[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Page 20816]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this morning the Senate will be in a period 
for morning business in order that Senators may speak and have an 
opportunity to introduce legislation. There will be no rollcall votes 
during today's session. When the Senate completes its business today, 
we will adjourn for the August break.
  Today, in addition to Member statements, it would be my hope that we 
can continue to clear other legislative and executive items for Senate 
consideration. We were here late last night and had a full week, and 
indeed have had a very productive 4 weeks since the July 4 recess.
  I thank all of our Members for their cooperation in addressing what 
was a healthy agenda set out by me after the last recess. I obviously 
am very pleased in that we accomplished every one of the goals we set 
out at the beginning 4 weeks ago. In particular, I commend Chairman 
Domenici for his really remarkable efforts over the course of the last 
several weeks and ultimate success in passing the Energy bill through 
the Senate. That will be conferenced with the already-passed bill in 
the House. I am confident we will see a comprehensive national energy 
policy for the first time in a long period of time because of the hard 
work of this body over the last several weeks, in particular over the 
last week.
  We had a lot of obstacles put before us in many different shapes and 
forms on this particular legislation, and indeed as recently as 
yesterday morning, at about this time--in fact, exactly this time--the 
odds of completing this bill, in most people's minds, was very narrow. 
Yet both sides of the aisle working together developed an approach with 
which I think everybody is pleased. It is the important next step in 
developing a bill that I am confident the President will be able to 
sign shortly after we deliver it to him as a final package.
  Today, in terms of the schedule for September, I will come back to 
make some comments about the schedule. For the next 4 weeks, people 
will have the opportunity to go back and be with constituents and 
families and hopefully take some period as a true vacation. We are 
going to have a very challenging and again very productive September 
when we come back.
  As a reminder, the next rollcall vote will occur Wednesday, September 
3, and in all likelihood, although I will have more to say about that 
later today, that vote will occur on Wednesday morning. I am hopeful 
people will be coming back, if they are not in Washington, on that 
Tuesday and be ready to go. We will be in session that Tuesday. We will 
introduce a bill that I will talk about later today and then be voting 
on Wednesday.
  Again, I will come back later with regard to some comments about the 
past 4 weeks.

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