[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Page 415]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  ORDERS FOR MONDAY, JANUARY 13, 2003

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the 
Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until noon 
Monday, January 13. I further ask that following the prayer and the 
pledge, the morning hour be deemed to have expired, the Journal of the 
proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be 
reserved for their use later in the day, and that there then be a 
period of morning business until 2 p.m. with the time equally divided 
and with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, if I may 
address this request, I know the majority leader was going to make a 
statement about what our program is on Monday. I have just left Senator 
Daschle's office, and it appears there is one issue to be resolved on 
the committee reorganization plan. I hope we can get that done. It is 
somewhat of a delicate issue. I spoke with the staff person that leads 
our Rules Committee. She has been in touch with her counterpart who is 
assigned with Senator Lott to work on these problems. I have spoken to 
Senator McConnell today, and I am hopeful and confident that we can 
have that done Monday. I know some of this housekeeping material is 
hard for those outside the Chamber to understand--why it takes so long. 
I tell the majority leader that we are doing the very best we can to 
get this worked out.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I thank the leadership on the other side of 
the aisle because we have had a very productive week. For our 
colleagues in the Senate and also the people who watch these 
proceedings, I want to reiterate that we have all been working in good 
faith on a range of issues with respect to these committee resolutions. 
I very much appreciate that cooperation.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair will rule on the request that was 
made. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, just to update our membership, I think that 
we have made tremendous progress, to be honest with you, in terms of 
the last 6 or 7 days on the committee resolutions. There are a couple 
of issues that we have worked on all day today and yesterday, and I 
know that is not apparent before the Senate, but there has been real 
progress. What we would like to do--it is an objective for both sides--
is to have the committees organized. There are 21 committees with new 
chairmen, and the Presiding Officer is one of the newer Members right 
now who does not have a committee presence. That is the sort of thing 
we are waiting on, and we have all agreed that we need to have that 
done as soon as possible. The new Members, right now, don't sit on any 
of the 21 committees. We are working to get the committee assignments 
on both sides of the aisle. That is the particular issue that we are 
talking about now and putting the new committee chairmen in place.
  As we just heard, we will be able to do that in the very near future.

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