[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Page 18896]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this morning we will begin with a period of 
morning business for 60 minutes. Following that time, we will resume 
consideration of S. 397, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms 
legislation. Senator Kohl has an amendment pending related to trigger 
locks, and there will be an hour of debate on that amendment prior to 
the vote. That vote should begin before noon, in the next 2\1/2\ hours. 
The managers will continue to work through the day to see what 
additional amendments are ready for votes. The cloture vote could be as 
early as 1 a.m. Friday morning. We haven't set the vote for that time. 
I mention that early hour only to highlight the fact that we have so 
much work to do.
  We have conference reports, the gun liability bill, nominations, all 
of which we need to accomplish before we leave for the recess. We have 
the Interior appropriations conference report that has the veterans 
health money in it that we have addressed before. We have the energy 
conference report, which I believe is very close; the highway 
conference report, which has not been filed yet but which will be 
hopefully later today. We have the Legislative appropriations 
conference report. Once we address the pending bill, we can hopefully 
expedite completion of all of the remaining measures prior to the 
August break. I will be working with the Democratic leader to schedule 
these important items over the next couple of days.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Will the leader be good enough to yield for a question?
  Mr. FRIST. I am happy to yield.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, several of us have amendments directly 
related to the underlying legislation. We understand the time goes to 1 
o'clock this evening. I have two amendments dealing with the ability of 
terrorists to purchase weapons. I know both Senators from New Jersey 
have amendments. We are more than willing to enter into short time 
agreements. We want to cooperate on the conference reports, but we 
understand the process and the procedure that is going on is that the 
majority is making a judgment decision about which amendments we are 
going to consider and which ones we are not.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, in response to our distinguished colleague 
from Massachusetts, there have been several filed amendments. I 
mentioned 1 o'clock today because then we will have the whole universe 
of filed amendments. We are going to proceed and have a rollcall vote 
on the trigger lock amendment before noon today, and then we need to 
look at each of the amendments. Including the amendments mentioned, 
Senator Levin has an amendment, Senator Lautenberg, and the Senator 
from Massachusetts has filed two amendments. We will be looking at 
those amendments over the course of the day.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I thank the majority leader.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The leader controls the time. Does 
the leader yield for a question?
  The Senator from Massachusetts.
  Mr. KENNEDY. The only point is that, as the leader just said, we are 
following a procedure where the leadership is going to look at the 
amendments and then make their judgment as to whether the Senate will 
get a chance to consider these issues. I must say, that is an unusual 
procedure to follow, when many of us are trying to cooperate with the 
leadership. We are more than glad to enter into short time agreements 
and then to let the Senate work its will.
  I thank the Chair.

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