[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 24 (Tuesday, March 8, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 8, 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 have asked for this 1 minute for the 
purpose of ascertaining the schedule.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. GINGRICH. Mr. Speaker, I yield to my good friend, the majority 
leader, to hear what the carefully-worked-out schedule will be.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. 
Gingrich].
  On tomorrow, on Wednesday, we will meet at noon. We will be taking up 
H.R. 6, amendments which we have worked on before on the elementary and 
secondary education bill. And there is also a plan to try to go forward 
with the rule to provide that the clinic access bill go to conference.
  Mr. Speaker, there are numerous procedural votes possible. We will 
expect a late session tomorrow; I would say 7 or 8 o'clock would be a 
fair estimate.
  On Thursday, Mr. Speaker, we will be taking up the budget resolution. 
We want to finish it on that day, if we possibly can. I think Members 
should expect a very late session that night to try to finish the 
budget.
  On Friday, if we need more time on the budget, we will be here, and 
we will continue on H.R. 6 amendments. We will be out by 3 o'clock, no 
later than 3 o'clock.
  Mr. GINGRICH. Mr. Speaker, if I could ask, on Thursday, as I 
understand it, will we take up the rule on the budget on Thursday also?
  Mr. GEPHARDT. That is correct.
  Mr. GINGRICH. So, we will take up the rule on the budget. We will 
then take up the Humphrey-Hawkins debate, which will be what; at least 
3 hours?
  Mr. GEPHARDT. We are negotiating that, I take it, in the Committee on 
Rules.
  Mr. GINGRICH. I am just trying to get some sense.
  As the gentleman knows, we think on our side that we have a pretty 
good alternative in the new Kasich budget, in the House budget, and we 
would hope that there is not going to be an effort to vote on that at 
midnight, or 1 or 2 in the morning, or something. Does the gentleman 
know, if we get to a reasonable hour, can we take up the Republican 
substitute and the final vote on Friday, if that is where we get to?
  Mr. GEPHARDT. We are going to make every effort to finish this bill 
on Thursday and to shorten the debate so that it can be done at a 
reasonable hour. That is our great hope.
  Obviously we want to get it done this week, and, if we have to be 
here on Friday, there are a number of Members who, I am sure, will have 
difficulty being here Friday. We would like to avoid having the vote on 
the budget on Friday. If we can possibly do it on Thursday, we are 
going to do it Thursday.
  Mr. GINGRICH. I am just curious. Since apparently the Congressional 
Budget Office could never actually get this work out in terms of 
scoring everything satisfactorily, and since we are now 3 weeks ahead 
of the normal budget schedule, is there a reason we are trying to rush 
all this through rather than having a more reasonable debate over 
several days?
  Mr. GEPHARDT. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would continue to yield, 
we have the crime bill we would like to finish which has a lot more to 
be done on it before the Easter district work period. We also have the 
balanced-budget amendment, which will be coming up next week, and a 
number of conference reports and other pieces of legislation.
  Mr. GINGRICH. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. 
Gephardt] very much.

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