[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Pages 21971-21972]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                PROGRAM

  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, yesterday the Senate began consideration 
of the DOD appropriations bill, the Defense appropriations bill. Today 
we had hoped to lock in an amendment filing deadline for Monday 
afternoon, but the other side has objected to that proposal. I know the 
majority leader and the chairman of the committee are disappointed we 
are unable to lock in a deadline. Next week is a very compressed work 
week due to the observance of Rosh Hashanah. It is very important we 
make progress on the Defense appropriations bill, given that short 
schedule. We also hoped to clear

[[Page 21972]]

a number of nominations, including an Assistant Secretary for Homeland 
Security, several Assistant Secretaries at the Department of Housing 
and Urban Development, and the Assistant Secretary for Terrorist 
Financing. These are very important positions that we expected to 
confirm today. But, again, there has been an objection on the other 
side.
  As the leader has previously announced, there will be no votes Monday 
or Tuesday in observance of the Jewish holiday, but we will be in 
session and Senators are encouraged to offer their amendments during 
that time. We will have stacked votes later in the day on Wednesday.

                          ____________________