[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Page 23237]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                PROGRAM

  Mr. FRIST. Tomorrow, the Senate will resume consideration of the FSC/
ETI JOBS conference report. Under the previous order, at 12 we will 
proceed to a vote on adoption of that conference report. That will be a 
rollcall vote. Following that vote, the order provides for us to 
dispose of the Military Construction appropriations bill and the 
Homeland Security appropriations bill and a number of other 
housekeeping measures.
  As we indicated earlier, those will be completed without rollcall 
votes. Therefore, for scheduling purposes we will have one rollcall 
vote at 12, and that should conclude our voting. Again, I thank Members 
for their participation over this weekend.
  We had a very full day yesterday and a very, very full day today. I 
do appreciate the cooperation of everyone. It was a real inconvenience 
to people's schedules, but it has allowed us to reach conclusion at a 
much earlier time than we would otherwise.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada.
  Mr. REID. I mentioned off the microphones today to the two leaders, 
an hour or so ago, we are here on a Sunday and our dear friend, the 
senior Senator from West Virginia, Mr. Byrd, talked about the Sabbath 
and we were all so impressed with his remarks, but I say that if there 
ever were a time legislatively when the ox was in the mire, it was this 
weekend. But for our being here as a result of the work of the two 
leaders, Senator Frist and Senator Daschle, we would not have completed 
the people's business.
  We basically have done that tonight. Tomorrow we come in for some 
formalities: the FSC bill; cloture was invoked today and it will pass 
tomorrow and that is our only recorded vote. So I want the Record to 
reflect that Senators Daschle and Frist are the two leaders for a good 
reason. It is very hard to get where we are, and we all have apologized 
on a number of occasions for having to come in on Sunday. It is a rare 
occasion we do that. But I repeat, the ox was in the mire. We had to do 
that. The ox is out of the mire, and whether we do that on Sunday or 
Monday, I believe that is the appropriate thing to do.
  I know the Chair will join with me in saying, these people here are 
glassy-eyed. They have worked so long and so hard. The Capitol Police, 
the official reporters, the enrolling clerks, the Parliamentarians, 
everyone here has worked so hard. Our staff has worked tireless hours. 
We are the ones who are here and people see us, but they see mere 
shells of what we would be but for their great work. They protect us. 
They cover for us. The mistakes we make, they find them and come back 
and correct legislation. So I want everyone who is here to know how 
much we appreciate what they do. They get so little attention. It is 
all of us who get the attention and we are the ones who depend on them 
so much. I know the majority leader joins me in this.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. FRIST. I do again want to emphasize what the distinguished 
assistant minority leader has said. What the American people see and 
what our colleagues see on the floor is a tiny portion of what is going 
on, whether it is the pages, law enforcement, Capitol Police, and the 
hundreds of staff people who are here to make this operation work, from 
early this morning until late tonight, and they will actually be here 
well after we close down. So we do want to express our appreciation, 
especially on this weekend when it is not totally unprecedented, but it 
is very unusual.

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