[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 112 (Friday, August 12, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 12, 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 ask to proceed for the purpose of 
receiving the schedule from the majority leader, and I yield to my good 
friend, the gentleman from Missouri, for that purpose.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. I thank the gentleman for yielding. There will not be 
further votes today.
  On Monday, August 15, the House will not be in session.
  Tuesday, August 16, the House will meet at 10:30 a.m. for morning 
hour. The House will meet at noon on Tuesday for 12 bills under 
suspension. The bills are:
  H.R. 1103, Secondary Transmissions Of Superstations And Network 
Stations For Private Home Viewing;
  H.R. 2866, Headwaters Forest Act;
  H.R. 4884, Criminal Justice Information Services Placement Assistance 
Act;
  H.R. 4867, High Speed Rail Development Act of 1994;
  H.R. 4868, Railroad Unemployment Insurance Amendments Act of 1994;
  H.R. 2178, Hazardous Materials Transportation Act Amendments;
  H.R. 4812, To Direct The AGS To Acquire Title To The Old U.S. Mint In 
San Francisco, CA;
  H.R. 4709, To Make Certain Technical Amendments;
  H.R. 3508, Tribal Self-Governance Act Of 1994;
  H.R. 2947, Two Year Extension Of The Black Revolutionary War Patriots 
Foundation To Establish A Memorial;
  H.R. 2815, Farmington Wild and Scenic River Act; and
  H.R. 1305, Minor Boundary Adjustments and Miscellaneous Park 
Amendments.
  We will try to not have votes until 5 o'clock on Tuesday afternoon on 
the suspension bills.
  On Wednesday, August 17, and the balance of the week, the House will 
meet at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Thursday, and possibly Friday. We will 
have H.R. 4906, Emergency Spending Control Act of 1994, subject to a 
rule; H.R. 3433, providing for the management of the Presidio, subject 
to a rule; H.R. 4908, hydrogen and fusion research and development 
programs authorization, subject to a rule; S. 2182, Department of 
Defense authorization conference report, subject to a rule; H.R. 3355, 
the Omnibus Crime Control Act conference report again, subject to a 
rule; H.R. 3800, Superfund Reform Act of 1994, subject to a rule; S. 
349, Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1994 conference report; and S. 3, 
Congressional Spending Limit and Election Reform Act of 1994, 
conference report, subject to a rule.
  There are other conference reports that may be brought up at any 
time.
  I would say to the gentleman, we are continuing on both sides with 
different groups of Members working with the Congressional Budget 
Office on scoring the various health bills. It is our intention to try 
to get to health care if and when the Congressional Budget Office is 
finished that material. As the Members know, this is an interactive 
process and there is no way to predict, unfortunately, when that will 
be finished and we will just have to keep Members apprised on a day-by-
day basis of where we are on that.
  Mr. GINGRICH. If I could ask the majority leader, first I want to 
reconfirm for Members if they are back by 5 o'clock on Tuesday, that is 
when votes, in your judgment, will probably begin, for Members in terms 
of arranging plans, is that correct?
  Mr. GEPHARDT. The gentleman is correct.
  Mr. GINGRICH. I want to walk through the health thing if I could for 
just a second. As I understand it, this is an extraordinary complex 
business and we have talked about it at length together, making sure 
that the Congressional Budget Office scoring is accurate, which takes 
time, and at the same time having an opportunity to interact with the 
authors of each bill because, as the gentleman knows, as we go through 
each part of this process it changes the whole nature of what we are 
doing.
  I have two questions I guess. One is should Members for the present 
time plan on the week after next being here, or does the gentleman have 
any notion at this stage what plans they should make for the week after 
next?
  Mr. GEPHARDT. We will have to advise them again next week on a day-
by-day basis as we see where we are with the Congressional Budget 
Office work. As the gentleman knows, we have procedures without a 
recess motion that could be used to keep the House in session as long 
as the Senate is in session, and we anticipate it will be. We can go 3 
days to 3 days under our rules and allow Members to not be here for 
votes, but keep the House in session and continue to work to see if we 
can get a solution to the CBO analysis problem.
  Mr. GINGRICH. My second question is on the health side we had talked 
at one point about a very orderly procedure, which I found very 
attractive to begin the debate in an orderly way and have plenty of 
general debate time because of the intensity and scale of this issue, 
allow all of the various proponents of different bills to have a 
chance, and then move into a process with a second rule looking at any 
amendments, and looking at voting on the various alternatives.
  In your judgment, the gentleman and the Democratic leadership yet 
decided whether we should wait until we are certain of the whole 
scoring process before we begin the initial general debate, or whether 
we should try to begin that late next week, or again, just for the 
purpose of those Members on both sides who may want to prepare remarks 
on an issue of this importance, do you have any thoughts at this stage 
on how we might proceed?

  Mr. GEPHARDT. I do not want to stop anyone from writing a speech. But 
I do think that we are going to have hearings next week in the Rules 
Committee. We will continue on the bills. I think Members can 
anticipate that they may want to be involved in testifying there.
  But I do think that it is hard to have meaningful debate on these 
bills until we know exactly what their provisions are, and again, the 
provisions may have to change as a result of the scoring necessities.

                              {time}  1410

  Mr. GINGRICH. I would rather have us, as you know, go in an orderly 
manner, so you are not going to get any complaints on our side if we 
allow the scoring and the drafting and the technicalities to be worked 
out prior to beginning debate.
  Because I think on an issue that affects the whole country on this 
scale, that is the right way to do it. So you will not hear any carping 
or complaining.
  One other item, I noticed you mentioned here H.R. 3355, the Omnibus 
Crime Control Act. I would just like to comment and report to the House 
that a few minutes ago Senator Dole and I along with four members of 
the conference sent a letter to the President on Air Force One offering 
to meet early this evening and discuss the possibility of bipartisan 
help in reporting the conference and that the 11 Republicans who voted 
``yes'' yesterday on the rule have also sent a letter to the President 
indicating a desire to work with him in a bipartisan manner to get this 
bill rewritten.
  So I just want Members to know we are prepared, if necessary, to work 
starting this weekend in a bipartisan manner to reopen the conference 
and to try to get to a passable crime bill as early as possible.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. We have been meeting with a lot of our Members today to 
talk about the crime bill. We are trying to work toward a solution.

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