[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 135 (Friday, September 23, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 23, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. MICHEL asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. MICHEL. Mr. Speaker, I ask for this time in order that I might 
inquire of the distinguished majority leader the program for next week.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. MICHEL. I am happy to yield to my distinguished friend, the 
gentleman from Missouri.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  There are no more votes today.
  On Monday, September 26, the House will meet at 10:30 a.m. for 
morning business. The House will meet at noon for suspensions. There 
will be two bills on suspension which are listed on the schedule, 
tentative 4: H.R. 4448, the Lowell National Historical Park; H.R. 4008, 
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Authorization Act; and 
H.R. 4539, Treasury, Postal and Certain Independent Agencies conference 
report. I will say to the gentleman there will not be votes until 5 
p.m.
  On Tuesday, September 27, and the balance of the week, we will meet 
at 10:30 a.m. for morning hour Tuesday; at noon on Tuesday, the House 
will meet. The House will meet at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Thursday, and 
Friday.
  There will be a variety of suspensions on Tuesday which are listed on 
the gentleman's schedule, and then we have a set of bills that will be 
taken up during the week: Lobbying Disclosure Act conference report, 
Department of Agriculture Reorganization Act, National Treatment in 
Banking Act.
  Members can expect votes on Friday as that is the last day of the 
fiscal year, and obviously we have to finish the appropriation bills if 
at all possible.
  Mr. MICHEL. Mr. Speaker, I do not see on the program congressional 
reform.
  Is there any intelligence on that issue before we get out of here?
  Mr. GEPHARDT. If the gentleman will yield further, it is my 
understanding that the Commiteee on Rules is still considering that 
legislation, and I am not altogether sure at this point exactly when it 
might come forward, but they are still working on it.
  Mr. MICHEL. Let me also make the observation that last evening the 
Speaker and I had a private conversation in which he assured me that 
before we do adjourn the Members will have an opportunity to vote on 
Haitian policy, and I guess after it wends its way through the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs, and I have to take the Speaker, 
certainly, at his word, and it is probably good that it be reaffirmed 
by the distinguished majority leader for those who might have an 
interest, a burning interest, in the issue, and if the assurance is 
there, I think it helps us in programming.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. If the gentleman will yield further, that is correct. 
The Speaker did communicate the fact, as I understand it, that a bill 
is being prepared in the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and that will be 
coming to the floor either next week or the week after that, but 
certainly before we leave.
  Mr. MICHEL. I thank the distinguished gentleman.
  Mr. WALKER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. MICHEL. I am happy to yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. WALKER. Mr. Speaker, I just had a question for the majority 
leader with regard to the lobbying disclosure bill. I have had a chance 
to look over a summary of what is going to be contained in that bill. 
It appears to be something where Members are going to want to be fairly 
well educated about the nature of some of the very big changes that are 
suggested there.
  I am wondering if we are going to have sufficient time to get Members 
properly briefed before that bill gets to the floor. I had heard some 
talk that it might come up as early as next Tuesday. It is going to 
make it very difficult for us to get Members fully informed about the 
details of that bill if, in fact, it is run out here on Tuesday.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. If the gentleman will yield further, first, it will be 
filed today, so it will be in the Record, and Members can look through 
it over the weekend. We will be trying to do it probably on Tuesday. We 
will be back here Monday afternoon, and we will get to it Tuesday 
afternoon, so Members I think, will have adequate time.

