[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Page 22085]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this morning, following the 1-hour period 
of morning business, we will resume debate on the Defense 
appropriations bill. Yesterday afternoon, we locked in an agreement 
which requires all first-degree amendments to be filed at the desk no 
later than 10:30 this morning. Senators Stevens and Inouye will be here 
and be able to determine which amendments can be agreed to on both 
sides.
  Senators are expected to come to the Senate today and offer their 
amendments to the Defense bill. I hope Members will take advantage of 
today's session and not postpone and delay until later in the week. 
Although we will not be voting today, the Senate can debate those 
amendments, and stacked votes begin tomorrow evening. I expect we will 
have multiple votes tomorrow evening in relation to the amendments on 
the Defense bill.
  We will finish this bill prior to adjourning for next week's recess. 
We will be voting on Friday of this week. Again, we have not voted on 
very many Fridays over the last 8 months, but we will be voting on 
Friday this week.
  We are also trying to reach consent agreements for consideration of 
the pensions bill which the Democrat leader and I were just talking 
about, a very important bill, and we are in the final stages of 
preparation of that bill. Once that is available, we will do our best 
as leadership to bring that to the Senate in a timely fashion. We hope 
to have that agreement and are also working on potential agreement on 
the Defense authorization bill as well. Once agreements are in place, 
we will be ready to bring those to our colleagues.

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