[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 18]
[Senate]
[Page 25383]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this morning there will be a period for 
morning business to allow Senators to make statements. At 10:30 today, 
the Senate will begin consideration of the conference report to 
accompany the partial-birth abortion ban bill. Under a unanimous 
consent agreement, there will be up to 4 hours of debate on that 
conference report. Under a previous order, the Senate will stand in 
recess from 12:30 until 2:15 for the respective party caucus meetings. 
After that recess, the Senate will continue consideration of the 
partial-birth abortion ban, with a vote on the conference report 
expected this afternoon. That vote will be the first vote of the day.
  Following the vote on the partial-birth abortion ban, the Senate will 
resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 1751, the class 
action fairness bill. I remind my colleagues that we had hoped to begin 
consideration of the class action legislation yesterday. Unfortunately, 
there was an objection to proceeding which is why it was necessary for 
us to proceed to move to that bill. Yesterday, we filed a cloture 
motion on the motion to proceed and that vote will occur tomorrow 
morning.
  It is important that we are able to proceed with that bill. I 
understand there are differences on the substance of the legislation. 
However, the Senate should be allowed to consider those issues through 
debate and votes, as appropriate. Therefore, I once again encourage my 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle to allow us to begin work on 
the bill to bring some sense to the overall class action process.
  I was also disappointed with the objection to proceeding to the 
Healthy Forests initiative. Chairman Cochran and others on both sides 
of the aisle have been working in good faith to bring that bill to the 
floor in a way to consider some concerns that may exist on the 
Democratic side. Again, there was an objection to proceed to that 
measure. I hope Members can, over the course of this morning and today, 
rethink that objection and allow debate to begin on this very important 
initiative, the Healthy Forests legislation.
  We are also working hard to clear for Senate action a number of other 
important issues, including the fair credit reporting bill, the so-
called spam legislation, as well as an agreement to move forward on the 
charitable giving bill.
  I remind my colleagues, both the Senate and the House have already 
passed their respective versions of that legislation and it is now time 
for us to move to conference and reconcile those differences. Having 
said that, we will continue to work with the Democratic leadership in 
an effort to reach an agreement to move forward on all of the bills I 
just mentioned.
  As we approach the last weeks of this session, we need to redouble 
our efforts to stay focused and disciplined on these agreements so we 
can allow the Senate to consider all of these bills. I thank my 
colleagues in advance for their cooperation.

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