Floor Statements

Mr. President, children's health is a tremendously difficult issue because children all over America need to be able to go to a doctor when they are sick or hurt. The way this body is operating now basically is that we are not going to be able to complete, it appears, our legislation. The President has vetoed the bill once. We were told that if certain changes were made, Republicans in the House would look to this legislation favorably. We did make some changes. We tightened down the legislation so it is virtually impossible for anyone who is here illegally to obtain benefits from this program. We changed that.

We also limited the legislation so parents or adults without children would be off the program in 1 year. Also, there could be no waivers for

those over 300 percent of poverty. Ninety-two percent of the individuals getting benefits from the legislation are 200 percent above poverty.

We made those changes, hoping it would bring some around. After that was done and it passed the House and came over here, we were told by a number of individuals if we would hold off on this legislation, there would be an agreement reached, and I thought that was a good suggestion. As the Record indicates, yesterday I asked that that be the case. Obviously, that was not the case. An objection was heard and we were unable to delay the vote.

This morning, we heard something from the President that is totally different. He keeps changing the ball here. First of all, he indicated to Leader Pelosi and me that he would like to sit down and talk to us. He said that publicly in the press. After the veto vote, he said he would like to come down and talk to us. Then he said, no, I am not going to talk to you; talk to my staff. Obviously, he wasn't leveling with the American people then.

Today, he came up with a new deal. He doesn't like the way it is paid for. I guess his term of reference is that we don't pay for much around here. That is why we have these staggering deficits. But he said in the press today he didn't like the way it is paid for. Remember, we are on a pay-go program around here. Any new spending has to be paid for. This children's health program is paid for with tobacco taxes. So the goalposts keep being moved.

What are the consequences? Is it a bunch of talk by Government officials, of which I am one? It is very serious. Twenty-one States will run out of money for childrens' health insurance in the coming year. At least nine of those States will exhaust their allotments in March if Congress continues spending at current levels.

There is a report that came out today in the New York Times newspaper. California is adopting rules, in case that happens, to create a waiting list and remove more than a million children who are already on the rolls. These are kids. The nine states that will run out of money by March are Alaska, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. This comes from a nonpartisan, nonpolitical organization, the Congressional Research Service.

So there are real consequences to what we are not doing. We are going to go ahead with the vote today and complete this legislation, as I indicated, sometime this week. If we have to work into the weekend, we will. I have alerted the Republican leader of that. If necessary, we can, of course, condense that time, but it would take consent of all the Senators.

We are, in good faith, trying to protect children--children who are already receiving the benefits of this program that was adopted 10 years ago on a bipartisan basis, led by Senators Kennedy and Hatch. Now we are trying to further this legislation, led by Senators Baucus, Grassley, Rockefeller and Hatch and their counterparts in the House.

I think it is a real shame that we are at the point where we are. Ten million children, if we pass this legislation, would have the benefits of this insurance. If we don't pass it, as indicated in some of the statistics I gave a minute ago, 9 States will run out of money in March and 21 States will run out next year sometime.

The program now has 5.5 million children on it. If we don't do anything by year's end, it will be down to about 3 million children. That is what I am told. If we pass our legislation--and it doesn't cost the American people any money--we would wind up having 10 million children covered. As I have indicated, most all adults will be off the program, as I have indicated to the chair and to those within the sound of my voice.

This is a good program. This doesn't take into consideration approximately 50 million people who have no health insurance, but it takes care of a few of the children--the little people--who need help when they are sick and hurt. This allows them even to go get some preventive care, which is badly needed, which will save our country a lot of money in the so-called outyears.

We are ready and willing to be reasonable, but it appears we have no alternative, based on what we did yesterday, to proceed forward and send the bill to the President again. The only thing that would come in the way of that is if the Republicans use whatever excuse they can come up with to try to satisfy the President.

As I said yesterday, in the 7 years this man has been President, he has had the strings on his puppets in the Senate. Maybe people who voted for this on more than one occasion will switch and say we don't like the way we are being treated. Remember, we have given them everything they wanted, and they could not take yes for an answer yesterday.

Madam President, while everybody is here, there will be no more rollcall votes today. I am going to be meeting shortly with Senator McConnell to find out when the next vote will be. The next vote can only come about with a unanimous consent request. I will work with Senator McConnell to see if we can come up with an easier lift than what is required under the rules.

