[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Page 17606]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this morning the Senate will resume debate 
on S. 925, the State Department authorization bill. During yesterday's 
session, we were able to dispose of a number of amendments to the 
measure, and we will continue working aggressively through amendments 
this morning.
  I encourage any Member who does have an amendment to the bill to 
contact the chairman or the ranking member as soon as possible so we 
can organize an orderly schedule for the consideration of the 
amendments. I do ask my colleagues that they bring forward amendments 
that are relevant to the underlying legislation. Unfortunately, over 
the course of yesterday afternoon and yesterday evening, a number of 
nonrelevant issues were mentioned and talked about as possible 
amendments. It is important that we complete action on this very 
important bill--really these three very important bills together--after 
which we will go to the appropriations process.
  In order to accomplish that, we need to focus on the bill itself. I 
ask and make that plea to my colleagues that we stay, through an 
orderly process, on the bill with relevant amendments.
  I am aware of every Senator's right to amend and to bring anything to 
the floor they would like but out of consideration for an orderly, 
thoughtful schedule that allows us to continue with the authorization 
process underway and then proceed to the very important appropriations 
process, we do need people to be as cooperative as possible with the 
chairman and ranking member.
  We will have rollcall votes throughout the day. Senators will be 
notified when that first vote is scheduled. It is expected that we will 
consider and complete action, as I mentioned earlier, on appropriations 
bills this week. We will initially go to, after completion of the bill 
that is on the floor, the legislative branch appropriations to be 
followed by the military construction appropriations bill.
  As I said clearly earlier in the week, we will be voting on Friday. 
So I do want our colleagues to expect rollcall votes tomorrow. 
Depending on how things go over the course of the morning and the 
afternoon and this evening, we will have a much better idea as to 
whether we will be voting late in the day on Friday or earlier in the 
day.
  Again, I have tried to make it very clear through an orderly process 
that we can get through the schedule that is set out, which includes 
these appropriations bills.
  There is a lot of work to do this week, and Members should prepare 
for a busy session today and tomorrow.

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