[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 17418-17419]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    COMPLETING THE SENATE'S BUSINESS

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I join my colleague, the majority leader, 
in welcoming all of our colleagues back, and also our staff and a new 
class of pages who are starting today. We are pleased they could join 
us. We know they will be enjoying their experience, and we are 
delighted they could be here as we begin this important business.
  I had the opportunity to talk with Senator Frist briefly this 
morning. He and I come to the floor this morning with the realization 
that, with what limited time is left, we must do what our eloquent 
Chaplain has just prayed we would do; that is, we find the common 
ground required to deal with the array of legislative challenges that 
we face as a Senate body and as a country.
  It would be my hope we could do what the majority leader has 
suggested, which is to begin deliberations on the Homeland Security 
appropriations bill very early in the session, hopefully as early as 
tomorrow. I will be discussing this matter and other scheduling issues 
with our caucus and our leadership tomorrow morning, but I can say, 
even having not had the benefit of those discussions, there is a great 
deal of interest in working with our colleagues on the other side of 
the aisle to achieve completion of the Homeland Security bill, as we 
have called for now for a couple of months.
  We also have, of course, 11 other appropriations bills that have not 
yet reached completion. Most have not even been considered on the 
Senate floor. It would be my hope we could devote all of our energy, 
all of our attention, all of the effort at addressing that need. We are 
only 3 weeks away from the end of this fiscal year, and clearly a lot 
of work has to be done if we are going to be able to complete our work 
on time.
  So the appropriations bills, especially the Homeland Security 
appropriations bill, need our attention. I will say publicly what I 
have already said privately to the majority leader: that he can count 
on our cooperation and partnership as we address that bill in 
particular.
  There are also a number of bills in conference. The highway bill 
ought to be completed this month. The FSC bill, the foreign sales 
credit bill, the Energy bill, the Defense bill--all of those bills need 
attention, need completion. So we have a lot of work to do.
  It would certainly be my hope our Republican colleagues would send 
the right message not only to all of us on this side of the aisle but 
to the country about their determination to put those priorities first. 
We can always score cheap political points, but I hope we would resist 
that temptation on both sides of the aisle and get on with the work of 
the Senate and the country in a way that will accomplish this very 
extraordinarily long list of legislative challenges and needs that we 
face as we begin our session.
  I also note we will be taking up additional judicial nominations, I 
am sure. The three judges confirmed today will bring the total for this 
administration to 201, which is the fourth highest member of judges 
ever confirmed in a single term. I think it goes again to

[[Page 17419]]

the extraordinary cooperation the administration has received on 
nominations.

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