Under the rules, we will vote at approximately 1 a.m. Friday morning on the next aspect of this procedure we have on the CHIP bill. We will visit in a short time to see if we can change that time in any way. Again, that would have to be done by unanimous consent. As we know, if any one person doesn't like it, it will not happen. Otherwise, the next vote will be likely at 1 a.m. Friday morning.

As I said, I will do everything I can to see if we can make it more convenient for the Members, as I am sure Senator McConnell will. We have, on this most important issue, to make sure that the necessary parties are contacted and that everybody knows exactly what they are doing. So until further notice, the next vote will be at 1 a.m. Friday morning.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, this morning, the Senate will be in a period of morning business for 60 minutes, with the first half of the time under the control of the Republicans and the second half controlled by the majority.

Order of Procedure

In the time that we have, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Kennedy have 20 minutes.

Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of the Amtrak legislation.

Yesterday, in a short period of time, the Senate considered and adopted nine amendments to the legislation. A number of other amendments remain to be considered. I believe the managers share my view that action on this bill can, hopefully, be concluded during today's session. Therefore, it is estimated that the number of votes with respect to amendments and the pending cloture motion could occur prior to the Senate recessing for the caucus meetings. Members have until 12 noon to file germane second-degree amendments to the bill.

Last evening, I had a conversation with my counterpart, the distinguished Senator from Kentucky, Mr. McConnell, and indicated to him that we are going to move to and complete SCHIP this week in some form or fashion. That may require some time into the weekend. We can change everything by unanimous consent. We will see what the mood of the Senate is. Everybody should be alerted that unless Senator McConnell and I and the other 98 Members can work something out, we may have to be here this weekend.

We have been very fortunate that we have not had to have many weekend sessions this year. That is really good. If we can get our work done, that is fine.

I have an obligation to move to the farm bill. Every 5 years, we have to complete that, and we are going to do our very best to do it in a way that makes a lot of sense. In the next 2 weeks, after this week, there are other things we have to do. We have to send an appropriations bill to the President and get that conference started. Some say no matter what we send him, he will veto it. That may be the case, but at least we will get the process going to see if we can work out something rather than a number of short-term CRs to complete the funding of the Government. I hope we can do that.

We also have other things we need to work on that are extremely important to do. Some of that must be done before we leave on November 16. We have a lot of work to do. I have had both Democrats and Republicans talk to me, saying: My legislation is important, let's get it done.

Mr. President, it is difficult to do. The rules have developed in the Senate over 230 years, and I think they have served the country well, as you look back. When you are right in the trenches trying to work through this, sometimes it is very difficult. We will try to be as fair and inclusive to everybody as we can during the next 2\1/2\ weeks.

Mr. President, I have had a number of conversations over the last 24 hours with the Speaker, Speaker Pelosi, with the Democratic leader, Steny Hoyer, Senator Hatch, Senator Grassley, and others who have indicated on the CHIP matter they need more time, they have had conversations with Republican House Members who voted not to override the President's veto, they are having conversations with people within the administration, trying to come up with something on CHIP, and they need more time.

My first inclination, after having heard this, was, well, we have waited long enough. But after having spoken to these Senators--Senator Hatch, especially, has been working hard. They have already had meetings with Republican House Members. Senator Baucus, I have spoken to him at great length, and he is also having meetings with some of the Republicans in the House to see if there is something that can be worked out. I do not know if there can be.

But what we have done with the matter that will shortly be before the Senate: As to childless adults who are in the program now, under the original bill we passed, they would be phased out in 2 years. In the bill that is now before this body--or shortly will be--they are phased out over 1 year. So we cut that in half.

Ninety-two percent of the people drawing benefits--and the ``people'' are little people, are children drawing benefits from this program--92 percent of them are in families not exceeding 200 percent of poverty. And 200 percent of poverty is about $40,000 a year for a family of four. We have only one State above 300 percent of poverty, and there are maybe five or six States from 200 percent to 300 percent of poverty. So we have said there will be no waivers above 300 percent of poverty. We have changed along that regard.

We have tightened down the language as it relates to illegal children drawing benefits. Under the original bill we passed, illegal children could not get the benefits. You had to be in the country for at least 5 years, with proper papers, and then you could, after having been here 5 years. So we have tightened everything down. We have changed that, hopefully, to pick up some more votes.

