[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 19584-19585]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                PROGRAM

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, 
tomorrow the Senate will resume consideration of the intelligence 
reform bill. We had

[[Page 19585]]

very good debate on the bill today, disposing of two very important 
amendments. We also had good debate on the pending Specter intelligence 
consolidation amendment today as well. We would like to get a 
reasonable time agreement for that amendment and vote early tomorrow 
morning. Tomorrow we will lock in an amendment list to this bill. This 
is the first step in the process for the Senate to show the commitment 
to finish this bill.
  Further, we need to reach an agreement to have amendments filed at 
the desk so that all Members will be able to see legislative text. We 
will do this at some point, I am quite sure, late tomorrow afternoon. I 
have talked about the scheduling changes that confront the Senate this 
week. In order to complete this important bill, we will need Senators 
to make themselves available to offer their amendments and to agree to 
reasonable debate times.
  I will continue consulting with the Democratic leader as to the 
voting schedule for the remainder of the week and next week. It is 
clear that this cannot be business as usual. It is a very important 
bill before the Senate. We have a number of issues in terms of 
appropriations, continuing resolutions, extensions on other bills that 
have to be dealt with over the coming days. I continue to ask all our 
Members to be prepared to adapt their schedules for this extraordinary 
piece of legislation that is in the Senate as well as these other 
pieces of legislation coming before the Senate.
  I had the opportunity over the course of today to talk to the 
Democratic leadership as well as members of our caucus and other 
Members of the Senate, and it is clear that we have a lot of work to do 
in a short period of time. Thus, even though we will do our very best 
to work around individual Members' schedules, we will have to change 
the pace of the last several weeks or several months, meaning the 
potential for voting on Friday, voting for sure on Monday. Suggestions 
have even come forward that in order to meet all of our objectives on 
all these bills before our departure on October 8 we should even 
consider working through this Saturday and Sunday.
  I mention all of those, and no decisions have been made except that 
the fact that so many people are coming forward to say we have a lot to 
do means we will have to vote through this week every day starting 
right at 9:30. We will not have morning business tomorrow. We will go 
straight into the bill and continue through Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 
and, clearly, have a full working day on Monday as well.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada.
  Mr. REID. I say through the Chair, Senator Daschle has met with 
Senator Frist on more than one occasion today. These are extraordinary 
times. Not only do we have a Presidential election, but these are 
extraordinary times because of the threat facing our country.
  This legislation, the two leaders believe, should be expedited. It 
deals with that very threat. Everyone should listen very closely to 
what the majority leader said. That is, we have to take a look at 
Friday, weekend, Monday. This is for real. We are running out of time. 
The two leaders agree that we have to work very hard to complete the 
agenda we have ahead of us, which is a lot in a very short period of 
time.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, in closing, I thank Chairman Warner for 
assisting in getting the Under Secretary of the Navy confirmed today--
tonight. The Under Secretary reported out on May 12, 2004. I thank our 
distinguished colleague for working so hard and assisting in getting 
this accomplished tonight.

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