[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 18]
[Senate]
[Pages 25692-25693]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                PROGRAM

  Mr. McCONNELL. For the information of all Senators, following morning 
business, it is the hope of the majority leader to proceed to the 
consideration of Calendar No. 227, H.R. 2800, the foreign operations 
appropriations bill. There will be no rollcall votes during tomorrow's 
session. As a reminder, a cloture motion was filed today on the Leavitt 
nomination to be Administrator of EPA. That vote will be the first vote 
on Monday and will occur at 5:30 p.m.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, if I could briefly respond to my dear friend 
from Kentucky, I think today is an example of a very productive day in 
the Senate. Not only were we able to complete an important 
appropriations bill but we were also able to get to some other matters 
that have been in the works for some time, such as fair credit 
reporting. It was very difficult to get it in its present position. I 
think we are in a position now where that bill can be completed. It 
will not be easy, but I think with a lot of very heavy lifting, we can 
complete that most important legislation. The vast majority of Senators 
on this side certainly want to move forward.
  On behalf of the Democratic leader, I say we should use this as a 
guide to having a smaller omnibus bill. There are appropriations bills 
that we can complete. We have done some very good work. There are five 
remaining appropriations bills. The leader is moving to one of them 
tomorrow. I think we can complete that in a relatively short period of 
time.
  Usually we are moaning about how little we have gotten done, how slow 
things have gone, but when one comes to the Senate, they do not enter a 
drag race. It is more of a long race every day. I think we were able to 
accomplish a great deal in the race we had today.
  As I said before, it is an example of how we can have a smaller 
omnibus bill and complete some other important issues in the few 
remaining days of this year.
  Mr. McCONNELL. I certainly agree with my friend from Nevada. We had a 
productive day. Let's hope we can do that again each day next week and 
make further progress for completing our work for the year.

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