[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Page 5961]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, the Senate will begin this afternoon with a 
period for morning business to allow Senators to make statements and 
introduce legislation. At 3 p.m. today, Chairman Cochran will be here 
to begin consideration of the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act 
for defense, the global war on terror, and tsunami relief. I expect 
opening statements on that bill during the afternoon. I also hope if 
Senators have amendments, they will begin to offer those amendments 
during today's session. At the very least, Senators should notify the 
cloakrooms of their desire to offer specific amendments so that the 
chairman and ranking member may begin the process of scheduling their 
considerations.
  I remind all Senators we have a vote scheduled this afternoon at 5:30 
on the confirmation of a U.S. district judge. That is the nomination of 
Paul Crotty to the Southern District of New York. In addition to that 
vote, we have a resolution relating to airbus that we will likely 
schedule for a rollcall vote. Therefore, Senators can expect at least 
two votes today. I add that if amendments are offered to the 
appropriations bill today, I will also be talking to the managers of 
the bill and the Democratic leader about scheduling votes on those as 
well.
  This important bill provides necessary funds for the ongoing 
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as additional funding for 
humanitarian assistance related to the tsunami. I hope the Senate will 
act effectively and efficiently on this appropriations bill and use the 
underlying legislation as focus of the intent of this bill and not as 
target practice for other amendments. There has been a lot of 
discussion over the issue of immigration. I believe the Senate will 
need to address immigration reform. However, this is not the place for 
comprehensive immigration reform. We need to be thoughtful and 
deliberate on that issue and not allow funding for our troops to become 
ensnarled in that national debate. The Democratic leader and I have 
begun discussions on the aspect of how we might address immigration. I 
do urge our colleagues to show restraint on this issue and on other 
issues that will clearly slow down this emergency spending bill.
  Having said that, we will have a very busy week on the bill. We can 
expect full sessions and well into some evenings as we consider this 
legislation. I do thank my colleagues.

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