Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, tomorrow the Senate will complete consideration of the pending motions to instruct the conferees on H.R. 4297, the tax relief bill, and send that bill to conference. We will have multiple votes starting close to 10 a.m. Senators should plan to stay around the floor for a series of up to 16 stacked votes in the morning. I truly hope that some of those will not be pushed to a rollcall vote and we would finish at a reasonable time.Tomorrow afternoon, we will resume consideration of S. 852, the asbestos bill. There is a pending motion to waive the Budget Act that must be disposed of before we can move forward with the amendment process.
Cloture MotionWe the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the pending substitute amendment to Calendar No. 131, S. 852: a bill to create a fair and efficient system to resolve claims of victims for bodily injury caused by asbestos exposure, and for other purposes.
Bill Frist, Arlen Specter, Lisa Murkowski, John Thune, Mel Martinez, Johnny Isakson, David Vitter, George Allen, Pat Roberts, Richard Shelby, Richard Burr, James Talent, Jeff Sessions, Mitch McConnell, Ted Stevens, Rick Santorum, Kay Bailey Hutchison.
10 . FAIRNESS IN ASBESTOS INJURY RESOLUTION ACT OF 2005
Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, today, I would briefly like to recount the details of a troubling series of events that resulted in the capture of four Americans, one of whom was executed, in the jungles of Colombia. I recently received word of this story from a special operations officer with intimate knowledge of these and subsequent events. ...For 3 years, three brave American civilian contractors have been held hostage by a ruthless terrorist organization deep in the Colombian jungle. Though rescue attempts can be dangerous and entail numerous risks to both the hostages and the rescuers, the failure to launch more than one serious rescue attempt is a disservice to those men and to their families here at home. We can only imagine the anguish, uncertainty, and doubt they have endured for those 3 long years.
I urge the administration to redouble its efforts to rescue these three Americans. A more assertive response is required. We owe it to these men and to their families to make a more serious effort to rescue them.
[Isn't this the Congress meddling with the Executive?]