[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 14933-14934]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           WORK OF THE SENATE

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, in just a few minutes, the Republican 
leader will be joining me on the Senate floor.
  Before he gets here, I rise to thank my colleagues for the good work 
we have been able to complete this week. It has been a very productive 
week. We were able to pass unanimously the new Corporate Accountability 
Act after a great deal of effort on all sides. I complimented the 
distinguished Senator from Maryland, the chairman of the Banking 
Committee, Mr. Sarbanes, on a number of occasions, but I want to 
complete our week this week by recognizing again his contribution.
  The Appropriations Committee deserves commendation. They have 
reported out all the appropriations bills now.
  In many ways, they are actually ahead of schedule, even though we 
have had somewhat of a late start.
  We finished the military construction appropriations bill this week. 
We also finished the legislative branch appropriations bill and set up 
an opportunity to complete our work on the DOD appropriations bill next 
week. There may be other appropriations bills that may be ready for 
consideration next week as well. On the appropriations front, secondly, 
I thought we had quite a good week.
  At long last we were able to move to conference on terrorism 
insurance. I am hopeful in the not too distant future we will complete 
our work on that measure, as we did the Corporate Accountability Act. 
We have done a number of nominations. We are now on track with regard 
to nominations. We confirmed a circuit court judge today, filed cloture 
Wednesday and got cloture today on second one. That vote will occur on 
Monday night. It is currently my plan to move forward additional 
judicial nominees on Monday night as well.
  In addition to the judicial nominees, we were able to complete our 
work on nominations on some very important commissions. The SEC, for 
example, had four outstanding vacancies. As a result of our work this 
week, we were able to complete work on the SEC nominations. There is 
now a full complement of SEC Commissioners. That, too, was an important 
aspect of the work of the Senate.
  Off the floor, there were a couple of other important matters that we 
addressed. The bankruptcy reform conference report is soon to be filed. 
It was completed, the work was completed, as was the trade promotion 
authority--not only trade promotion authority but the Andean Trade 
Promotion Act, as well as the Trade Adjustment Assistance Act, the 
package of bills, late last night. The conference report to that 
package of bills was agreed to.
  We are in a very good position now to move into the final week of 
this work period. Senator Lott and I have had a number of constructive 
discussions about next week. Our purpose in coming to the floor is to 
outline for our colleagues what our expectations are, and I will do 
that when he arrives.
  I will also say, the confirmation of the district judge this morning 
brings to a total of 61 the number of confirmations since we took the 
majority a little over a year ago. That includes 49 district judges and 
12 circuit judges.
  On Monday, as I noted, we intend to take up at least 1 more, if not 
additional judges, and that would then bring to a total anywhere from 
62 to 64 judges in the time that we have had the majority.
  We are making progress on judicial nominations. We are determined to 
attempt to clear the calendar with regard to those judicial nominations 
over the course of the next few days, if it is at all possible.
  Whether we clear the calendar, I must say, depends on whether we get 
all the other work done as well. There has to be an understanding that 
we do not have the luxury of focusing solely on nominations, as much as 
that would be a good thing to do. We have to complete our work on the 
prescription drug benefit and generic drug benefit legislation. We want 
to call up the fast-track conference report and file cloture. We want 
to complete our work on the Defense appropriations bill, if that is 
possible. We want to work to proceed to the homeland security 
legislation and file cloture on the motion to proceed to that bill.
  We have a lot of work we need to complete before the end of next 
week. Given the fact we will get a late start on Monday afternoon, 
Senators should be aware that we could be involved in late nights, and 
we will certainly be here a week from this coming Friday.

[[Page 14934]]

  I wanted to be sure my colleagues were made aware of our expectations 
for the schedule for that period of time.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum until the 
arrival of the distinguished Republican leader.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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