[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 12065-12066]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        EXPRESSING APPRECIATION

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, as the Chair and distinguished majority 
leader know, I am sorry we have spent so much time on judges, but the 
fact is I wish to express my appreciation to Democratic Senators for 
being so cooperative. Since the agreement was made a week or two ago, 
my Senators have been so cooperative. Senator Leahy has had to change 
his whole schedule around this Monday to take care of the Griffith 
nomination. There has been an agreement made that we are not going to 
use all the time on Pryor.
  I also express my appreciation to Senators Levin and Stabenow for 
allowing us to move forward on the Michigan judges. In spite of the 
fact that there are some hurt feelings as a result of the way the 
Michigan Senators were treated, they have agreed to set those aside and 
move forward on these two individuals. From all I have been able to 
determine, the two Michigan judges coming before us are well qualified, 
and there will not be any rancorous debate about either one of them. 
But I just want the majority leader to know that we have moved forward 
on these matters as expeditiously as possible, in spite of the 
relatively difficult time we have had arriving at this point.
  I look forward next week to a vigorous debate on the Energy bill. It 
is great that we are going to be legislating here for a change. This is 
an extremely important piece of legislation. I am also indicating to 
all those within the sound of my voice how appreciative--I don't think 
the word ``proud'' is right but how appreciative--I am of the work of 
Senators Bingaman and Domenici to get the bill to this point.
  We haven't had such cooperation on this committee in many years. We 
have a bill now that was reported out by a heavy margin of the 
committee, and I think as a result of that we will have some vigorous 
debate. There are some things on this side we believe should be done 
differently, but that is what legislation is all about. Again, having 
spent

[[Page 12066]]

most of my life as a legislator, I look forward to the Senate returning 
to what it does best.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I think this 4-week period does demonstrate 
the Senate responding to the American people and what they expect, the 
fact that this week we are moving forward on judges, which people know 
has been very contentious over the last several weeks, months, and even 
the last couple years. We are making great progress working hand in 
hand on both sides of the aisle and delivering what the American people 
want and expect. As the Democratic leader said, we will be returning to 
an issue I know we care extremely about. We have not been able to make 
progress in several years. Because of the work of the two leaders, 
Senators Domenici and Bingaman, they have delivered an energy bill in a 
bipartisan way that will come to the Senate floor and be fully debated. 
We will be spending next week, week and a half, 2 weeks on the bill for 
debate, offering amendments, and we will start that process in the 
early days of next week.

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