William H. Frist: “in a moment we will begin consideration of the Homeland Security appropriations bill. Yesterday, all first-degree…”

“in a moment we will begin consideration of the Homeland Security appropriations bill. Yesterday, all first-degree amendments to the bill were required to be filed at the desk. There appear to be about 100 that were filed. Although I hope the Senators will not feel compelled to call up many of these amendments, we have 100. Hopefully we can narrow those down. The chairman and ranking member will do so over the course of the day. We will finish the bill this week. Therefore, Members should contact the two managers to schedule consideration of their amendments. At the current time, we have three amendments pending, one dealing with veterans health funding and two relating to the homeland grant formula. We hope to shortly work out time agreements on these and vote with respect to at least a couple of these amendments. Therefore, there is a chance for a vote prior to our policy luncheons today. We will alert Members as we come to an agreement on the starting times. We will continue to vote throughout the day on amendments. Senators can expect a busy day. Yesterday, we came in for a 3-week block. It will be a very busy 3 weeks before our August recess. We need to continue to address the appropriations measures. Prior to the July Fourth recess, we finished some appropriations in a very positive way. We continue with Homeland Security, and we have a number of other legislative priorities.…”