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Those wacky Senators.

SCHEDULE FOR APRIL FOOLS' DAY -- (Senate - April 01, 2004)

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Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this morning there will be a period of morning business for up to 60 minutes.

I want to have the attention, just very briefly, of the assistant Democratic leader.

We are going to have a period for morning business for 60 minutes. Under the previous unanimous consent agreement, we will finish the welfare reauthorization bill and allow that bill to go to conference in order to reach an accord with the House. That bill will be followed by the final passage of the FSC/ETI legislation. Upon completion of the FSC/ETI bill, we will proceed to the nominations and agreement to the 22 judicial nominations that are available on the calendar. Votes will occur on the confirmation of those judges.

I thank all Members, especially the assistant Democrat leader, and other Members on their side of the aisle, for their cooperation in meeting these consent agreements.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, is this the unanimous consent agreement you are going to offer?

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this is my opening statement for April 1, and I will withdraw any request for those consent agreements.

It is an April 1 wish. It is what we should be doing. But we will proceed in the normal order.

Mr. REID. If the Senator will yield for a brief comment, every Thursday morning Senator Ensign and I hold a breakfast for Nevada constituents. Today we had a very large crowd. Probably there were 60 people there, plus our staffs. I opened it by calling on a doctor who just returned from the USS Boxer, from sea, introduced our Cherry Blossom Princess, and then I asked this gentleman to come up. I said: JOHN, you remember this thing we talked about--and gave him this certificate.

The man's name was a mixture between a Hungarian and a Hawaiian name--real long. And JOHN stumbled through that reading, but what a hero he was. You can tell JOHN was so flustered. When he stopped for a second I said, ``April Fools'.''

I have to say, it was probably the greatest April Fools' joke I have ever been involved in.

Senator Daschle just came on the floor. He, Senator Frist, just offered what we would accomplish today. It was just an April Fools' joke, even though he meant it sincerely.

Mr. FRIST. I did mean it sincerely, and it included all, I say to the Democratic leader. It included welfare, FSC/

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ETI, the 22 judicial nominations. We would really be rolling if that were the case. Unfortunately, it is April 1.