[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 19]
[Senate]
[Pages 25819-25820]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. FRIST. Today we will be returning to the Defense authorization 
bill. I think this is our sixth day on the bill. We spent 5 or 6 days 
on it several months ago. Under the consent agreement from last 
Thursday, we will debate the final amendments to the Defense 
authorization bill today and then tomorrow morning we will have a 
series of votes on the remaining amendments, concluding with a vote on 
final passage of that bill. Those amendments include two amendments 
relating to our policies in Iraq and second-degree amendments to the 
Graham amendments on the status of detainees. We will start those votes 
at about 10:45 tomorrow morning, and therefore we will finish the 
Defense authorization bill prior to our normal recess that we take on 
Tuesdays for our respective policy lunches.
  I also want to remind my colleagues that at 4:30 today, we will begin 
an hour of debate on the Energy and Water appropriations conference 
report. This will be our sixth conference report. We have done Homeland 
Security, Interior, Agriculture, Legislative Branch, and then Foreign 
Operations. This will be No. 6 as we continue to bring these bills 
across the floor one by one.
  We will have a vote at about 5:30 today, after an hour of debate on 
Energy and Water appropriations. In addition to those two matters, we 
have a whole host of other important issues to address prior to 
adjourning for Thanksgiving.
  The most common question I get is on the schedule and what time we 
will be getting out for Thanksgiving and, of course, the holidays in 
December as well. In the short term, this week we may consider tax 
reconciliation under the statutory time limitation as provided by the 
Budget Act. The Budget Act provides for up to 20 hours of debate on 
that bill, and therefore we could have late nights during this week in 
order to finish that tax bill. We have five remaining appropriations 
conference reports, and we will consider them over the course of the 
week as they become available. We have Defense, Labor-HHS, MILCON, the 
Transportation-HUD bill, and DC appropriations.
  As I mentioned, we will finish the Energy and Water conference report 
today, and we are ready to lock in a short time agreement on the 
Commerce, Justice, and Science conference report, which is now at the 
desk.
  Following that one--today we will do six--we will have done seven of 
the appropriations conference reports. I expect the remainder to become 
available over the course of the week. As they become available, we 
will set aside time and have, hopefully, very tight time agreements and 
deal with them accordingly.
  In addition to the DOD authorization bill and the conference reports, 
we have other things to address this week. On the conference report on 
the PATRIOT Act, which is expected this week, there has been a lot of 
work done over the course of the last 2 weeks and over the course of 
the weekend. We will complete that prior to our Thanksgiving time away 
as well.
  Another item that we have worked on a lot over the last 5 or 6 weeks 
that will be back on the floor is pension legislation. We are very 
close to an agreement on that. We will be able to do that before 
Thanksgiving, as well, if we continue to make the progress that we have 
made over the last 2 weeks. We are hoping to reach a unanimous consent 
agreement that would allow the Senate to proceed on that pensions bill 
in a reasonable period of time.
  I keep stressing reasonable period of time, keeping time requirements 
down, because in order to accomplish all of this, it is going to take a 
lot of organization, efficiency, understanding, and tolerance on the 
part of all of our colleagues as we go through.
  Finally, I mention our continued efforts on the Executive Calendar, 
as well as a number of other legislative items that will be in wrapup. 
We will consider those nominations and clear legislation each day this 
week as they become available, a lot of work over a very short period 
of time.
  That gets us through this week. Then people ask, what about next 
week? Until we see the pacing over the next several days, it is going 
to be impossible for me to really know exactly when we are going to be 
out. But I remain hopeful that we can work through the issues that I 
just mentioned and finish this week.
  The next question: When does this week end? Does it end Friday 
afternoon, Saturday, or Sunday? I cannot answer that yet until we get a 
little bit further.
  There is a chance we could do all of that by late Friday afternoon. 
However, if it becomes necessary to stay longer, either into the 
weekend on Saturday or into next week, then we will certainly do just 
that. Senators are going to have to remain flexible with their 
schedules beyond Friday. I do want to at least throw out that a weekend 
schedule would be possible because

[[Page 25820]]

I know a lot of people have things scheduled. So please keep your 
calendars flexible.
  In December, I can also say the following just for planning purposes, 
and that is that we will not be in for votes in December before Monday, 
December 12. I will not know until later this week, Saturday night or 
maybe Monday night of next week exactly what the plans will be for the 
week beginning December 12. So again I ask our colleagues to keep their 
schedule flexible in case we have no choice but to return sometime 
during that week.
  What I have just said is going to stir the pot with lots of questions 
coming forward, but that is about as much as I know right now. I will 
share the information on schedule with colleagues as soon as it becomes 
apparent to me based on how much work we get done today, tomorrow, the 
next day, and over the course of this week.
  On another issue, but related to the bill that we are returning to 
shortly, we are resuming consideration of the National Defense 
Authorization Act of 2006, day No. 6, and we will complete that bill 
tomorrow. I do want to thank Senator Warner for his steady leadership. 
Under the guidance of our chairman, we have been able to proceed in a 
very orderly and smooth manner on a very important bill.
  Last month, I sent a request to the minority leader asking for his 
agreement to keep amendments limited to issues that are important to 
our military personnel and armed services and that are within the 
jurisdiction of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Fortunately, we 
were able to reach agreement and do just that. I do want to thank our 
colleagues for their patience and cooperation in allowing us to move 
forward on a bill that is central to America's national security.

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