, the Senate will resume 
consideration of the Iraq-Afghanistan supplemental appropriations bill. 
At 11:45 a.m., the Senate will proceed to the cloture vote on the 
Chambliss immigration amendment, to be followed by a vote on invoking 
cloture on the Craig AgJOBS amendment. Therefore, Senators should 
expect two cloture votes beginning at 11:45 tomorrow morning.
  If cloture is not invoked on either of those amendments, the 
Chambliss amendment or the Craig amendment, the Senate will continue 
working through additional amendments to the bill. Under a previous 
order, if the Senate is not in a postcloture period, we will proceed to 
the cloture vote on the Mikulski language, and that is the Mikulski 
immigration amendment, at 4:30 tomorrow afternoon. After we dispose of 
the Mikulski amendment, the Senate will proceed to the cloture vote on 
the overall bill, the underlying bill.
  I also announce to my colleagues that, as they can see, we will have 
a very busy day over the course of tomorrow. Rollcall votes are likely 
to occur throughout the day, beginning at 11:45 a.m. As a reminder, 
there is an 11 a.m. filing deadline for second-degree amendments to the 
Chambliss and Craig amendments. The filing deadline for second-degree 
amendments to the Mikulski amendment and the bill itself will be 
determined by the outcome of those two earlier cloture votes tomorrow 
morning, and Senators will be notified once those deadlines can be 
established.
  Once again, I hope the Senate will invoke cloture on the bill so that 
the Senate can complete this underlying, important, critical emergency 
funding bill, an emergency funding bill for our troops in Afghanistan, 
in Iraq, as well as tsunami relief.
  Over the last week, week and a half, I have encouraged and will 
continue to encourage my colleagues not to offer extraneous amendments. 
I know people see this as a bill that is going to ultimately pass this 
floor, and it is very tempting to throw your outbox on this bill.
  To be honest, I have been disappointed in the number of extraneous, 
unrelated amendments that have been brought forward. We have 20 pending 
amendments to the supplemental appropriations bill. In addition to 
that, I have on each of these pages about 30 amendments, 4 pages of 
amendments Senators have brought forward.
  I appeal to my colleagues: Let us stay on this bill, the supplemental 
emergency spending bill. We are at war. We have troops who need this 
money now. All I can do is continue to appeal. We will have these 
immigration amendments tomorrow. We will have the opportunity to vote 
on these three amendments. That process will begin with the cloture 
votes at 11:45 in the morning.
  Once again, use restraint in bringing amendments forward, unless they 
are directed at supplemental emergency spending for our troops overseas 
or tsunami relief.

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