[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Pages 23494-23495]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, today we will immediately resume 
consideration of the Labor-HHS appropriations bill, following 
statements by myself and the Democratic leader. Amendments may be 
offered during today's session, and we hope Senators will come to the 
floor and offer their amendments. If Senators are unable to come to the 
floor, we ask that they notify the two managers or their respective 
cloakrooms of their intention to offer amendments and the specific 
subject matter. I know the distinguished chairman will have more to say 
on this. He has made it clear that at the appropriate time, he will go 
to third reading in order to complete this bill. His statement in 
saying that and my statement in restating that is that we will finish 
this bill this week. We absolutely must have people come to the floor 
today as soon as possible, instead of doing what has become almost a 
custom here, wait a few days before making the managers aware of their 
amendments.
  It means that we will be voting, of course, through this week. We 
will have votes later tonight which I will speak to. As I have said 
before, working with the Democratic leader, it is very important that 
we work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. We have asked 
all of our colleagues, between now and Thanksgiving, to give us every 
Monday and every Friday instead, as has become the custom, of working 
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday on the floor and not Monday and Friday. We 
will have to ask everybody's cooperation and participation. The 
chairman will have more to say about that momentarily. We will have one 
vote, probably two votes, possibly three votes, but we will have one or 
more votes today beginning at 5:30. We hope we can have a vote on the 
Labor-HHS bill, if an amendment is offered and debated this afternoon. 
In addition, we have three district judges on the Executive Calendar, 
and those may require rollcall votes. Therefore, Senators can expect to 
begin voting at 5:30 today.
  I remind Senators, we will have a very busy week with this particular 
bill. Senators are asked to report on time when we call a vote. Again, 
the tendency has been to go beyond 15 minutes and, indeed, beyond 20 
minutes. Because we have so much to do in such a limited amount of time 
over the next 4 weeks, we will have to tighten that up and ask people 
to be more responsive than in the past.
  Mr. REID. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. FRIST. I am happy to yield.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have kept quiet the last 8 or 9 months on 
this issue, but I am glad to hear somebody raising the issue of how 
long these votes take. It is so discourteous, so impolite of Senators 
to have us wait around here for 35, 40 minutes on a vote. It is not 
right. People have other things to do than wait for somebody who is 
finishing a phone call or some appointment. The only way to do this is 
to cut off the vote, have people miss votes. If I am late, cut off the 
vote. Senators come in here ``hang tooth,'' sad that they missed a 
vote, after we keep the vote going for 35 or 40 minutes. I served in 
the House of Representatives. We had 15 minutes to vote in the House. 
It is over with. There are 435 Members over there. They all manage to 
get over and vote on time. I know we have a rollcall, but it is simply 
unfair to this institution to waste hours every week. My Democratic 
Senators, if they are late and there is equal pain around here and you 
cut off your Republicans, I will cut off my Democrats, and I will 
handle them. I want everyone within the sound of my voice, all the 
staffs, to hear that it is my understanding, based upon the urging of 
Senator Specter, that we are going to cut these votes off. I hope that 
is the case. It is a pet peeve I have around here. Where else in the 
world would you be so discourteous as to have people standing around 
waiting for you to do something that none of us care about? I don't 
know what they are doing over there. We hear the excuses, the plane has 
just landed, they are on their way. They have had too many tardy slips. 
Let's not accept that anymore. I think if we did it once, the second 
time it would be a lot easier. And the third time it would never 
happen. I hope the distinguished Republican leader will force our 
Senators to recognize that they have the obligation of voting on time. 
It is the main reason we are here. If they miss a vote, they miss a 
vote.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, you have heard it now from the two leaders 
and the chairman and the ranking member. Let's plow ahead, again being 
respectful of the body itself and the use of time, and keep the bill 
moving forward and America moving forward.

[[Page 23495]]



                          ____________________