[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 20]
[Senate]
[Page 27897]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, today we are returning to session in order 
to conclude our work for the first session of the 109th Congress. I 
want to welcome everybody back after a couple of weeks where people 
have been with constituents and people have been working very hard to 
bring to conclusion many of the issues that were left unfinished a 
couple of weeks ago. Real progress has been made over the course of the 
last 2 weeks. Over the course of this past weekend, a lot of work has 
been done. As I mentioned prior to Thanksgiving, we will be working 
today and tomorrow on a number of issues. However, the first rollcall 
vote will be on Wednesday morning.
  Many of our colleagues have asked about the schedule for this week, 
this weekend, as well as next week. As things unfold and as my 
discussions with the Democratic leader continue, we will be forthcoming 
to let people know exactly what we expect. We would like to finish up 
our work as quickly as possible prior to the Christmas holiday. 
However, everyone does need to be prepared to stay as long as necessary 
to finish the work that is before us.
  Today, we expect to reach an agreement on several motions to instruct 
the conferees on the deficit reduction bill that is at the desk. We 
would have those motions debated tomorrow, on Tuesday, and on 
Wednesday, with votes to occur or begin to occur Wednesday morning.
  We also expect to debate the Bahrain Free Trade Agreement during 
tomorrow's session under a short time agreement.
  The PATRIOT Act conference report will arrive in the Senate sometime 
this week, and we will proceed to that conference report when it is 
available.
  Chairman Warner has completed work on the Defense authorization 
conference report, and that may also be around here midweek.
  We also need to complete the appropriations process by taking up and 
taking action on the final 2 conference reports. This week we need to 
act on the Labor-HHS appropriations as well as the Defense 
Appropriations Committee reports.
  I mentioned reconciliation. A lot of work has been done over the 
course of the last several weeks among the various committees. I want 
to continue to encourage all chairmen to aggressively work with their 
House counterparts on this important reconciliation bill. Clearly, a 
lot of work remains, but with the cooperation and patience of all 
Members, I believe we can get our work done and adjourn in a timely 
way. It is going to be up to each and every one of us to decide when we 
will be able to finish our business and adjourn this session. Senators 
will need to keep their schedules flexible over the course of this week 
and I believe we can finish everything this week. If not, we would have 
to continue into next week--or this week and this weekend, and if not, 
we would have to continue into the early part of next week, but we 
should be able to complete everything this week. Again, everybody, 
please keep your schedules flexible.
  I do want to thank all Senators in advance for their help as we 
schedule these final days.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________