[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 40 (Friday, March 3, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H2639-H2640]
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 ask for 1 minute in order to inquire of 
the distinguished majority leader about the schedule.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. GEPHARDT. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
  Mr. ARMEY. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, on Monday, March 6, the House will meet at 12:30 p.m. 
for morning hour and 2 p.m. for legislative business. We will take up 
the rule and the debate of H.R. 988, the Attorney Accountability Act. 
We do not expect a vote to be called on the rule for H.R. 988, and we 
expect no votes before 5 p.m. on Monday. We hope to complete 
legislative business on Monday night as close to 9 p.m. as possible.
  On Tuesday, the House will meet at 9:30 a.m. for morning hour and 11 
a.m. for legislative business. We expect to complete H.R. 988 and being 
consideration of H.R. 1058, the Securities Litigation Reform Act, which 
is subject to a rule. It is our understanding that there are several 
events scheduled on Tuesday night that Members on both sides of the 
aisle will wish to attend. For that reason, we plan to finish 
legislative business on Tuesday between 6:30 and 7 p.m.
  On Wednesday, as we announced last week, it is our desire to begin 
legislative business at 10 a.m. At that time, we expect to finish H.R. 
1058, and move to consideration of H.R. 1075, the Common Sense Product 
Liability and Legal Reform Act, which is subject to a rule.
  On Thursday and Friday, the House will meet at 10 a.m. for 
legislative business to complete consideration of H.R. 1075. It is our 
hope to have Members on their way home to their families and their 
districts by 3 p.m. on Friday.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. Would the gentleman be able to tell us what he expects 
the rule to be providing for consideration of the product liability 
caps bill?
  Mr. ARMEY. If the gentleman will yield, the Committee on Rules has 
not met on that. I cannot advise you at this time on what that rule 
will be. We will be consulting with the minority in that process.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. Amendments are due to the Committee on Rules this 
afternoon by 3 p.m. I was just wondering if it was expected that all 
amendments submitted will be made in order. But it is my understanding 
they have to be presented by 3.
  Mr. ARMEY. If the gentleman will yield, the gentleman is absolutely 
correct. Again, I cannot tell the gentleman anything further than that 
about the rule at this time.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. Further inquiring, could the gentleman confirm on the 
longer term schedule, does the gentleman expect the term limits and 
rescissions bill to come to the floor the following week, March 13?
  Mr. ARMEY. If the gentleman will yield, we anticipate the term limits 
will be brought to the floor on the 13th and 14th of March, and we 
expect rescissions to be on the floor the 15th or the 16th of March.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. I take it, then, that welfare reform and spending cuts 
and the tax bill would come in the weeks after that?
  Mr. ARMEY. If the gentleman would yield, the gentleman is absolutely 
correct.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. I yield to the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Roemer].
  Mr. ROEMER. I thank the distinguished minority leader for yielding.
  I would appreciate engaging the distinguished majority leader in a 
couple of questions if I could.
  First of all, I would like to thank him, he was not on the floor when 
I rose 2 weeks ago to thank him for his cooperation on getting not just 
Members with their families but staffs with their families on 
Valentine's Day. Certainly the majority leader does not want to hear 
more of my terrible, horrible poetry to try to get us back on the 
family-friendly schedule. I don't want to have to resort to torture to 
do that. But certainly a lot of Members and their families want to see 
increased efficiency in terms of the congressional schedule. They want 
to see if we work 70-hour, 80-hour weeks, that maybe there are 
procedures that we can use at the end of the day so that we do not see 
repeats of Monday and Thursday night of this past week, of staying in 
an hour over when we could have informed Members that we had the last 
vote.
  I would just ask the majority leader a couple of questions. First of 
all, can you give us any more idea, with predictability in mind, on the 
schedule for Wednesday and Thursday of next week, specific times?
  Mr. ARMEY. If the gentleman would yield, let me just say, I cannot 
give you a more definitive answer at this time. It is always a matter 
of how well the day goes. We try to watch it, we try to schedule and 
stay in long enough to be sure that on the ensuing day we are able to 
complete that work which we hope to complete.
  If the gentleman would continue to yield, Mr. Speaker, I understand 
the concern of the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Roemer]. His expression 
of concern the other day about wanting to be home and tuck in his 
children touched me, and if I could just make a recommendation, please 
do not read them your poems when you do that. We want them to have a 
good night's sleep. But we will try to do the best we can.
  I too have had the pleasure at another time of tucking in my little 
ones and I know how special that can be and I do want to be attentive 
to it.
  Mr. ROEMER. If the gentleman would answer a few more questions, do we 
intend to be in on Saturdays in March or April at this point?
  Mr. ARMEY. If the gentleman would yield, it is possible, though I 
dare speak with some, what should I say, qualified confidence that I 
think I can dare say it seems fairly, perhaps even very unlikely. I 
have no expectation that I can see that that would happen. But I do 
have to make a reservation of a possibility that that could happen.
