[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 27 (Friday, February 10, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H1597-H1598]
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, my request is for the purpose of inquiring 
about the schedule.
  I yield to the distinguished majority leader to inquire about the 
schedule for the rest of this week and next week.
  Mr. ARMEY. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Let me thank the 
gentleman again, another week, for your patience and for all the 
cooperation that we have on both sides of the aisle with moving this 
very difficult agenda.
  With respect to next week, on Monday, February 13, the House will 
meet at 12:30 p.m. for morning hour and 2 p.m. for the legislative 
business.
  We will take up the rule for H.R. 728, the Local Government Law 
Enforcement Block Grants Act and then move into general debate. We 
expect no votes before 5 p.m. on Monday. However, Members should be 
advised that the House may work late on Monday night.
  On Tuesday, February 14, the House will meet at 9:30 a.m. for morning 
hour and at 11 a.m. for legislative business. We expect to complete 
consideration of H.R. 728 on Tuesday, so Members should be advised that 
the House may also work late on Tuesday night. However, let me just say 
that Tuesday is a very special day for many of us and we have high 
hopes of being out at an early enough hour so that we can go to dinner 
with that person with respect to whom we hold the greatest affection.
  Mr. ROEMER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. GEPHARDT. I yield to the gentleman from Indiana.
  Mr. ROEMER. The gentleman and I had an interesting conversation last 
week on the family friendly agenda, and he told me that he had a date 
last Friday with his lovely wife Susan. I hope the gentleman made that 
date and had a great time, and I hope that he can give the House 
assurances, concrete assurances on Tuesday night that we will be out by 
a time certain, such as 7, so that he can enjoy some time with Susan 
once again and all of us can enjoy some time with our loved ones.
  We have a resolution that we put forward:
  [[Page H1598]] Roses are red,
  Violets are blue,
  If we're not home by 7,
  We're in deep stew.
  We would encourage the gentleman to give us a more definite time on 
Tuesday night.
  Mr. ARMEY. I appreciate the sentiment. Let me just say, I believe 
that we will probably work hard and late Monday night and I think with 
good cooperation we can all have a high confidence that we will be able 
to make what I am sure for all of us will be a lovely dinner on Tuesday 
night.
  Mr. ROEMER. So we still do not have an assurance of 7 yet?
  Mr. ARMEY. This gentleman just needs to see how deep it will be, that 
to which you earlier referred.
  Mr. ROEMER. I do not want to be in any.
  Mr. ARMEY. I assure the gentleman, I appreciate your point of view. 
To be as assertive as prudence would allow me to be, let me just say, I 
have high hopes and great expectations that we will accommodate to an 
early enough evening on Tuesday so that we can all have a lovely dinner 
with a lovely person.
  Mr. ROEMER. If we do not, you are buying the roses for all of us to 
get us out of that deep stew?
  Mr. ARMEY. I am sure I understand the point.
  Mr. ROEMER. I thank the gentleman.
  Mr. ARMEY. If the gentleman will continue to yield, now that we have 
all survived Tuesday, we can move on to Wednesday, February 15.
  The House will meet at 11 a.m. and will begin consideration of H.R. 
7, the National Security Restoration Act, subject to a rule. Once again 
Members should be advised that the House may work late on Wednesday 
night.
  On Thursday, February 16, the House will meet at 10 a.m. to complete 
consideration of H.R. 7. We expect to have Members on their way home 
around 3 p.m. for the Presidents' Day district work period.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. I thank the gentleman.
  I have a couple of questions. First, I want to reiterate the 3 p.m. 
time on Thursday. I know a lot of Members on both sides have travel 
plans, and so you are really trying as we did today to get done by 3. 
Is that my understanding?
  Mr. ARMEY. Yes, the gentleman is correct.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. Could the gentleman give us some sense of what kind of 
rule? Would there be an open rule providing for consideration of the 
National Security Restoration Act?
  Mr. ARMEY. The gentleman might address the question.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York, 
the chairman of the Committee on Rules.
