[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 20]
[Senate]
[Pages 28103-28104]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--H.R. 2799

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at a time 
determined by the majority leader, after consultation with the 
Democratic leader, the Senate proceed to the consideration of H.R. 
2799, the Commerce-Justice-State appropriations bill.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection?
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I ask the 
majority leader--we have, of course, Senator Hollings, the ranking 
member of the subcommittee, who has asked, at what time do you propose 
going to that, today or at some other time?
  Mr. FRIST. The plan would be to go to it after we finish the Internet 
tax bill. So we would like to go to that bill today. If it is very 
late, of course, we will start early Monday morning.
  Mr. REID. I respectfully say to my distinguished friend that we are 
not going to finish the Internet tax bill today. I guess we can finish 
it by taking it off the floor. On our side there are a significant 
number of amendments, and we know there are some on your side. Simply, 
I ask the leader what time does he propose, in effect, that we have had 
enough talk on the Internet tax bill, because it is not going to be 
completed today.
  Mr. FRIST. Again, people were here very late last night. I encourage 
the managers to do everything humanly possible to finish the Internet 
tax bill. If, after aggressive work, we cannot do that, then we can 
make a decision. By the end of today, I would like to lay down the 
Commerce-Justice-State appropriations bill. If that is the case, I 
would plan on going to that on Monday. We can talk about the 
appropriate time. For us to finish our work, we have to keep moving, 
and it is important to lay down that bill today.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I say to the majority leader we want to 
cooperate. We have tried to do that on these appropriations bills, and 
we will cooperate on Commerce-State-Justice. But until there is some 
determination made when we are going to go off the Internet tax, I am 
going to object.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Objection is heard.
  Mr. McCAIN. Will the majority leader yield?
  Mr. FRIST. I am happy to yield.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I point out that we went on to the 
Internet tax moratorium bill last night with the anticipation of 
amendments being proposed and votes starting this morning--stacked 
votes. That is what we usually do on a Thursday evening. Whether that 
is a good idea or a bad one, it is a very common practice. We had 
anticipated at least three amendments and then stacked votes this 
morning and moving forward with the bill.
  Then, I was told later in the evening there would be one amendment 
that would be proposed and we would stack it for this morning; and not 
too late last night, the sponsors of the amendment said they were going 
to file the amendment and debate it this morning.
  With all due respect, that is not the way we usually do business 
here. We tell people what we are going to do and go with their word and 
move forward. I think we need to get this done because the Internet tax 
moratorium has expired. If we don't want the Internet tax moratorium to 
prevail, that is a decision to be made by the body. We should make the 
decision. I hope the majority leader will stick with his comments. 
There are not that many items of dispute on the Internet tax 
moratorium. It has been debated on several occasions in past years. So 
I hope relevant amendments--and I don't think there are more than two 
or three, to be honest--are offered and we can move forward with those 
with a reasonable debate time and dispose of this today, understanding 
that all Members have the problem of scheduling and want to leave.
  So I urge the cooperation of all Members so we can dispose of 
important amendments and move forward. I see my colleague from North 
Dakota who is ready to speak. I wish he had been here last night to 
speak. We could have done an amendment and debated it. Instead, we put 
it off for this morning, which I hope will make comments more 
abbreviated so we can move to the substance of the amendment and 
passage of the bill.
  I thank the leader and I appreciate his commitment to try to get this 
done today.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, let me close this out and then we can turn 
to the bill. I ask all of our colleagues to spend the appropriate time 
and do our

[[Page 28104]]

best to cooperate to finish this important bill, which I tried very 
hard to finish last week with the understanding that we would bring it 
up this week and we would finish it this week. We cannot point fingers 
on either side of the aisle because there are challenges on both sides 
of the aisle. I ask this in order for us to finish the Nation's 
business.
  Last night on the floor--I know we have the Syria accountability bill 
and Military Construction, which we are going to get. The problem is 
that we have to finish the business we have on the floor. We have to 
continue the appropriations process as we go forward, and we cannot do 
it unless people come together and understand there is an urgency that 
requires cooperation.
  I go back to my original comments. I understand there is objection to 
going to Commerce-Justice-State. I will continue to discuss that as the 
day goes forward. I would like to lay that down today at some point.

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