William H. Frist: “this morning we are proceeding directly to H.R. 9, the voting rights reauthorization bill. We have a unanimous consent…”

“this morning we are proceeding directly to H.R. 9, the voting rights reauthorization bill. We have a unanimous consent order that provides for up to 8 hours of debate today, although I do not expect all that time will be necessary. We will proceed to a vote on passage of H.R. 9 whenever that time is used or yielded back, and therefore that vote will occur sometime this afternoon, and I expect passage of that voting rights reauthorization bill. There are several circuit and district court judges that will require some debate and votes today. We will have a unanimous consent agreement on those debate times shortly, and we will likely consider those judicial nominations following the passage of the Voting Rights Act. We have been working on an agreement on the child predator legislation for a short debate and vote, which will occur today, and we hope to have that agreement as well. Finally, we have an order to proceed to the child custody protection bill today, and we have Senators who would like to speak on this issue later today as well. Having said that, the schedule will require votes over the course of the day--possibly into the evening--in order to finish. Although there is a lot to do and people have requested time to be set aside, I think a lot of that time can be yielded back over the course of the day and we will be able to complete the schedule as I have laid out.…”