[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 24 (Tuesday, February 7, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H1325-H1326]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. GEPHARDT asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. GEPHARDT. Mr. Speaker, I take this time to inquire of the 
majority leader about consultations we have been having on trying to 
work out a procedure for the consideration of the rest of the crime 
bills.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the distinguished majority leader.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. Let me 
preface my remarks by saying we have been having consultations, not 
only between the minority leader and myself, but between the chairman 
of the committee and the distinguished gentleman from Michigan [Mr. 
Conyers] and other members of the committee, and the Committee on 
Rules, and they have been going well. So I think I can report to the 
Members with a high degree of confidence a probable schedule for today 
and the remainder of the week, with a few caveats interceded.
  First of all, we expect to be able to finish the exclusionary rule 
reform today, and there is a very good likelihood we could be out by 7 
o'clock this evening. We would begin tomorrow at 11 o'clock and, if 
necessary, we would finish the exclusionary rule.
  We would then begin an attempt to finish the effective death penalty, 
subject to a unanimous-consent request that I will make in a moment 
that has been cleared on both sides of the aisle. 
 [[Page H1326]] We ought to be able to be out tomorrow night by a 
reasonable time, about 8 o'clock possibly.
  We should mention that in our proceedings tomorrow on the effective 
death penalty, there will be 6 hours in which we would consider 
amendments.
  On Thursday, we would convene at 9 o'clock. We would have a limit on 
1-minutes, and we would begin the discussion on prisons, and we could 
expect to go late Thursday night.
  On Friday, subject to a unanimous-consent request, we would begin at 
10 o'clock in the morning. We should be able to finish our discussion 
of the prison bill. The we would begin to attempt to finish the 
criminal alien deportation bill, trying to be out by 3. We will rise at 
3 in any event on Friday and we may have to have a unanimous-consent 
request later on to facilitate that.
  That would make it possible for us to convene the House at 2 o'clock 
next Monday and have a general debate that would allow Members to be 
sure they would not face a vote before 5 o'clock Monday afternoon. We 
would hope on Monday to finish the Criminal Alien Deportation act and 
begin local law enforcement block grants.
  We should expect a late night next Monday. On Tuesday, we would 
convene at 11 o'clock and finish local law enforcement blocks grants, 
and Tuesday could be a possible late night.
  Obviously, we have been receiving, I think, very good dialog, debate, 
and cooperation from all Members. Certainly the discussions between the 
leadership teams, not only in the committee and the minority leader's 
office as well as mine, have gone well. So let me just encourage the 
Members to know this represents what we consider to be a highly 
probable schedule outcome, and clearly we will try not to surprise 
anybody. I think the 3 o'clock departure on Friday is something they 
can by very certain about, and they can be quite confident they would 
face no votes before 5 on Monday.
  With those comments, I would yield back.

                              {time}  1620

  Mr. GEPHARDT. I thank the gentleman. I would just like to add some 
other items that we have been discussing. One was that we would like to 
be able to have an hour of general debate on the prisons bill by 
unanimous consent, if we can get it, on Wednesday. We would also hope 
to have the House convene at 9 a.m. on Friday and would be willing to 
agree to limit 1-minutes, if that would be helpful to get us started on 
that day at an earlier point.
  Obviously, we have got to get some unanimous-consents to get rules 
up. We would like to finish the criminal alien deportation bill on 
Friday so that Monday could be dedicated to the law enforcement block 
grants, along with Tuesday. Obviously, we have to get a unanimous-
consent. And we have to agree to the rule.
  We would like to have open rules, but we are willing to agree to some 
time limits which we can talk among ourselves with the Committee on 
Rules about so that we can assure everyone that we can finish these 
bills when the gentleman would like to finish them on the schedule. But 
having an open rule and requiring us to discipline the amendment 
process would be a good way for us to proceed.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to yield, the 
gentleman is correct. I do need to correct my earlier statement.
  On Thursday, the House will convene at 10 and there will be a limit 
on 1-minutes. And we will be asking unanimous consent presently for 
Friday, for the House to convene at 9.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. I thank the gentleman.
  

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