Senator: Specter
SPECTER: Ladies and gentlemen, the Judiciary Committee will now proceed with the executive committee considering the nomination of Samuel Alito for associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Before turning to the opening statements, just a couple of comments on Senate Judiciary Committee business.
The majority leader has announced that we will proceed to the floor tomorrow with debate on the nomination and that we will proceed in sequence to hear all senators, looking toward a vote by the end of the week.
The Judiciary Committee will be focusing on the Patriot Act, where there is an expiration date of February the 3rd. And I expect some action on that next week.
What we are faced with on the Patriot Act is the conference report, which has many additional protections beyond what the Patriot Act provides in its present form -- to pass that conference report or to have an extension of the current act, looking toward a four-year period.
Technically, the conference has been dissolved with the filing of the conference report. It's always possible, on agreement of all parties, to revisit any matter, as we know, on legislation. But I can tell you, after talking to Chairman Sensenbrenner, that the House feels that they've gone as far as they can go on compromises on the act. And I think the reality may be that we're looking at either the current act extended or the conference report, which has many additional protections on civil rights.
The conference report doesn't go as far as I'd like to have gone; it doesn't go as far as the Senate bill went, but we have a bicameral system.
SPECTER: But we'll be facing that imminently, right after Alito.
On February 6th, the committee will have a hearing on the electronic surveillance which will take up the issue of the compliance with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act or executive powers under Article II.
We've set that hearing for the 6th because we couldn't find any other day to do it, and that's the day we will open arguments on the -- opening statements on asbestos.
It is anticipated that we'll have at least two, perhaps three, days of hearings on the electronic surveillance. On the 6th we'll be listening to Attorney General Gonzales. And the staffs have already been talking with the expectation of having the attorney general on all day.
And I anticipate it'll have 10-minute rounds and more than one round, because there are very complex issues here and we want to have ample time to explore them with the attorney general to give the president an opportunity to state his case.
When we move to asbestos, we've had very extensive markup in committee, as we all know, and it would be my hope that those who have amendments to offer on the floor -- and I know there will be amendments and people feel very deeply about many of the issues there, and I expect the amendments -- but I would hope that members who have amendments would notify the ranking member and me in advance, give us as much notice as you can. That was a 13-5 vote out of committee, with Senator Leahy and Senator Kohl and Senator Feinstein joining the 10 Republicans on the committee.
SPECTER: Let's see if we can get time agreements and move ahead in an orderly way to consider that bill, because it is complicated and it will take some time.
Before moving to the senators' statements on the Alito confirmation, let me yield now to the distinguished ranking member.
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