Partial-Birth Abortion Act of 2003-Continued

PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTION BAN ACT OF 2003—CONTINUED

Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, I believe we are now on S. 3, which is the partial-birth abortion bill?

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.

Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, for the information of Members, we will have an hour of debate, a half hour each side, and then we will have a vote at 2:40 this afternoon, followed by a series of five votes on judges.
This is a vote that, candidly, is not necessary. It is a vote that will be 100 to nothing, or as many Senators as are still here to nothing.

It is a vote to get this bill to conference. The House passed one bill. The Senate has passed a different bill. The normal rules are you adopt a motion of disagreement and go to conference. Otherwise, you keep bouncing back and forth to the House and the Senate with a fully amendable vehicle which doesn't get you anywhere.

I am asking all of my colleagues to vote on this procedural matter to get the bill to conference. I will tell you that I fully anticipate the bill coming out of conference within a very short period of time before we recess for the rest of the year. We will have a bill that will pass here overwhelmingly. It will pass in the House overwhelmingly and be signed by the President, which is the objective I think certainly the vast majority of the people in this Chamber would like to see done.

I understand there may be some reasons the Senator from California wanted to have this debate and have this vote. This is probably the only time where all of us will agree on this issue and vote for this resolution and get it to conference. We will then move, hopefully expeditiously, from that point.

I see the Senator from New Jersey is here. I will be happy to yield the floor and allow him time to speak.