  Mr. SOLOMON. I would be glad to. As a matter of fact, I was just 
about to enter into consultation with the minority ranking member of 
the Committee on National Security, the very distinguished and 
respected gentleman, to talk about that. But we certainly want to 
consult with the minority. We would like to have an open rule. Because 
of time constraints, it is going to be necessary to follow the orders 
of the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Armey] over here and move these bills. 
So that I think you would be happy with the final result and we intend 
to talk about it and see if we can work out an agreement.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. I thank the gentleman. Obviously we want as open a rule 
I think as can be put together. We would be happy to consult with you. 
The gentleman from California is well equipped to do that and we will 
hope for a good result.
  Can I just make one other comment and perhaps pose a question. I want 
to say to the gentleman that we have encountered a continuation of 
serious problems with committees meeting at the same time that 
committees are on the floor. I want to commend the gentleman from 
Illinois [Mr. Hyde] for negotiating with the gentleman from Michigan 
[Mr. Conyers] in trying to work out a hearing schedule in their 
committee that would accommodate both of them and many of their members 
being on the floor through the continuation of the consideration of 
these crime bills. But I would say to the gentleman that as you know, 
having this 100-day calendar requirement, which we do not necessarily 
share--we understand the majority's desire to meet this promise, but I 
do not think any of us should believe that meeting that promise should 
get in the way of what is a reasonable schedule for Members to be able 
to meet. It is not reasonable if we cannot work out accommodations so 
that Members can both make their assignments in committee and meet 
their responsibilities here on the floor.
  In that regard, and in a spirit of trying to work this out, it would 
be very helpful to the minority if the majority when they are able to 
do it could give us a complete calendar schedule of how you are trying 
to meet this 100-day requirement so that we can make sensible 
suggestions to the extent we can for how all of this can work.
                              {time}  1520

  I am getting very spirited objections from my Members who are truly 
distraught because they are not able to meet their responsibilities to 
vote in the committee, and we all know we banned proxy voting, and that 
is the regime we are operating under, and also meet the 
responsibilities on the floor. And the gentleman knows the tension is 
high on these matters, and we will do everything in our power to work 
this out. But we need as much advance information as we can get.
  Mr. ARMEY. If the gentleman will yield, I thank the gentleman for 
that observation. Many Members from both sides of the aisle have again 
brought that to my attention.
  Again I think the gentleman has made a good suggestion. We will try 
to share Monday morning as much information as we can and continue to 
try to work on that.
  However, as I have said before, we are, of course, all of us engaged 
in hard work, very hard work in a short period of time, and we are 
trying to make a big change and keep our promises. And while I thank 
the Members on both sides of the aisle for their patience and their 
diligence, I agree with the gentleman from Missouri, we need to 
continue working on finding ways to relieve people of some of these 
pressures, and we will continue to do so.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. Just one additional question. Could the gentleman tell 
us what time votes will begin on Tuesday, February 21, which is the 
first day back after the President's Day recess? The schedule says 5 
p.m. I am wondering if that is something that we can rely on at this 
point.
  Mr. ARMEY. If the gentleman will yield, yes, we can rely on that, 5 
o'clock on Tuesday, the day we return.
  If I might bet the indulgence of the gentleman from Missouri, I see 
Grandfather Dellums is with us here on the floor. I hope he did have an 
opportunity to see his new grandbaby last weekend, and that is in light 
of the remarks we made earlier here about the things that we hold most 
dear. And I am proud that the gentleman from California [Mr. Dellums] 
has a grandbaby, and can only wish I had one too.
  Mr. ROEMER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. GEPHARDT. I yield to the gentleman from Indiana.
  Mr. ROEMER. Could the gentleman just whisper in my ear or tell me now 
if he has a reservation what time that reservation is on Tuesday night 
so I can make that with my wife Tuesday night so I can make that with 
my wife Tuesday night for a restaurant?
  Mr. ARMEY. If the gentleman will yield, let me say I have just 
checked with Dan Cupid here, and he has assured me that by 7 o'clock on 
Tuesday, Valentine's Eve, we should be able to join our loved ones for 
dinner.
  Mr. ROEMER. I thank the majority leader, and we all thank him.

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