[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Page 2769]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. FRIST. Madam President, today the Senate will continue the 
consideration of the nomination of Miguel Estrada to be a DC Circuit 
Court judge. The deliberations on the Senate floor yesterday were 
hearty and robust, and I believe many Senators have now had an 
opportunity to express their views. It is my objective to reach an 
agreement with the Democratic leader regarding a time for vote on this 
nominee.
  The schedule for this week, and until the Estrada nomination is 
completed, is dependent upon reaching an agreement with respect to the 
pending nomination. I will continue to discuss with the Democratic 
leader the options for completing work on this important nomination. In 
the absence of any agreement, the Senate should expect very late 
evenings. My objective is to complete this nomination process with a 
vote this week.
  The Senate also needs to complete action on the omnibus 
appropriations conference report when it becomes available. The 
conferees worked well into last night on the conference report, and I 
will be speaking to the chairman of the Appropriations Committee as to 
their success in closing out that conference. These are two very 
important pieces of business which must be addressed this week.
  As a reminder, the Senate will recess today from 12:30 to 2:15 in 
order to accommodate the weekly policy luncheons.
  Finally, I would forewarn all Senators that the Senate will remain in 
session in order to complete the Estrada nomination as well as the 
omnibus conference report.
  I thank all Senators for their attention and look forward to the 
debate over the course of today, and hopefully we can reach some 
agreement, either this morning or this afternoon, on a time certain for 
a vote.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, while the majority leader is on the floor 
and also the President pro tempore is seated in the Chamber, the 
chairman of the Appropriations Committee--the same person--while one 
may disagree with some of the policy stands the chairman of the 
Appropriations Committee has taken, one has to admire the work he did 
last night. It was really remarkable that he had every chair and 
ranking member of the subcommittees there, including the chairs of the 
full committees and ranking members, and was able to work through that 
myriad of information. It is now down to where it is really close to 
something we can vote on this week.
  While the chairman of the committee is here, I wanted to acknowledge 
in front of his leader the remarkable job he did last night. We look 
forward to some productive work this week. These are two most important 
matters. I am sure the Senator and our leader will have a conversation 
in the immediate future about the Estrada nomination.

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