[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 13 (Thursday, February 10, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 10, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. GINGRICH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. GINGRICH. Mr. Speaker, I wish to proceed out of order for 1 
minute for the purpose of discussing the schedule over the next few 
days with the distinguished majority leader. For the enlightenment of 
Members, I yield to my good friend from Missouri, [Mr. Gephardt] to 
brief Members on what is and is not happening.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. We 
will try to enlighten together.
  Mr. Speaker, our plan is to try to go to a motion to go to conference 
on a prospective basis.

                              {time}  1710

  We understand there will be a motion to instruct.
  There will be one vote in the potential time of 1 hour from now. I 
think that would be the maximum that it would take to get to that vote. 
The conference on the bill, assuming the other body is able to finish 
its work tonight and we are led to believe that they can, would begin 
in the morning. Members should know that work has been going on all day 
between the staffs.
  There are about 120 or so differences between these bills so there is 
a good deal of work that has to be done, and a lot of it already has 
been done. And more will go on tonight and so they will be prepared at 
about 10 in the morning to go into a productive conference. We are 
hopeful that they can finish their work in 4 or 5 hours, and then there 
is a period of 4 or so hours after that in order to get the paperwork 
to be completed and distributed.
  Therefore, we are looking at a possible time of vote at around 7 
o'clock tomorrow night. That is our best guess at this point. So our 
proposal would be to adjourn after this next vote, to come back at 2 
p.m. tomorrow. Members would not have to be here at that time. We would 
give the Cloakrooms and the Members' offices notice 2 hours before the 
vote, potential votes on the rule and other votes on the conference 
report would take place.

  Mr. GINGRICH. Mr. Speaker, first of all, would we do the adjournment 
resolution tonight or tomorrow?
  Mr. GEPHARDT. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue yield, we 
would like to do it this evening.
  Mr. GINGRICH. We see, on our side, no reason for a vote so that could 
be done by voice.
  Second, just for the Members, on the motion to instruct conferees, on 
our side I think we expect a relatively limited debate and would not 
anticipate, unless it got exciting, to go the full hour but, rather, 
would yield back and get to that vote fairly early.
  Third, I wanted to raise, because I think the House needs to be aware 
that despite the best efforts of the leadership on both sides, there is 
a possibility that the conference will not be as productive as we hope. 
I think that is a real danger.
  I also think that it is a real problem. I just wanted to be candid 
for our friends in the Committee on Appropriations both here and in the 
other body, that Saturday gets to be a real problem. I think with the 
storm and with other things going on, I hope that the conferees will be 
talking a lot all morning as the papers are prepared and will 
understand that there is a very real concern about getting this aid to 
California done tomorrow, because I think it gets very difficult for 
the House to function effectively on Saturday, just given the weather 
and given all the various Members who had previous plans.
  We do hope we can get it done. We look forward to working with the 
gentleman on a bipartisan way to pass the aid to California before we 
leave here. I think that is the right thing to do.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.
  It may be of help, maybe to the younger Members, I called my wife 
this afternoon. We were planning to leave yet this evening.
  I told her, when she asked me when we were leaving, I said I did not 
know. She said, ``Well, that is just about the ten-thousandth time that 
I have heard that since you have been in Congress.'' So if that is of 
any solace to anyone, that is where we all are. We do not know, but we 
are going to do our best to be out tomorrow night. It may be Saturday.

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