[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Page 23574]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                PROGRAM

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, tomorrow the Senate will begin 
consideration of the debt limit extension bill. Under the order, there 
will be up to 6 hours of debate on the measure prior to the vote. It is 
my expectation that we will use a portion of that debate tomorrow and 
the remainder of the debate on Thursday. A number of our colleagues 
will be attending the opening of the Clinton Presidential Library and, 
therefore, I expect that vote to occur when that delegation returns.
  As I mentioned this morning, we have a lot of work to do prior to 
adjournment of this Congress. In addition to the debt limit bill, the 
Senate must also complete action on the remaining fiscal year 2005 
spending bills, the intelligence reform conference report, if 
available, a number of nominations, and any other conference reports 
that may become available.
  It is our intention to finish our work on these items this week. 
Therefore, Senators should make themselves available for busy days over 
the remainder of the week.
  Mr. President, I will be happy to turn to the Democratic leader. If 
not, I will be putting us into a quorum call for a period of time.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I ask if the majority leader can give us 
any understanding as to progress that may have been made today on the 
appropriations and the omnibus bill. It is my understanding it is 
unlikely the bill will come up before Friday, but might he share with 
us what he knows about the progress the negotiators made today?
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, in response to the Democratic leader, 
tremendous progress has been made over the course of the weekend, 
yesterday, and then over the course of today. We have a number of bills 
that are involved, as everyone knows, and it is a monumental task that 
both the staff and the Senators have been asked to do. But huge 
progress is being made.
  We will, for the convenience of Senators, not be voting on Thursday 
during the day. We will have a vote likely Thursday night. It would be 
an objective to finish the omnibus bill on Friday. I hesitate to say 
that because a number of Senators have come up and said exactly what is 
in that omnibus bill. The staff is working with the Senators on the 
various conferences and the appropriators, and it is very important 
people be able to see it and have the opportunity to comment on it and 
debate what is in that bill.
  Tremendous progress is being made which led me to say that if we stay 
focused, we should be able to finish our business this week on Friday 
or Saturday, although, again, we have the intelligence bills to 
consider.
  Mr. DASCHLE. I thank the majority leader. I only reiterate what I 
said this morning. Obviously, our ability to expedite consideration of 
the omnibus bill, which is very critical, will be directly related to 
the degree to which extraneous matters are incorporated in the bill. I 
hope very earnestly that people who have an inclination to want to add 
extraneous issues can refrain from doing so in order to complete our 
work and to avoid what might be an extended delay.
  I know both sides are working with that in mind. I appreciate the 
effort made to bring this matter to a close. This is probably one of 
the most important remaining pieces of unfinished business. I 
appreciate very much the leader's report tonight.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I also want to reemphasize what the 
Democratic leader just said. A number of people are coming forward with 
legislation in the hopes there is some way it can be attached to the 
omnibus bill because people realize it is an important bill, and it is 
a bill we have worked on in a bipartisan way to bring to closure, which 
we will. I encourage our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to 
understand that we are not going to be including extraneous matter on 
this bill. That is under mutual agreement with the Democratic 
leadership and the Republican leadership.

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