At this stage, Senator Hatch and others have said to me: We need a little more time. We would like--because Senator Hatch and Senator Grassley were in on the changes we made. They were not done by Democrats. For every meeting held, they were in on the meetings. But they said give us some more time and maybe we can come up with something else. I am willing to do that. We are willing to do that. I would hope the Republicans mean that, that they do need more time.

So what I would be willing to do--and when I say ``I,'' it is not me--but what we would be willing to do is to put the vote off on CHIP until we finish the farm bill. I am going to do the farm bill next week. I am not going to go to it this week. We would go ahead and finish Amtrak and then move to something else. What it is, I don't know. I will try to come up with something that would be without a lot of pain to anyone. There are many things we have to do that are bipartisan in nature that I think we could go to.

I had originally considered offering a unanimous consent request where we would move off CHIP and go to it when we finish the transportation bill, and in exchange for that, give me permission to go to something else. I have withdrawn that. I don't want any excuses. I don't want anyone saying: Look, we would have done that, but he was demanding what we go to next, and I am not going to do that.

So I am going to recite into the Record a unanimous consent request which will say basically that we will move off CHIP, giving Senator Hatch and others time to negotiate to see if they can come up with something that is agreeable to the body, and maybe we can do CHIP so that--and the only requirement I think that Senator Hatch, Senator Grassley, Senator Baucus, I, the Speaker, Congressman Rangel, and Congressman Dingell have is that we cover the same amount of kids. We tried to do that in some fashion. Right now, if we don't do something, the number of children covered will drop from 5.5 million to 4.5 million. That is the way it is. Those are the facts, and we can't change that. If we passed our bill, the one that got 69 votes in this body, instead of having 5.5 million, we would have 10 million children who would be covered.

So I hope we can do that. But anyway, without belaboring the point, what I am going to ask permission to do is that we move off CHIP at what time it would occur naturally and take it up when we finish the farm bill. The rest of this week we will be working on something else. What that will be, I will certainly consult with the Republican leader. But right now, whatever I do, unless I get consent from the Senate--not only the Republicans but the Senate--I would have to get consent to do that or otherwise I would have to file cloture on a motion to proceed to it. So there are no surprises in that regard.

So I ask unanimous consent that the cloture vote be vitiated with respect to the motion to proceed to the CHIP bill, H.R. 3963, and the Senate begin consideration of that bill following the disposition of the farm bill, H.R. 2419.

As I have indicated, we are not going to move right to the farm bill. We are going to wait until at least Monday to get to the farm bill, as I have indicated.

I am not asking unanimous consent for the farm bill; I am just going to go to the farm bill.

After we finish that, yes.

Mr. President, it is hard for me to comprehend the logic of the objection. We are not asking unanimous consent from anybody as to what we are going to go to next. If the minority wants to object to going to the farm bill, they have the right to do that. I think it would be unusual for them to do that, but they have a right to do that.

We filed our 50th cloture motion, and it was my favorite. It was my favorite because it was bipartisan. It was the first bipartisan cloture motion we filed all year. It was on Amtrak. If we have to file cloture on the farm bill, that is fine. It would just take us a couple of extra days to get to the substance of the bill.

But I would also say it would seem to me that if the Republicans are sincere in wanting to do a CHIP bill, unless I am missing something, what better opportunity would they have? I have said let's get off this bill. As we all know, to finish the farm bill could take a little bit of time. I would hope we could finish it in a week, but as we know, in that week it could be interspersed with an appropriations conference report. We have to do the CR. So I can't imagine our finishing the farm bill very quickly.

But I was told initially on this CHIP matter that they needed 2 days to try to work something out. They are going to have well more than 2 days. It is not as if the Republicans have been in the dark. Remember, the two advocates for this--we would not have had a CHIP bill but for Senator Grassley and Senator Hatch. They were part of everything that took place in this bill. When the bill was not overridden--when the veto was not overridden and the bill was rewritten in the House, it wasn't rewritten by the House; it was rewritten by the House and Senator Grassley's staff and Senator Grassley and Senator Hatch. They were in on every word put in this new bill.

