[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 19204-19205]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         RAILROAD RETIREMENT TECHNICAL IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2006

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 630, H.R. 5074.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 5074) to amend the Railroad Retirement Act of 
     1974 to provide for continued payment of railroad retirement 
     annuities by the Department of the Treasury, and for other 
     purposes.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the bill be read 
the third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the 
table, and any statements be printed in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The bill (H.R. 5074) was ordered to be read a third time, was read 
the third time, and passed.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, will the majority leader yield?
  Mr. FRIST. I am happy to yield.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I would like to say to the majority leader 
by way of a question that I have been working with Senator Chambliss, 
the chairman of the Agriculture Committee, on the reauthorization of 
the

[[Page 19205]]

Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and we have worked out what I 
consider to be a fair apportionment of time and amendments. We have 
been ready to go, prepared, waiting for that propitious moment, hoping 
that the majority leader would smile our way and give us that opening, 
that hour or two to get this important legislation passed. I would like 
to ask the majority leader if he has been thinking about that.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, through the Chair, in fact, I will need to 
turn to the distinguished assistant leader as to how much time--I 
remember we had it locked down to an amount of time. It is about 7\1/2\ 
or 8 hours. We have a challenging week. We have to get to the DOD 
appropriations, we have to get to the Homeland Security appropriations, 
we need to get to the terrorist tribunal legislation, we need to get to 
the port security legislation, and we need to get to the border fence 
legislation. We will do our best. I do understand the importance of the 
legislation, and I want to congratulate the managers and the chairman 
and ranking member for their great work. I do understand the importance 
of it.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, if I might ask again of the majority 
leader--I certainly understand this might not be the week, but I hope 
when we return you would consider putting this up soon. I appreciate 
it, and I am sure Senator Chambliss does as well.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I recognize the importance of the issue, 
and we are doing our best to get everything we possibly can done.

                          ____________________