[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 2638-2640]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this morning the Senate will resume 
consideration of the nomination of Miguel Estrada to be a circuit judge 
for the DC Circuit.
  On Thursday we attempted to reach a consent agreement which would 
have allowed for a vote on that nomination during today's session. 
Unfortunately, that consent was not granted last Thursday. However, it 
is still my hope to work with my colleagues on the other side of the 
aisle to set a time certain for a vote on the confirmation of this 
important nomination. I know there are additional Members who want to 
speak on the nomination, and I hope they do so today, that they take 
advantage of the opportunity, beginning in a few minutes, over the 
course of today.
  I do want to express our willingness to go as long as necessary 
tonight to allow for that open discussion, that open debate, so 
colleagues do have the opportunity to express their wishes.
  I do want to make sure my colleagues understand it is our intent to 
finish this nomination and vote on this nomination as early as possible 
this week. I would love to have that opportunity to do so either later 
tonight or tomorrow--again recognizing that it is important people have 
the opportunity to speak. Again, we are perfectly happy to stay here as 
long as necessary tonight.
  In addition, three district court judges were reported by the 
Judiciary Committee on Thursday. We are working towards an agreement 
for a vote on one of those nominations this evening, or possibly all 
three nominations this evening. We will report shortly after discussion 
with the leadership on both sides of the aisle, but we expect the first 
vote to be at 5:15 this afternoon.
  Also, as a reminder, the current continuing resolution is set to 
expire on Friday of this week. We are still hoping the appropriators 
will complete their work on the conference report and therefore the 
Senate would consider the conference report later this week, as soon as 
it becomes available.
  We are also attempting to clear several important items that are on 
the Legislative Calendar. Each may require a short period of debate 
this week and a rollcall vote. Thus, we have a very full week over the 
next 5 days. Senators should expect a busy session this week and, 
indeed, as I mentioned earlier, late nights are possible. It is likely 
that there will be several late nights this week, including tonight if 
people will take advantage of that, in terms of discussing and bringing 
their views to the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Democratic whip.
  Mr. REID. If I could, while the majority leader is in the Chamber, 
first, on the vote on the judges, the ranking member of the committee, 
Senator Leahy, has said he is aware of the three judges and he would 
like a rollcall vote on each of the three and that you and Senator 
Daschle can work on the time of when at least the first will occur this 
evening.
  Mr. FRIST. Let me remind the Senator, I would like to do all three 
this evening. We can plan on having the first vote at 5:15 and then we 
can discuss about the other two. I think it would be our intent to have 
all three tonight.
  Mr. REID. Fine.
  I also say to the distinguished Senator from Tennessee, the majority 
leader, last week there were a number of problems, as the leader is 
aware. There were memorial services--it was difficult to have people 
speak. Also, it was difficult to get some Democrats to speak because 
the distinguished chairman took a lot of time speaking. It was hard to 
work in other people.
  With that in mind, and with the distinguished chairman of the 
committee in the Chamber, what I would like to do is arrange some times 
for people to speak today so we do not have people waiting around and 
so the chairman of the committee and ranking member know who is 
planning on coming. If it is appropriate, I will give those times to 
both the leader and to the chairman. The ranking member, Senator Leahy, 
is here and he is available all of the day, of course, if necessary.
  But from 1 to 2, Senator Feinstein would like to be able to speak; 
from 2

[[Page 2639]]

