[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Page 17185]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                UNANIMOUS AGREEMENT--EXECUTIVE CALENDAR

  Mr. FRIST. As in executive session, I ask unanimous consent that 
during the upcoming adjournment of the Senate, all nominations remain 
status quo with the exception of Deborah P. Majoras to be a Federal 
Trade Commissioner, (PN 1613) and Jon D. Leibowitz, (PN 1496).
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. FRIST. I thank everyone for their cooperation in getting these 
agreements for the judges, as well as confirming some important timely 
nominations, such as the Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security, Mr. 
Stone. There are a number of other nominations that remain on the 
calendar, including a number of diplomatic positions which include the 
Ambassador to Qatar, the Ambassador to Estonia, several representatives 
to the United Nations. I was prepared to ask consent for these, 
although I will withhold that request, but I would ask my colleagues on 
the other side to look at these nominations and see if there is a way 
to allow us to proceed to these ambassadorships. I will not belabor the 
point this evening, but there are so many additional nominations we 
have that are pending and that we should have acted upon. I hope they 
will give those every consideration.
  Today, more have been reported out, several Commerce Department 
nominations, Albert Frink, Brett Palmer, Benjamin Wu. These will be 
added to the growing list of nominations now available. These people 
deserve action from the Senate.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I briefly say it should be noted in the 
Executive Calendar we just approved there is not a single member of the 
minority in this. We have tried to show our good faith. We have 
received the assurance of the majority leader and others in the 
administration that we will work to release some of the people we want 
through, people nominated by Senator Daschle. We are going to work to 
try to do a good job as soon as we get back.
  I want the record also to reflect that Admiral Stone was approved 
tonight, with the Transportation Security Agency. That simply would not 
have happened but for the good work of Senator Ensign who worked very 
hard on that, working to get this man's name cleared. But for him, that 
would not have been done tonight.

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