As far as the administration, it would seem to me if they have a couple of weeks, then that is what this will basically give them, 10 days to 2 weeks. That gives them lots of time to work with the administration, Secretary Leavitt, or whoever they want to deal with it. Leader Pelosi and I asked the President the day he vetoed this bill--because he kept saying: I want to meet with the leadership. Speaker Pelosi asked him in the morning; I asked him in the afternoon. He said: I am not going to meet with you. So we have tried. We want to be reasonable. This is an important bill. It deals with children. It is bipartisan. This is not a Democratic bill. It is a Democratic and Republican bill.

So I have heard the objection. I understand English. I would hope, though, that this afternoon my friends would reassess this; otherwise, we will go ahead and vote, as we have, on a motion to proceed to it.

It seems to me it would be a little difficult, as fair as we have tried to be, for people to change their votes on it. But miracles never cease, and the Republicans, I am sorry to say, have been pulled in as puppets in the past during the almost 7 years this man has been President, and maybe they can do it again. I would hope not on an issue this important.

I repeat, we simply want to have the Republicans get what they want. Can't they take yes for an answer? We have said, you want more time? This isn't an idea I came up with. The Republicans came to me and said they needed more time. Senator Hatch called me last night. I talked to him twice last night. I talked to Senator Grassley yesterday; and Senator Baucus, I called him and said: Is that OK with you? He said: Yes, that is OK with me. So I don't know how we could be more reasonable.

What happens if they don't do this? We are going to go ahead and vote on the motion to proceed and vote cloture on the bill. If that is what they want, that is what we can do. But I don't know how, when somebody says will you do this for me, and we say yes, they say no.

Mr. President, I have a deal. Again, trying to be more reasonable than I probably should be, but in an effort to try to be fair, I would consider offering a cloture vote on the motion to proceed to CHIP following the farm bill, and if cloture is voted, go directly to the bill. That way we don't lose the 30 hours. This would give people--if people felt aggrieved that they weren't treated properly during this period of time. I just don't want to lose the 30 hours because that is time toward the end of the session, and we are desperate for time for things that need to be done.

I would say to my friend, in fairness, I talked to Senator McConnell prior to lunch, but it wasn't in any detail. I told him generally what I was going to do. So I think it is appropriate to take a little more time, and we can all come out later and try this again.

But I want the record to be spread, if anyone can come up with a more fair proposal than I have offered, then they should come to the Senate floor because I have basically given those people who have wanted more time--and those are the Republicans--everything they have asked for.

By the way, I also want to say not only do I appreciate the Senator's comments about moving forward on the Amtrak bill, but this is a bipartisan piece of legislation, and I was maybe being a little flippant, but I was very serious. I think it is wonderful. We had a bipartisan cloture motion filed. We need to do more of those, if possible.

Madam President, the Senate will be in a period of morning business for 90 minutes, with the first hour under the control of Senator Boxer and the remaining 30 minutes under the control of the Republicans.

Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of the Amtrak legislation. While no rollcall votes will occur today, Members should be here to offer amendments, if they have any, to this legislation.

As a reminder, a bipartisan cloture motion was filed on the Amtrak legislation. Members should file all germane amendments by 3:30 today.

Madam President, I understand that S. 2247 is at the desk and is due for a second reading.

Madam President, I object to any further proceedings with respect to this legislation.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that my remarks not count against the time of Senator Boxer or the Republicans.

Madam President, last night, temperatures fell in many parts of the east coast and, frankly, even the west coast has been getting cold. It was cold in Searchlight. I talked to my brother this morning and he had to start his fire. Searchlight is much colder than Las Vegas. In parts of northern Nevada, it has been very cold.

All over America, and this morning in the DC area, for the first time this year, people had to reach into their closets for scarves, heavier suits, and even coats for the first time this season. In other parts of the country, there have been colder days earlier. In DC, this is the first one we have gotten.

In Las Vegas, even though it still reaches the high 80s during the day this time of year, even now you can feel an overnight chill in the air. There are parts of Nevada that are really cold. We have had freezing weather in Ely and Elko already this year.

As the temperature falls all over the country, we begin to think about the cost of heating our homes for the winter. That cost has risen steadily during the 7 years of the Bush administration, and we have become even more dependent on fossil fuel.

This morning, as our thoughts turned toward the cold months ahead, the price of oil rose to an all-time record of $93 a barrel. If we don't turn the tide by

reducing our dependence on oil and foreign energy sources, every American will be forced to pay more and more to heat our homes and fill our gas tanks.

