William H. Frist: “today we are resuming consideration of the Commerce-Science-Justice appropriations bill. Last night, we reached…”

“today we are resuming consideration of the Commerce-Science-Justice appropriations bill. Last night, we reached agreement to limit amendments to that bill. That agreement will allow us to finish this appropriations bill early next week. We are here today to give Senators the opportunity to offer amendments from that list. They will also have that opportunity on Monday. We will not vote on amendments during today's session, but we are prepared to debate additional amendments and schedule those votes for next week. Last night, we scheduled our first vote on Monday, and that will occur at 6:30 Monday evening. It will be on the motion to proceed to the resolution of disapproval regarding the regulations relating to mercury. As everyone is aware, the Judiciary Committee will begin its hearings on the nomination of Judge Roberts. I will be working with the Democratic leader to schedule floor votes around those hearings to provide the least amount of disruption of those proceedings. That means most of the voting will occur at the lunch hour or around midday and then later in the evening. Throughout this time, we will continue to focus our efforts on legislation related to the effects of Katrina. Yesterday, as my colleagues know, we acted very quickly on emergency court legislation so that those Federal courts could continue operations appropriately.…”