[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 106 (Thursday, August 4, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 4, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  1110
 
                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. MICHEL asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. MICHEL. Mr. Speaker, I take this time that I might inquire of the 
distinguished majority leader how he perceives the program to unfold 
for the balance of this week, next week and a little better fix on what 
we do here before we recess.
  I yield to the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Gephardt].
  Mr. GEPHARDT. I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.
  Just to give Members an advanced notice on what we are intending to 
try to do, we do have a number of conference reports today. We should 
be finished voting in the afternoon between 4 and 6 today.
  On tomorrow, we will be meeting until 3. We hope, we are still trying 
to have a vote tomorrow on either the crime conference report and/or 
the Congressional Accountability Act or the Federal Crop Insurance Act.
  Then next week, on Monday, we will have no votes until 5, but we will 
have votes between say 5 and 7 or 8. Then Tuesday and the balance of 
the week, we have a number of bills, Energy and Water Appropriations 
Conference Report, China MFN, again, the Congressional Accountability 
Act, if it is not done tomorrow, and full budget disclosure and so on. 
We will talk about that later in the day, if the gentleman would like 
to do it, or tomorrow.
  We are now contemplating that the health bills, the varios health 
bills that are being worked, on would be drafted and ready by Monday of 
next week, and our intent would be to consider a rule later in next 
week for debate only on the health bill, which we would like to begin 
on Monday of the third week in August and extending into Tuesday, and 
then on Wednesday consider a rule for the completion of the health bill 
on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of the third week in August.
  I know this announcement of intention is a problem for a lot of our 
Members on both sides of the aisle who have planned vacation trips and 
other matters with their family or constituents or others. I apologize 
for that.
  I want to inform Members as to why we are forced to look at this 
third week. The problem is really caused by the grave difficulty that 
all of us have in writing these bills and in getting them scored by the 
CBO. We met yesterday with the head of the CBO. He informed us that 
they had been working for 4 months 7 days a week, to deal with all of 
the various proposals coming out of the committees.
  His people are working days and nights and are completely exhausted. 
They have worked the last 2 weeks to get the bills scored in the 
Senate.
  Now they are working on the bill that has been produced by the Senate 
leadership, and they are trying to prepare them to go to the floor next 
Tuesday. They cannot get to our bills, our Republican bill, our 
Democratic bill, our bipartisan bill, until they finish dealing with 
the Senate. And it is this backup, which is caused by the mechanical/
physical inability to get all of this done, that has forced us into 
this third week.
  I apologize to Members for it, but it is a necessity because of the 
tremendous job that it is to get these bills ready to go to the floor.
  We believe that this schedule will work. It is a finite period of 
time. We feel that if the whole third week is dedicated to health care, 
we can get through this. Tuesday there would be some other, perhaps, 
suspension votes, and then on Wednesday the 17th, Thursday the 18th and 
Friday the 19th, we would have a rule that would allow voting on all 
the alternatives. And it would be timed so that we could be sure to 
finish on Friday, the 19th.
  Mr. MICHEL. Might I just say that the majority leader has laid out 
our problem here, I think, very clearly and succinctly. We also 
recognize, on the minority side, the problem that is involved here in 
making absolutely sure that the language is precise when it does come 
to the floor for a vote and, moreover, that we do have much better cost 
estimates, at least. It may very well still be estimates. 
Notwithstanding CBO, we will want from CBO just as good a figures as 
possible.
  Then putting everything off until that third week for health care 
only and concentrating on that, may I ask the question that we talked 
about a little earlier relative to then the date of the 19th being the 
Friday of the third week, 1 week later than we had originally planned, 
and knowing full well that families are going to be disrupted here, 
because of their thinking that that was inviolate at the time we set 
it, would have some time now to readjust with their families to have 
some time before Labor Day.
  Is it the intention of the gentleman that we are now devoting that 
full week of the 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th for health care, that we 
can definitely plan on getting out of here then on the close of 
business on the 19th?
  Mr. GEPHARDT. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to yield, 
that is correct.
  Mr. MICHEL. I think that will help our Members get a more clearly 
definitive idea, knowing full well that it is not the best of our 
choices here, but we are just facing up to reality.
  The SPEAKER. The Chair would like to just interject that the 
gentleman from Illinois said the close of business on Friday. I do not 
think it would be proper for Members to assume that that would be 3 in 
the afternoon necessarily.
  Mr. MICHEL. I certainly would stand corrected on that, that it is the 
full week. But definitely, we have talked about this business. We run 
into a weekend and then, lo and behold, we are over into the following 
week before we know it again. I think we would have to have that 
assurance.
  Mr. HASTERT. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. MICHEL. I yield to the gentleman from Illinois.
  Mr. HASTERT. I thank the distinguished minority leader for yielding 
to me.
  I want to question the majority leader. We have had some discussions 
off the record, but we are continuing to have a very difficult time 
getting drafting time. Even the situation of being able to make a 
deadline by Monday, unless we can really work together, is mounting as 
insurmountable. I look forward to continuing to work with the 
gentleman. We have to do, as we said before, on a daily basis, to make 
sure of not only the CBO numbers but the drafting availability is there 
to all parties who are putting forward a bill to be debated.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to yield, I 
think we really need to consult on a daily basis to know where CBO is 
and where the legislative drafters are in terms of the gentleman's 
alternatives, the other alternatives, and what is happening in the 
Senate so on a daily basis we know we are making sufficient progress.

                              {time}  1120

  Mr. HASTERT. Mr. Speaker, the fact of the matter is that we are 
getting the drafters at 1:30 and 2 o'clock in the morning, after they 
are exhausted, and even that work product sometimes is not as good as 
if they were fresh. I appreciate the gentleman's concern. We will 
consult with him on a daily basis.
  Mr. MICHEL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished majority leader 
for his response.

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