I went over to my office in the Hart building today. I don't get over there as much as I would like, but I went around and talked to everybody. I have a wonderful employee who has been with me for many years. Her name is Carrie. She lives in Mechanicsville, MD. When the rain hit, it took her 3 hours to get to work and 2\1/2\ hours to get home. On a normal day, it takes an hour and a half. She sold her vehicle she loved so much, which was a Chevrolet Tahoe. It would cost her $40 every 2 days for gasoline. She bought a smaller car, and her cost for fuel has dropped significantly. Not just Carrie, but everybody in the country is more aware of the cost of energy. Whether it is for their vehicles or whether it is for their homes, the cost of oil is significant.

We are addicted to oil. That is not just me saying that. Even President Bush said it--even though I think he hasn't done anything about it. He acknowledged we are addicted to oil. I have said on the floor time and again, and I will say it again today: Today in America, we will burn 21 million barrels of oil. Tomorrow, we will use the same; the day after, the same. It is not going down, it is going up. We use 21 million barrels of oil a day. That is almost 3 gallons for every man, woman, and child in our country every day. That is enough oil, every day, to fill a swimming pool, or an oil pool, 10 feet deep, the length and width of 200 football fields--every day. How does the Earth have that much oil? But it does.

Day after day, we consume oil at twice the rate of any other industrialized nation. Our consumption only continues to go up. This oil addiction has become a three-pronged crisis: It does threaten our economy, no question about that. Look what it has done to our environment. It is threatening our national security.

A 10-percent increase in oil prices costs an estimated 150,000 Americans jobs and more than $100 billion of American dollars.

Since 2001, oil prices have risen by more than 230 percent. So clearly these impacts are real and harmful to working families.

Those hard-working, hard-earned American dollars are coming out of the pockets of families, and where is it going? Overseas. Last year, Americans sent almost $300 billion to foreign countries to pay for imported oil. I am not stretching the truth to say that many of those dollars went to governments that don't have our foreign policy interests at heart.

Meanwhile, the world's leading scientists have reached a consensus that the global warming crisis is real, grave, and it is growing. The Nobel Peace Prize was offered this year to, of course, Al Gore and the U.N. study group, which shared it with him, dealing with global warming.

Global warming is here. For people to write, as some do--people who are so determined to say there is no global warming, that is a figment of their imagination. It is here. Why? Because of our gluttony for oil.

Earlier this year, the House and Senate both passed a landmark, comprehensive piece of energy legislation to tackle each prong of the energy crisis. If we can finalize this and help lower prices by reducing our dependence upon oil, we would be developing renewable fuel alternatives and punishing price gougers and begin to turn the tide of global warming.

The legislation we passed was bipartisan. It wasn't just a Democratic bill. We had Republican help. I am happy to see the Presiding Officer here today because no one in recent years has done more to focus on the problems with energy than the Senator from Washington, Senator Cantwell. Because of the strength and conviction of the Senator from Washington, who was attacked personally in her last election campaign, because she was on the right side of the issue, it didn't affect her; in fact, it probably helped her.

We have to turn the tide of global warming. Remember, we use 21 million barrels of oil a day. By increasing our CAFE standards by 2020, we can save well over a million barrels a day, and some say even more.

In our legislation, we require an additional savings of 10 million barrels a day, on average, by 2030. We set an ambitious schedule to replace about one-fifth of our petroleum consumption with renewable fuels.

At the Nevada Test Site, where we set off approximately a thousand nuclear devices--most of them underground and a few above ground--you could cover that Nevada Test Site with solar panels today, with today's technology, and supply enough electricity for the whole country. It can be done. It is not being done because we have the utilities which, in most every place in the country, are regulated monopolies. They don't want to do it because it is easier to use fossil fuel. Natural gas is expensive, so now we have a mad rush to coal.

I so appreciate that Kansas and Oklahoma, in the last couple of weeks, said: No coal. This is the area we all need to look to, the States of Kansas and Oklahoma. We should look to them as role models because they have done the right thing.

We also need more cooperation from energy companies. The utilities aren't going to do it. Last year, oil companies brought in almost $120 billion in profits. Yet they are doing nothing to help us. The automobile industry is doing nothing to help us. Certainly, the Bush- Cheney administration--the most energy-dependent administration in history--nobody has been closer to the oil industry than this administration. They both made their fortunes in oil.

