[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Page 7873]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this morning, following our leader time, we 
will have up to 2 hours of morning business. That time will be divided 
with the majority controlling the first 30 minutes, the minority 
controlling the next 60 minutes, and the last 30 minutes under the 
control of this side of the aisle. Following that time we will resume 
consideration of the highway bill. Yesterday, we began the amendment 
process on the highway legislation, and we will continue working 
through amendments today and over the course of this week. I do expect 
rollcall votes today on amendments, and we should have a full day of 
debate on the highway bill.
  I do want to take this opportunity to remind my colleagues that we in 
all likelihood will be considering conference reports this week, as 
they are made available. One of those will be the budget conference 
report, which will be debated for up to a 10-hour statutory limit. I 
hope when we do come to the budget we not find it necessary to use all 
that time, but Senators should stay on notice that we will complete 
that very important conference report before we leave for our recess.
  Finally, I should also mention there are a number of nominations--
actually two specific nominations--that will be completed before 
adjourning. We are working back and forth across the aisle to see how 
we can best complete those two nominations. We have three district 
judges as well that should be voted unanimously. The two nominations 
that I referred to--one is the Portman nomination, which came out of 
committee, to be U.S. Trade Representative, and the other is Stephen 
Johnson, to be Administrator of EPA. Again, we are working on bringing 
that to conclusion, but we need to complete both of those before we 
leave. Both of these are Cabinet rank officials, and we should not--
will not--adjourn until we have considered these important nominations 
as well.
  Mr. President, I have a brief statement on the bill.

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