[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Page 1411]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               RECOGNITION OF THE ACTING MAJORITY LEADER

  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cornyn). The assistant majority leader is 
recognized.


                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. McCONNELL. This morning there will be a period for morning 
business not to extend beyond the hour of 10:30 a.m., with the time 
equally divided in the usual form. At 10:30, the Senate will then 
resume consideration of H.J. Res. 2, the appropriations bill. I 
understand there are several Members on the other side of the aisle who 
intend to offer their amendments to the appropriations measure during 
Tuesday's session.
  In addition to considering further amendments to the appropriations 
measure, it is the majority leader's hope that on Tuesday the Senate 
will consider the nomination of Tom Ridge to be Secretary of Homeland 
Security. I believe some Members have indicated their desire to speak 
in regard to that nomination. A rollcall vote is anticipated.
  At the hour of 5:15, the Senate will vote on S. 121, the AMBER Alert 
bill. This will be the first vote of today's session. Additional votes 
are expected during today.
  As a reminder, Senators have until 6 p.m. today to file their first-
degree amendments to the appropriations bill.
  Finally, I announce to Members that they should expect busy sessions 
each day this week in the hopes of completing action on the 
appropriations bill.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic whip.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, if I could direct a couple of questions to 
the distinguished Senator from Kentucky, we have a number of people, as 
on my colleague's side I am sure, who are catching planes and getting 
back after the Martin Luther King holiday. Does the leader have any 
idea how late he wants to stay in today?
  Mr. McCONNELL. I have not spoken with him this morning, but my 
assumption is we would like to make as much progress as we can toward 
completing the bill. Obviously, the longer we remain on this bill, the 
less opportunity we have to move ahead with the work of the year in 
which we find ourselves. As the Senator knows, we are still wrapping up 
last year's work.
  Mr. REID. We have one Senator coming to offer an amendment at 10:30. 
We have another Senator coming at 11:30 or quarter to 12. We are going 
to try to move as many amendments as we can today, and hopefully the 
Senators will agree on both sides that we could have votes on those 
matters this evening. So we will do the best we can to keep things 
moving.
  If the Senator can give us some idea as to how late the Senate leader 
wants to go this evening, it would be appreciated.
  Mr. McCONNELL. I say to my friend from Nevada, I am sure that later 
in the day we will be able to provide some further information on that 
matter.

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