[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 5931-5932]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  UNANIMOUS CONSENT AGREEMENT--EXECUTIVE CALENDAR NOS. 36, 52, AND 54

  Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, as in executive session, I ask unanimous 
consent that on Thursday, following the cloture vote with respect to 
the Estrada nomination, regardless of the outcome, the Senate proceed 
to the consideration of Executive Calendar No. 36, Jay S. Bybee, to be 
U.S. Circuit Judge for the Ninth Circuit; provided further that there 
be 6 hours for debate equally divided in the usual form, and that 
following the use or yielding back of the time, the Senate proceed to a 
vote on the confirmation of the nomination. I further ask consent that 
immediately following the vote, the Senate immediately proceed to a 
vote on the confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 52, the nomination 
of William Steele, to be U.S. District Judge for the Southern District 
of Alabama, to be immediately followed by a vote on the confirmation of 
Executive Calendar No. 54, the nomination of J. Daniel Breen to be U.S. 
District Judge for the Western District of Tennessee; provided further 
that following those votes, the President be immediately notified of 
the Senate's action, and the Senate then resume legislative session, 
with all the above occurring without intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Democratic whip.


                       completing action on s. 3

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, if everyone uses all the time, tomorrow will 
be a long day. We do not know how much time everyone will use, but at 
least we have completed this very difficult legislation today. We have 
a circuit judge the leader has been asking for, and we have two more 
district court judges. So I think we have accomplished quite a bit this 
week.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. SANTORUM. I thank the Senator from Nevada. Through this entire 
week, he has been working with this side in good faith to move forward 
this legislation. He did an outstanding job, in my opinion, in helping 
us proceed through this process. I want to thank him for the excellent 
work and for his willingness to move at times this heated and 
controversial discussion on the bill to this process where we are now 
poised to pass this legislation tomorrow morning. Hopefully, it will 
pass by a very strong vote, and we will get the bill into conference 
and get it back. I think the House will bring this up in a couple of 
weeks and then possibly even get this bill back to the Senate within 
the month. So we are well on our way.
  I want to thank all Members for their cooperation, for their 
willingness to offer amendments, and to come to the floor and debate 
it. Obviously, we have had a spirited debate, but one that has not just 
provided some heat but also hopefully provided a great deal of light as 
to the relative positions of the Senators on either side of this issue, 
and even the broader issue of abortion in general.

[[Page 5932]]


  Mr. REID. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. SANTORUM. Yes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic whip.
  Mr. REID. I have said this a couple of times during the past few 
weeks, and I want to say this again. The leader could have come and 
filed cloture on this legislation very quickly, but he has obviously 
made a decision the Senate works best when people are allowed to offer 
amendments and speak their piece. There is no better example of that 
than this controversial legislation. All the amendments offered were on 
our side, and I think it speaks well of the direction that the Senate 
is going. We still have some obstacles we have to get over, but I again 
state that the pattern set by the majority leader in allowing debate to 
take place is good for this body, and I think the debate has been 
healthy. It has been very adversarial. That is what the Senate is 
supposed to be. There has been very heated debate on this issue. I 
think the Senate is better for this.
  This issue has been aired. There were procedural efforts made to take 
it back to committee, and there was a lot of good debate. Again, I 
direct this to the majority leader--and I speak on behalf of Senator 
Daschle and the rest of the minority--we appreciate allowing us to act 
as the Senate should act.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. SANTORUM. I do not want to go without praising my own majority 
leader also. He obviously set the tone for this debate not only by 
structuring the way by which this debate proceeded, but very 
importantly in coming to the floor and laying out, in very strong 
arguments, the case against this procedure from a perspective that is 
unique in the Senate, which is the perspective of a physician.
  I am going to have a few more things to say in a few minutes, but 
before I do that, I thank my incredible staff for helping me through 
this process, Heather MacLean and Wayne Palmer. Heather and Wayne were 
terrific in preparing for this debate. There was an obvious range on a 
wide variety of things, things, frankly, we did not even anticipate. 
They did an outstanding job in preparation, and an outstanding job in 
getting information to make me look good, which, I am sure many 
Senators will confirm, is not the easiest thing in the world to do.
  I thank them both very much for their excellent assistance. I am not 
surprised, by any stretch of the imagination, regarding their 
incredible work, but I am very grateful.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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