                              {time}  1430

  It is my sincere hope and expectation that that will not be the case.
  Mr. ROEMER. Finally, a question to the majority leader.
  Many of us know that there are very, very difficult sessions ahead. 
We know that the Republicans are on a 100-day schedule for the 
contract. But after the first 100 days very difficult decisions are 
going to face this body on appropriations matters, on budget matters, 
and on rescission matters and on a farm bill that is critical to many 
of our States.
  Can the gentleman give us some sense of the predictability and how 
efficacious we are going to be in terms of the schedule between April 
and August, 
[[Page H2640]] and are we going to see a repeat of this first 100 days?
  Mr. ARMEY. If the gentleman will yield, we are working on a schedule 
that we expect will be, in fact, much more family friendly that we hope 
to be able to give to the gentleman to take with him before his April 
recess so he and his family could have a better planning of the 
remainder of the year.
  If the gentleman will just bear with us, we would try to complete 
that and make it available as soon as possible.
  Mr. ROEMER. I thank the majority leader.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. If the gentleman would just answer one more question of 
mine, the distinguished majority leader and I have had a conversation 
before about Members being able to depend upon getting out of here for 
the Easter recess on or about April 7 or no later than April 8, which 
is the Saturday before Palm Sunday. I take it we are still on a 
schedule that would give Members some certainty that they could make 
plans for after that date?
  Mr. ARMEY. If the gentleman will yield, the distinguished minority 
leader knows I am by nature a rather cautious person in my optimism 
regarding these things, but what I have been telling my colleagues is I 
would feel very confident that I can guarantee you that you will wake 
up in your bed in your home district on Palm Sunday. I am not confident 
that you will not also retire to your bed in your home district on Palm 
Sunday. But I think it is a realistic optimism and I believe in fact 
that definitely by the Saturday prior to Palm Sunday the gentleman 
should have been on his way home and have his 3 weeks' time.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. I thank the gentleman.
  Mr. WISE. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. GEPHARDT. I yield to the gentleman from West Virginia.
  Mr. WISE. If I could address the majority leader for just a second, 
would he be able to inform us that he has a nonrefundable ticket that 
gets him home on that day, and then we would all take great security in 
that.
  If I could just ask in a serious moment, Mr. Majority Leader, you do 
not see me rise on this subject too often, but I would just like to 
follow on a second on the gentleman from Indiana's theme. And I think I 
speak for both parties and I speak for members of the staff as well, 
that this schedule is working a great toll. And we understand, while 
perhaps not agree that there is the commitment to 100 days, if I could 
just share a couple of examples with the gentleman, I have not seen my 
two children awake, my young children, 7 and 5, in a waking state after 
8 a.m. in the last 2 work weeks. My son drew a picture, my 7-year-old 
on Dads' Day and on Valentines Day, and on Dads' Day at school he drew 
a picture, they all drew pictures of their fathers, and the picture he 
drew of his father was a pretty good cartoon, actually, with a 
moustache, with a suitcase in one hand and a hand on the door and a 
balloon coming out of the mouth that said, ``Goodbye.'' Those things 
get to you after a while.
  Now, in fairness, our constituents do the same thing. The gentleman 
and I have constituents who are truck drivers, coal miners, sales 
people working two or three jobs trying to make it. They agonize that 
they do not see their children in every bit the same way. But there 
might be sometimes a little bit of a difference though. Sometimes they 
see a point at the end where they are going to get to. If nothing else, 
they understand that they are working for hours and they are paid on 
that basis.
  I walked out of here last night knowing I was not going to see my 
children for dinner again, walked out of here and walked down the hall. 
I wanted to see what the other body was doing. It had been a historic 
day. The Chamber was shut, and so as I drifted around the Senate it 
suddenly occurred to me that we are missing a lot of meals over here to 
push the contract out. I do not know that they have missed one in 
anticipation of it.
  So I guess I would just close, Mr. Leader, with more of a statement 
than a question. It is not meant to be acrimonious, but just a 
statement that both parties, everyone in here I believe professes to be 
for family values. We argue about that goal. We argue about how to get 
there. But we both believe we are standing up strongly for American 
families. I guess I do not think we really represent America's families 
if we are not with them, and I guess I believe that we do not move 
America's families very far ahead if we are leaving our own behind.
  So, on the theme of the gentleman from Indiana, I would just ask that 
as the majority leader plans a schedule for the 100 days and what comes 
after, I would greatly appreciate the considerations raised here. As I 
say, I know the other side is feeling the same and wants to 
accommodate, but we have to remember our families as we seek to 
represent all of America's families.
  Mr. ARMEY. If the gentleman will yield, I cannot help but observe to 
the gentleman from West Virginia that I have found in my own life that 
the time that I have seen him spend with his family has been much more 
enjoyable than the time I have spent with him, and we would like to 
keep the gentleman with his family as much as possible, and we will be 
working toward that objective.
  Mr. WISE. We can reach a consensus on that.

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