Barbara Mikulski: “the pending business is the Commerce, Justice, Science appropriations. As the Presiding Officer knows, I am the ranking…”

“the pending business is the Commerce, Justice, Science appropriations. As the Presiding Officer knows, I am the ranking member. So our colleagues know, there are about 20 outstanding amendments. We are busy clearing those--Senator Shelby is on his way to the Senate--that Senator Shelby and I could agree to, so when we do rollcall votes, we hope to have those reduced to a minimum, or at least a reasonable number. We will also be awaiting direction from the leadership, Senator Frist and Senator Reid, as to how we will proceed tomorrow on rollcall votes. We believe we have some that will be ready tomorrow to move this very important bill expeditiously. For those who might not know, this new subcommittee handles all the Commerce funding, it handles the funding for agencies such as NOAA, which was so great in telling Americans about the hurricane. It also has a variety of provisions that would be very helpful to Katrina victims, including small business disaster loans that are available not only to business but particularly small business, as well as residential homeowners, up to $200,000, EDA money, to help local communities rebuild, particularly infrastructure. While we are mesmerized by the tragedy in New Orleans, we cannot forget Mississippi and Alabama and their needs for roads and other infrastructure projects, including water supply. The chairman of the subcommittee, Senator Shelby, of course, of Alabama, and I want to move the bill.…”