                              {time}  1230

  Finally, the bill, as I understand it, is a lot like the House-passed 
bill. There are a few differences, but frankly not that many. So there 
is not a lot of new material to look through.
  Mr. WALKER. If the gentleman will yield further, the question that 
comes up, as you read through the briefing materials that I have seen 
so far, is not so much the details but what some of the interpretations 
of this are going to be. And I think Members are going to want to be 
very, very aware of how some of this fairly general language may be 
spelled out in terms of Ethics Committee rulings. And that is not clear 
from any of the briefing material I have seen so far. And there were 
questions raised at the time the House bill passed about those 
questions that had never been resolved. I would at least be hopeful 
that we would have answers to some of those specifics before the bill 
comes to the floor for consideration.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. If the gentleman will yield further, we would be happy 
to try to have Representative Bryant and others who worked on this and 
their staff available on Monday to answer questions, or someone else 
from the committee who is conversant with it. But we will try to make 
them available to any Member who wants to ask questions.
  Mr. MICHEL. I simply want to underscore the concern of the gentleman 
from Pennsylvania [Mr. Walker] because from what I have been able to 
gather just preliminarily, some real drastic changes relative to how 
this place will operate next year, concerned Members, particularly what 
they can or cannot do, being subject to penalties and all the rest. It 
is one of those things affecting Members' lives as closely as it does 
and as far-reaching as it does, we really ought to have a good briefing 
what they are signing onto if they end up voting for it. My inclination 
right now, from what I have heard, I just do not think it is the proper 
approach to take. But then that is always a debatable item in this 
particular body.
  I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. WALKER. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I am glad the 
gentleman made the statement.
  The other concern I think I would have is that I think Members are 
going to be held accountable for beginning to do these things right now 
as soon as it is passed.
  In the public's eyes, waiting until next January, when we have 
already passed the bill, is not going to be good enough. My guess is 
that various groups are going to begin holding Members accountable for 
this in the campaign season that we are now engaged in. I would think 
that Members are going to want to know exactly what is going to be 
asked of them as they are out in the countryside with regard to this 
law.
  Mr. MICHEL. I yield to my friend from California.
  Mr. DREIER. I thank the Republican leader for yielding.
  I would like to inquire of the distinguished majority leader on the 
issue of reform, I wanted to get back to congressional reform. I did 
not hear the colloquy on the floor here, but I understand there was 
discussion about what is being taken up in the Rules Committee.
  Having served on the joint committee, thanks to the great appointment 
I got from our Republican leader, Mr. Michel, I have been very 
frustrated in the nature of H.R. 3801, the bill that was reported out, 
passed by the joint committee last November before Thanksgiving. That 
is not the legislation that we are marking up in the Rules Committee. I 
am hoping very much that we will be able to get back to that initial 
piece of legislation as it was reported out, having gone through a year 
of hearings and very elaborate markup of the legislation. It seems to 
me that as we look at this, that is the way we should proceed. I hope 
very much we will be able to do that.
  I wonder if the majority leader might have any comments on that issue 
of where we are headed on the issue of congressional reform, which was 
a key issue back in the 1992 election. I had many people asking me when 
are you going to do it.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. If the gentleman will yield, it is my understanding, 
and I am not entirely conversant with all of the details, but it is my 
understanding that the Rules Committee is working very industriously to 
pull the bill together and to bring it to the floor. That is their 
jurisdiction and their job, and they are going to do it as quickly as 
they can. We intend to bring it up.
  Mr. DREIER. We have been doing it upstairs, as I said, but the thing 
that concerns me is that we are not actually marking up the legislation 
that was reported out of our joint committee. There have been some 
major changes made by the chairman of the committee. It seems to me it 
is very unfortunate we have proceeded with a bill which is much 
different than that which we worked on for such a long period of time.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. I understand the gentleman's concern. The committee has 
to act on this. It is their jurisdiction. It is a job they have to 
perform. Obviously, when it gets to the floor, Members can vote for 
changes or vote against the bill.
  Mr. DREIER. I am hoping very much we will be able to get an open 
amendment, an open rule, so that we will be able to make the kinds of 
changes that I think the majority of this House and the American people 
want us to put into place.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. We are certainly concerned, with the minority, about 
how this will be brought up, and as the gentleman knows, the minority 
has certain rights about bringing up alternatives and motions to 
recommit and other ways. I am sure that will occur.
  Mr. DREIER. I thank my friend.
  Mr. MICHEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of any time I may 
have.

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