[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 10766-10767]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          NOMINATIONS AND DOD

  Mr. REID. Before the distinguished majority leader leaves, I would 
like to say a couple of things. We worked hard. You and Senator Daschle 
were able to work your way through an agreement on judges. I agree with 
the majority leader, I think it is fair. We will have processed within 
the next few weeks, I think, 198 judges. I think that is the number we 
will have processed.
  I also say as far as the nominations for other posts that are on the 
calendar, we, of course, are waiting for you and Senator Daschle to 
work something out on those also. We need to move forward on some of 
the Democrats submitted by Senator Daschle to the President and which 
are either languishing down there or haven't moved for other reasons. 
We hope that can be done before we move too much further in this 
legislative session, when things get jammed up.
  I also say while the distinguished chairman of the committee is on 
the floor, and the majority leader, we believe we can work through 
these amendments on the Defense authorization bill. Between both 
Democrats and Republicans at this stage there are about 100 amendments, 
a fairly equal number on each side we have been given at this stage. A 
lot of these amendments, as always happens, are not going to be 
offered. A lot can be accepted by the two managers of the bill.
  I would say this. I think yesterday we could have made more progress 
than we did. We made an offer that, on the Graham amendment, we would 
like that put over until after the recess. That is what has happened, 
anyway.

[[Page 10767]]

  If that had been the case, Senator Cantwell and Senator Hollings 
would agree to a 2-hour time limit to dispose of those two amendments.
  We have a number of amendments. Senator Daschle wants to offer his 
TRICARE amendment, Senator Kennedy wants to offer an amendment that has 
already been seen by the majority, by the managers. It may take a 
little bit of time. There are some reporting requirements. But my point 
is we can move through this.
  I know there is tremendous pressure on the majority leader to move to 
class action. My personal feeling is it would be more of a class act to 
finish the Defense authorization bill first. I think even now we have 
some amendments the two managers are going to clear, 12 or 15 
amendments this morning.
  We will work here today to lay down amendments on our side and have 
the pending amendments, including the Graham amendment.
  We want to indicate that we are fully cooperative, and we want to 
move this bill. We understand the importance of it.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I know the chairman is here and will 
respond in terms of particulars of the underlying bill. We made good 
progress. It is an important bill and a bill which we will finish.
  My intentions are to in all likelihood move to the class action bill 
the week we return and address that. Then if we can come up with a 
reasonable way of finishing this bill--which I am confident we can--I 
think ultimately when people sit down and say what is important to have 
on this bill, we will be able to put together amendments on our side 
and the other side and pull those together and have an orderly way of 
dealing with those.
  I will say that in the big picture the last 2 weeks have been very 
positive weeks in terms of governing in very difficult times, many of 
which have been overseen by the chairman of this particular bill, 
Senator Warner. It is very tough oversight in terms of what is going on 
both in Iraq and indeed around the world in the war on terror. At the 
same time that has been conducted in a very professional way. This 
institution can be quite proud; we have done some very good things in 
terms of national security. Three days ago, we passed bioshield 
legislation. That is a national security issue, one we have worked on 
for 14 months. A few days ago, we passed the important education bill, 
the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, which affects 6.5 
million children with disabilities.
  If you look at the field on jobs and taxation, 2 weeks ago we passed 
a bill that will impact hundreds of thousands of manufacturing workers 
called the JOBS bill, a Euro tax that is placed on this country which 
we have in the Senate effectively eliminated once the House acts. And 2 
weeks ago, we passed an international tax relief bill to make sure 
broadband knowledge can proliferate in this country. All of that is 
part of governing which has taken place in 2 weeks of very difficult 
times. I have been very pleased over the last 2 weeks. It shows we can 
work together and govern--plus the judges on top of that. I think we 
will see that on this bill and we will see it on the class action bill. 
I am very optimistic about where we are going.
  I am also pleased about what we have done in the last couple of 
weeks.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________