to 2:45, Senator Kennedy would like to speak; from 3 to 4 o'clock, 
Senator Schumer would like to speak; and Senator Levin would like to 
speak after that until the vote. And then Senator Feingold would like 
to speak at 5:30. They may not use all this time.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader.
  Mr. FRIST. Let me say, first, I appreciate the assistant Democratic 
leader outlining that. It is very important that we hear from people 
who have very important things to say. It is really a matter of time 
management at this juncture, so I very much appreciate it. If we could 
just have a gentleman's agreement for those times without locking it 
in, and then allowing the chairman and ranking member to determine the 
specifics of those times, but it sounds agreeable to me.
  Mr. REID. That sounds like a good idea.
  Mr. FRIST. Again, it is not our side of the aisle I think at this 
point that will do the majority of talking. We have a number of Members 
who want to speak as well. But our goal is to have an up-or-down vote 
on this important nomination after sufficient time as judged by the 
other side of the aisle and our side of the aisle.
  I encourage, once again, the Senator to continue scheduling just as 
he has done, which I appreciate, but to go as long today as he is 
comfortable doing because we want to make sure he has that opportunity. 
But it is my intention to bring this matter to a vote as soon as 
practical as we go forward.
  Mr. REID. I also say to the distinguished majority leader and the 
distinguished Chair of the committee that one of the things we are 
concerned about--and we know there has been very little time used on 
the debate so far, as the Senator knows, and as Senator Daschle stated 
publicly, the Democrats have not decided whether there is going to be a 
filibuster. That is something the majority leader and Senator Daschle 
can speak about later today. But I ask for the cooperation of the 
majority; that, in effect--and I don't mean this to be a derogatory 
term--no games be played. If somebody steps off the floor in the next 
few hours, I hope the question would not be called on this nomination 
until we get into a more--I want to use the right word. Until we get 
into a more competitive phase of this debate, I hope there would not be 
anything like that done.
  Could I have the assurance of the chairman of the committee that in 
fact would be the case?
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I think for today, of course, we will agree 
to that. But again, I want to come back to the fact of whether it is 
competitive and the accusations of a filibuster going back and forth. 
That is going to sort of occur.
  Let me just say on the part of the chairman and myself that as long 
as we are having good participation, it is important--not just 
listening to people because they want to get out and talk for an hour, 
which looks like a filibuster--to the American people that we work in 
good faith to come to what I hope will be a fair up-or-down vote in a 
reasonable period of time, and games are not in order and are not to be 
played. At the end of the day, we expect no filibuster--again, that is 
a decision which will be made on your side--because the American people 
deserve better. If there is insistence on a filibuster, we will use 
everything within our power being in the majority under the Senate 
rules to bring this to an up-or-down vote.
  Mr. REID. One last thing I would like to say is we are having, as the 
majority leader knows, a conference committee meeting of the 
Appropriations Committee at 6:30 this evening. There are still a number 
of open issues. We will hear from Senator Stevens and others. But this 
thing has moved along significantly over the weekend.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I will close.
  We have the opportunity of a very productive and very useful week. 
When you look at the continuing resolution and completing the 
appropriations bills with the omnibus package and the three judges 
tonight, if we can finish the Estrada nomination early enough in the 
week, there are two other bills we are working on, including the Moscow 
treaty. There is other legislation that is to follow. We have the 
opportunity of a very productive week before going out on recess. We 
have to keep the train moving.
  The reason why I mention that is, if members want to talk on the 
other for 30 minutes or 45 minutes each tonight, we want to make that 
opportunity available, and we hope the other side will seize that 
opportunity since we express that willingness.
  Thank you, Mr. President.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, will the Senator from Tennessee yield for 
just a moment, the distinguished majority leader?
  Mr. FRIST. I yield to the Senator.
  Mr. LEAHY. A couple of things should be mentioned.
  As the distinguished senior Senator from Nevada has noted, we have a 
committee of conference on the appropriations this evening, which is a 
very significant one because of the level of appropriations bills being 
rolled into one. A number of us who might speak on the floor are also 
on that committee. Senior members of the Appropriations Committee have 
to be at the meeting. Some have said and others have commented about 
games-playing here. I don't think the distinguished majority leader or 
the distinguished acting Democratic leader would want to do that. I 
would suggest just for my friend--looking around the floor--having been 
here longer than anybody else on the floor right now, in the majority 
four or five times, and four or five times in the minority with very 
distinguished majority leaders, Senator Mansfield, Senator Byrd, 
Senator Baker, Senator Lott, Senator Daschle, Senator Mitchell--
  Mr. REID. Senator Dole.
  Mr. LEAHY. And Senator Dole, and also having served as minority 
leader back and forth--all of them realized that anyone can come down 
at any moment of inattention and, using the rules, gain a one-time 
advantage. With all the distinguished leaders, I never saw a single one 
of them do that, even when over and over again they had an opportunity 
to do it. Many times when I was chairman of the Agriculture Committee, 
when I was chairman of Judiciary Committee, when I was chairman of the 
Foreign Operations Committee, and when I was chairman of a number of 
others, we would have hotly contested issues and cases where the 
ranking Member, the only other person on the floor, had to leave the 
floor for a phone call or something like that. And, of course, I always 
protected their rights. That is something that has been done. It is the 
role of the majority leader, of course, to try to move legislation 
forward. It has always been my feeling, whether being in the majority 
or in the minority, that the majority leader should do that. I think we 
can. But I also think everybody should realize that last week was a 
rather extraordinary week with, first, the services in Houston, and 
then the services at the National Cathedral, and then the Republicans 
had a conference where they had to go on Friday. A lot was chopped into 
that week.
  I have already said the three judges which are on the Executive 
Calendar--those which were actually going to be put over by the 
Republicans initially in the executive markup--I said to the 
distinguished Senator from Utah, let us go ahead and vote them out so 
we can get them on the floor. But also the majority leader may not be 
aware of the fact--at least from some of his statements--that during 17 
months we did get through 100 of President Bush's judges and got all of 
them confirmed on the floor. I know the distinguished Senator from Utah 
would like to come close to that record, a record that was not achieved 
when the Republicans were chairing that committee and when President 
Clinton was here. I know he would want to try for that now. Of course, 
I would be happy to go forward on those and vote those three out. There 
will be rollcall votes. I realize that last year sometimes we had 10 or 
12 at a time by voice vote. I think that escaped the attention of the 
press, the White House, the Republican Senate campaign committee, and 
others.

[[Page 2640]]

  I yield the floor.

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