William H. Frist: “this morning we will begin with a period of morning business for 60 minutes. Following that time, we will resume…”

“this morning we will begin with a period of morning business for 60 minutes. Following that time, we will resume consideration of S. 397, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms legislation. Senator Kohl has an amendment pending related to trigger locks, and there will be an hour of debate on that amendment prior to the vote. That vote should begin before noon, in the next 2\1/2\ hours. The managers will continue to work through the day to see what additional amendments are ready for votes. The cloture vote could be as early as 1 a.m. Friday morning. We haven't set the vote for that time. I mention that early hour only to highlight the fact that we have so much work to do. We have conference reports, the gun liability bill, nominations, all of which we need to accomplish before we leave for the recess. We have the Interior appropriations conference report that has the veterans health money in it that we have addressed before. We have the energy conference report, which I believe is very close; the highway conference report, which has not been filed yet but which will be hopefully later today. We have the Legislative appropriations conference report. Once we address the pending bill, we can hopefully expedite completion of all of the remaining measures prior to the August break. I will be working with the Democratic leader to schedule these important items over the next couple of days.”