[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 15411-15412]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      CHILD CUSTODY PROTECTION ACT

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the 
Senate will proceed to the consideration of S. 403, which the clerk 
will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (S. 403) to amend title 18, United States Code, to 
     prohibit taking minors across State lines in circumvention of 
     laws requiring the involvement of parents in abortion 
     decisions.


                   Recognition of the Majority Leader

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader is recognized.


                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, in a few minutes, we will begin 
consideration of S. 403, the Child Custody Protection Act. Over the 
last 2 days, we have been working on an agreement which would allow us 
to conclude that bill on Tuesday. I hope we will be able to work out 
the final details of that agreement early today, and at that point in 
time I will announce the schedule for the child custody protection bill 
for next week.
  We had a remarkable day yesterday, finishing last night the debate 
and vote on the voting rights reauthorization bill, four judges, the 
child predator legislation, and therefore I announced no rollcall votes 
for today. I will be updating Members as to Monday and Tuesday's 
schedules shortly, after we work out a unanimous-consent agreement on 
several matters for early next week.


                         Senate Accomplishments

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, in walking over here just a few moments 
ago, I ran into my counterpart from the Australian Senate, and we were 
commenting--or he was commenting--he said: You had a productive day 
yesterday. And I said: Indeed, we had a very productive day, not only 
yesterday but over the course of this week.
  On Monday and Tuesday, we had a very important debate, a powerful 
debate on stem cell research, a debate which is uncomfortable to a lot 
of people because it addresses so strongly that nexus between ethics 
and morality and religion and faith with science, advancing science, 
which is moving at breathtaking speed, thank goodness. As a scientist, 
I see great hope in those dreams which one day can become realities for 
cures and for treatments that come from the field of science. The 
issues are tough, though, but very important for us to have in this 
body, representing the 280 million people around the country, because 
science will continue to advance and we do have the opportunities to 
understand the molecular and cellular basis of disease in a way that 
will improve the lives of everybody listening to me right now. So it is 
a very important debate.
  We will increasingly have those sorts of issues come before this 
body. It used to be that we would hit these tough ethical issues in 
science about once every 10 years, and it has gotten down to about once 
every 5 years, and I predict--again, this is good news because science 
is developing so quickly, medical science--that we will be debating 
those issues about once every year. So this body needs to get used to 
it, get accustomed to it.
  We did pass the Fetus Farming Prohibition Act overwhelmingly. The 
President has already signed that bill into law.
  We passed the Stem Cell Therapies Enhancement Act this week, which 
supports alternative--or alternate--ways of developing these very 
powerful embryonic stem cell-like cells, what we call pluripotential 
cells, to support the type of research that can derive those 
pluripotential cells, short of having to dismember an embryo--exciting 
research. The House has not yet acted on that particular bill. I hope 
they do so in the near future so that the President can sign it into 
law, so that we can further support our research dollars in what to me 
is very exciting research that, in many ways, if successful--and I 
believe it will be--will some day eliminate the more contentious debate 
of having to derive embryonic stem cells from blastocysts themselves.
  We also passed the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, a bill I 
supported. It was not unanimously supported in this body, but there was 
overwhelming support in this body. I feel strongly that this particular 
bill, which supports embryonic stem cell research for blastocysts that 
are going to be discarded with 100 percent certainty, clearly falls 
within certain moral and ethical guidelines, and that bill passed I 
think by 63 votes in the Senate.
  On Tuesday evening, we shifted a bit and expressed our support for 
Israel by passing S. Res. 534 by unanimous consent, expressing strong 
support in this body for Israel. Hezbollah and Hamas are terrorist 
organizations, confirmed enemies of the United States, and it is 
important that they and their state sponsors realize we will stand with 
Israel and hold them accountable for their actions. This body spoke 
loudly, boldly, clearly on Tuesday evening.
  Later Tuesday evening and on Wednesday, we addressed the Water 
Resources Development Act under the superb leadership of Chairman Jim 
Inhofe and Senator Kit Bond and others in the body. But I told Chairman 
Inhofe again and again that this bill, which I strongly support, which 
engages and further supports conservation and development of water and 
water-related resources, which

[[Page 15412]]