Instead, though, lobbyists for the oil, auto, and coal industries are trying their best to weaken our bill or stop its progress. In Nevada, I came out against the coal-fired plants they are pushing there. They are spending millions of dollars in the small State of Nevada to try to show I am wrong by opposing coal-fired plants, saying: We want to build a bridge to alternative energy. Let us build a few coal-fired plants and then we will do it.

That is a lost cause. They are doing that because it is the cheapest way to do it. They could build solar plants, wind, and geothermal for no more than what it cost to build these coal-fired plants. It would be as many construction jobs, but it would be something different. If it hasn't been done before, they don't want to do it. Imagine where we would be today if they agreed to join us in this fight. We know the administration simply had secret meetings and made sweetheart deals with the oil companies, and they refused to let the press know about it. The press went to court, and the court upheld the secrecy of the White House.

The time to stand in the way of progress should be long past. Since we passed the Energy bill on a bipartisan basis, Senate Republicans have stopped us from going to conference. We cannot stop. We need to continue to work with the House to pass a bill, despite these challenges. I hope and believe Democrats and Republicans will find common ground and set a new course that will keep us safe for our economy and protect our planet.

In the Senate, our bill had something the House bill didn't. It raises CAFE standards, a renewable portfolio. It seems we ought to be able to marry the two and agree to the demand of the American people.

Today's record oil prices alone should be enough to convince us we must act quickly to complete the Energy bill and pass it into law.

Mr. President, this morning we will return to the Amtrak legislation. I am not certain the managers have that many amendments to deal with, so I don't think we will be in session for a long time working on this bill, but we are open for business. While no rollcall votes will occur today, the majority manager, working with Senator Lott, is expected to be here to work with any Members who want to offer amendments.

I am going to shortly file cloture on this bill. This cloture vote will occur during Tuesday's session, and it is the expectations of the managers it can be concluded during Tuesday's session. Let me say, this is a rare cloture petition. It is signed by Democrats and Republicans in equal numbers. This is an extremely important bill for our country, and the Senate realizes that. I am hopeful and quite confident that we will not need cloture, but if we do, we can go ahead and do that. If we don't, that will save us some time. We have lots to do here that is so important.

I am also going to--unless something untoward comes--move to the farm bill a week from Monday or thereabouts. The reason for that is this is a bill we need to do every 5 years. While I, like many, think the bill could be better, I think the committee did a tremendously good job. There are a lot of reforms in this bill. For some there are not enough, but for the farm bill, I have seen a number of them come through here. It is certainly an improvement. I look forward to having the managers work through it in the quickest time possible. I congratulate the committee. They worked very hard to come up with this bill.

As previously announced, there will be no rollcall votes on Monday, but Members should be here Monday to offer amendments on Amtrak if they so desire.

Mr. President, it is my understanding there are four bills at the desk due for a second reading.

Mr. President, I object to any further proceedings with respect to these bills, and I do so en bloc.

Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. President, normally we waive the reading of the names, but I thought it was so refreshing to hear a cloture motion with Democrats and Republicans on it that I wanted to hear them. I am almost anxious to have the clerk do it again, but I think that is sufficient.

I ask unanimous consent that the vote on the motion to invoke cloture on S. 294 occur on Tuesday, October 30 at a time determined by the majority leader--I will certainly consult with the Republican leader-- and that the mandatory quorum rule under rule XXII be waived.

I now ask unanimous consent that Members have until 3:30 p.m. Monday to file any germane first-degree amendments to S. 294.

Mr. President, I note the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that it be in order to move to proceed to Calendar No. 450, H.R. 3963.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to H.R. 3963 and send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum as required under rule XXII be waived.

I now withdraw the motion.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations: Calendar Nos. 336 through 356; that the nominations be confirmed, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate then return to legislative session.

Mr. President, one of the nominations we approved is Dr. William H. Frist to be a member of the board of directors of the Millennium Challenge Corporation for a term of 3 years. This is Bill Frist who worked with us in the Senate for 12 years, who was majority leader and somebody with whom I worked very closely. He is a very fine man, a great reputation. He entered public service for the right reason. He was a prominent surgeon. He is

a man who was one of the pioneers in transplant surgery.

I have such fond memories of working with him. We had our battles, but he was always a gentleman. I wish him well with his job. I know he will do a very good job.

I ask unanimous consent that Calendar Nos. 241 and 409 be indefinitely postponed, en bloc.