[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Page 5946]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     SCHEDULE FOR APRIL FOOLS' DAY

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this morning there will be a period of 
morning business for up to 60 minutes.
  I want to have the attention, just very briefly, of the assistant 
Democratic leader.
  We are going to have a period for morning business for 60 minutes. 
Under the previous unanimous consent agreement, we will finish the 
welfare reauthorization bill and allow that bill to go to conference in 
order to reach an accord with the House. That bill will be followed by 
the final passage of the FSC/ETI legislation. Upon completion of the 
FSC/ETI bill, we will proceed to the nominations and agreement to the 
22 judicial nominations that are available on the calendar. Votes will 
occur on the confirmation of those judges.
  I thank all Members, especially the assistant Democrat leader, and 
other Members on their side of the aisle, for their cooperation in 
meeting these consent agreements.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, is this the unanimous consent agreement you 
are going to offer?
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this is my opening statement for April 1, 
and I will withdraw any request for those consent agreements.
  It is an April 1 wish. It is what we should be doing. But we will 
proceed in the normal order.
  Mr. REID. If the Senator will yield for a brief comment, every 
Thursday morning Senator Ensign and I hold a breakfast for Nevada 
constituents. Today we had a very large crowd. Probably there were 60 
people there, plus our staffs. I opened it by calling on a doctor who 
just returned from the USS Boxer, from sea, introduced our Cherry 
Blossom Princess, and then I asked this gentleman to come up. I said: 
John, you remember this thing we talked about--and gave him this 
certificate.
  The man's name was a mixture between a Hungarian and a Hawaiian 
name--real long. And John stumbled through that reading, but what a 
hero he was. You can tell John was so flustered. When he stopped for a 
second I said, ``April Fools'.''
  I have to say, it was probably the greatest April Fools' joke I have 
ever been involved in.
  Senator Daschle just came on the floor. He, Senator Frist, just 
offered what we would accomplish today. It was just an April Fools' 
joke, even though he meant it sincerely.
  Mr. FRIST. I did mean it sincerely, and it included all, I say to the 
Democratic leader. It included welfare, FSC/ ETI, the 22 judicial 
nominations. We would really be rolling if that were the case. 
Unfortunately, it is April 1.

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