strengthens our Nation's waterways and the infrastructure of our 
waterways, is going to be a tough bill. There are going to be too many 
amendments; it is going to take a long time on the floor. But by 
working very hard in a bipartisan fashion, we limited the number of 
amendments to the substantive ones and brought it to the floor in a 
very reasonable, very efficient period of time, so we were able to 
address that important issue.
  Then, as I mentioned earlier, yesterday we reauthorized the expiring 
provisions of the Voting Rights Act. As we all talked about, we have 
come a long way in 41 years since it was first enacted. We put aside 
whatever partisan differences there might be to ensure that 
discrimination at the voting booth remains a relic of the past, to 
ensure that no American citizen and no election law of any State could 
deny access to the ballot box because of race or ethnicity or language 
minority status. We have ensured that progress continues, that we are 
protecting the civil liberties of each and every American.
  Protecting the vulnerable--that is what the Voting Rights Act did 41 
years ago, and that is what the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety 
Act will soon do. Last night, we passed that Adam Walsh bill as well. 
This bill arguably is the most comprehensive child crime and protection 
legislation in recent history.
  The Adam Walsh bill establishes a national sex offender registry 
which is publicly available and which is searchable by ZIP Code. 
Parents shouldn't have to live in fear that a neighbor somewhere down 
the street is waiting for an opportunity to victimize their children. 
Now parents are going to have those tools they need to protect their 
children from harm.
  Last night, late last night at about 11 o'clock, I received a phone 
call from two individuals who have worked with Child Help, who started 
this organization called Child Help, and their call was to congratulate 
this body for addressing a specific issue that was also in the Adam 
Walsh bill, and that is the creation of a national child abuse 
registry. The bill also toughens the penalties for crimes against 
children, and it cracks down on the growing crisis of Internet 
predators and child pornography--huge progress in passing this 
particular bill. It will go to the House of Representatives in the 
early part of next week, and I am very hopeful the President will be 
able to sign that bill by July 27, which is the very tragic anniversary 
of the death of Adam Walsh. But out of that tragedy, if the President 
signs the bill on that day, there is great hope and a great willingness 
to address and confront an issue we know is destroying people's lives, 
with effective tools to combat the tragedies that occur every day in 
this country in a direct way.
  Judicial nominations last night: We confirmed four exceptionally 
qualified nominees to the Federal bench: Neal Gorsuch, Bobby E. 
Shephard, Daniel Porter Jordan III, and Gustavo Antonia Gelpi. Next 
week, we are going to continue our constitutional duty of advice and 
consent in nominations and take up Jerome Holmes for the Tenth Circuit.
  Today as we open, we are beginning debate on legislation that 
protects vulnerable young women from exploitation. It is the Child 
Custody Protection Act. This bill prohibits taking a minor across State 
lines, from State to State, for an abortion in circumvention of a 
particular State law, and it does so by requiring parental notification 
for that child's abortion.
  Right now, the victims of such exploitation have absolutely no means 
of restitution within our legal system. It is time to fix that. Thus, 
we are taking that bill to the floor to do just that. We will have that 
debate over the course of the morning--we won't be able to complete 
that debate today--and we will have some understanding here shortly in 
terms of how that debate will be conducted in the early part of next 
week.
  Next week is going to be a busy week. There will be a lot going on 
over the course of the week and many challenges in the weeks ahead. We 
have to finish the Child Custody Protection Act next week, and we have 
to confirm the nomination of Jerome Holmes.
  Last night, language was finalized on another very important issue; 
that is, energy. I say energy is important because it has national 
security implications, and it affects each individual in this body and 
their families and families all across America because it will impact 
over the long term the price of gas, the price of natural gas, and the 
price of energy in this country. The issue is deep sea energy 
exploration in a region called Area 181 in the Gulf of Mexico.
  Americans are feeling the pain at the pump. They are feeling it each 
and every day. And they expect us to act. It is interesting that in 
that area of 181 and just south of that in an area called 182 in the 
Gulf of Mexico, there is estimated to be over 1.2 billion barrels of 
oil--1.2 billion barrels of oil--that would be subjected potentially to 
exploration; 5.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in that area. That 
is how important it is to obtain that supply. We all know that pricing 
is a product of supply and demand and that new influx of homegrown, 
domestic supply will have an impact.
  Before the August recess, we need to take up the Department of 
Defense appropriations. We need to make sure that our troops overseas 
do have the equipment and technology they need to be safe and 
successful.
  As all of our colleagues know, we are addressing, every day, 
pensions. We will have that legislation ready before recess. We also 
need to address the issues surrounding port security, to further secure 
our homeland, as well as small business health plans, which also have a 
direct impact, similar to what we are doing in energy, in affecting the 
cost of living that squeezes everyday Americans.
  If we can lower those health care costs, make health care both 
affordable and available, that will take some of that squeeze off 
individuals and their families and they will be able to benefit from 
what we know is a very productive, growing economy out there with over 
5.4 million jobs created in the last 2\1/2\ years and unemployment at 
historically low--4.6 percent--levels. The average American doesn't 
quite feel how good our economy is because of energy prices, which we 
are going to address, and because of health care costs, which we are 
going to address. Americans need to know they are safe and secure. They 
need to know their futures are safe and that their health care is 
affordable and secure.
  We have a lot of issues to address. Again, we have had a very 
productive week. If we continue that productivity we will be able to 
address those issues. It is our job in the Senate to deliver these 
meaningful solutions to the challenges and the needs of people across 
this country. It is our duty and our privilege to do just that, and I 
am confident, by continuing the progress we made this week, that we 
will be able to do just that.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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