[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Page 13306]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, today the Senate will be in a period of 
morning business until 1 p.m. At 1 o'clock, the Senate will then resume 
consideration of S. 14, the Energy bill. The chairman and the ranking 
member will be here and will be prepared for Members to come forward 
with their amendments over the course of today. This is an important 
piece of legislation that will enhance the energy security of this 
Nation. I expect that the Senate will make substantial progress on this 
important bill this week.
  As I announced previously, no rollcall votes will occur during 
today's session. However, Members will be able to offer amendments. I 
encourage them to do so. Any votes ordered on those amendments will be 
scheduled to occur during tomorrow's session.
  Also this week the Senate will need to address the Defense 
authorization bill that will be received from the House shortly. Prior 
to the recess, we finished action on the Senate bill; however, we still 
need to dispose of a few remaining amendments prior to going to 
conference with the House. That should take only a couple of hours. We 
will likely consider that bill one night this week after we spend the 
day on the consideration of the Energy bill. I will keep my colleagues 
advised as to what evening that will be.
  In addition, we have continued to try to reach agreements on the FAA 
reauthorization and the State Department reauthorization bills. At some 
point we will have to proceed to those matters even if we are unable to 
reach a consent agreement for their consideration.
  I should also mention there are a number of Executive Calendar 
nominations that have been pending for a long period of time. 
Oftentimes these nominations get caught up in other issues. Again, at 
some point, I will proceed to the consideration of those nominations 
that have been pending for a while. If Members want to debate a 
particular nominee, they will need to come to the Senate floor to do 
so.
  In addition to the items I just mentioned, we have a number of other 
important issues to address, one of which is prescription drug benefits 
and strengthening and improving our Medicare Program for 35 million 
seniors and a million individuals with disabilities. I have stated for 
a number of weeks--in fact, for the last couple of months--that we will 
be addressing this particular issue, an issue that is important to the 
American people, both those who are seniors now, those soon to be 
seniors, and future generations, and we will be addressing that this 
month. Much of that activity begins in the Finance Committee this 
week--in fact, today there are discussions going on--and each and every 
day from now until we bring it to the floor. We plan on bringing that 
to the floor in 2 weeks.
  Having said that, I look forward to a busy and productive legislative 
period prior to the next scheduled adjournment. A number of people are 
coming back into town today after a period of a week being primarily at 
their homes with their constituencies across the United States of 
America. We are hopping right into the Energy bill today and through 
this week, followed by a number of issues this week. We will begin the 
appropriations process very quickly and spend a focused period of time 
on prescription drugs and strengthening and improving Medicare.
  I yield the floor.

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