[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Page 948]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 FAIRNESS IN ASBESTOS INJURY RESOLUTION ACT OF 2005--MOTION TO PROCEED

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I now move to proceed to Calendar No. 131, 
S. 852, the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act.
  Further, I ask unanimous consent that the motion be set aside until 3 
p.m. today. Before the Chair rules, we expect Chairman Specter to begin 
the debate at 3, and we welcome additional speakers to come down this 
afternoon on the topic of asbestos reform.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I will have more to say on the significance 
of this bill in a few minutes. We will be filing the necessary cloture 
motion prior to adjourning today. Under the order from last week, that 
vote will occur at 6 p.m. tomorrow night. I will be leading a 
bipartisan Senate delegation attending the funeral of Coretta Scott 
King tomorrow, and we delayed that vote to accommodate the travel of 
those Senators. So that vote will be at 6 o'clock tomorrow night.
  For the remainder of the week, we expect to be on the asbestos bill 
and to make progress on consideration of that important piece of 
legislation by considering relevant amendments. Senators can expect 
votes each day as we debate and vote on those amendments.
  We also may have to revisit the Tax Increase Prevention Act, the Tax 
Relief Act, this week once again when we receive the House message on 
the bill. We passed that bill last week by a vote of 66 to 31. We 
discussed a whole range of amendments and voted on the amendments at 
the end of last week. It is time to get that bill to conference. I hope 
that we can work together to come to an agreement and arrangement to 
get that bill to conference without much of a delay. I will be talking 
to the Democratic leader as we determine how to expedite that process.
  I encourage Members to come to the floor this afternoon to discuss 
the asbestos litigation that we will begin formally on Tuesday, if 
allowed by the motion to proceed. For this piece of legislation, it is 
now or never. I said months ago we would be considering the asbestos 
litigation or asbestos reform early on, and that time has now come.

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