[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 59 (Thursday, March 30, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H4008-H4010]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. HOYER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I take this time to inquire of the majority 
leader about the schedule for the week to come.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. HOYER. I am glad to yield to my friend, the gentleman from Texas, 
the distinguished majority leader.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  [[Page H4009]] Mr. Speaker, on Monday, April 3, the House will meet 
at 12:30 p.m., for morning hour and 2 p.m. for legislative business. We 
plan to take up the following bills under suspension of the rules:
  H.R. 1345, the District of Columbia Financial Responsibility and 
Management Assistance Act of 1995; and very importantly;
  H.R. 716, the Fisherman's Protective Act amendments;
  H. Res. 120, the resolution expressing the sense of congress 
regarding the American citizens held in Iraq; and
  H.R. 1271, the Family Privacy Protection Act.
  Also, depending on the Senate's progress, we may consider a motion to 
go to conference on the FEMA emergency supplemental appropriations 
legislation. Members should be advised that there will be no recorded 
votes taken before 5 p.m. on Monday.
  For Tuesday and the balance of the week the House will consider H.R. 
660, the Housing for Older Persons Act of 1995 subject to a rule; H.R. 
1240, the Sexual Crimes Against Children Prevention Act of 1995, 
subject to a rule; and H.R. 1215, the Tax Fairness and Deficit 
Reduction Act, subject to a rule. We will also take up any conference 
reports that might become available next week.
  Meeting times for the House will be 9:30 a.m., for morning hour and 
11 a.m., for legislative business on Tuesday; 11 a.m. on Wednesday; and 
10 a.m. on Thursday and Friday. Members should be advised that there 
will be votes on Friday and it is our hope to have Members on their way 
home to their districts for the April district work period by 3 p.m. on 
Friday.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for his 
comments.
  On Tuesday, I inquire of the majority leader: He indicates that he 
will be seeking rules on the Housing for Elder Persons Act and the 
Sexual Crimes Against Children Prevention Act. Is either one of those 
controversial?
  Mr. ARMEY. If the gentleman will yield, I believe neither of those 
will be controversial. We expect them to both be granted open rules.
  Mr. HOYER. Is there a reason for getting a rule as opposed to putting 
them on the suspension calendar?
  Mr. ARMEY. If the gentleman will yield further, the reason is simply 
a fair and open debate.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman.
  Referring to Friday, does the gentleman expect votes on Friday?
  Mr. ARMEY. Yes, we do expect votes on Friday.
  Mr. HOYER. Can the gentleman advise what we might be voting on 
Friday? Does the gentleman expect the tax bill to go over to Friday?
  Mr. ARMEY. If the gentleman would yield further, we do not expect the 
tax bill to go over on Friday, but we do have hopes that--we have 
conference reports that might be available, and we have some other 
legislation that we think we may be able to complete before we adjourn 
for our April district work period.
  Mr. HOYER. The gentleman says the tax bill will be completed by that 
time. Can the leader tell me--it is going to be up on Wednesday--does 
the gentleman expect, since the rule has not been written for that at 
this point in time, can Members have the expectation of when they might 
be considering the tax bill?
  Mr. ARMEY. If the gentleman would yield further, the Committee on 
Rules, as the gentleman knows, has been holding hearings on that and 
are making their deliberations. If everything goes according to 
expectations, we should expect we will begin the tax bill on Wednesday.
  Mr. HOYER. And completed on Thursday?
  Mr. ARMEY. I should expect so.
  Mr. HOYER. That is the expectation.
  Might I ask the majority leader, as someone who in years past--and we 
have not always met that date--I do not know the number, but with 
respect to the budget, can the majority leader give us an idea? 
Obviously, we are not going to be doing it next week, so we are not, 
presumably, meeting therefore the April 15 target date under the 
statute for presenting the budget. Could the majority leader tell me 
when that budget might be forthcoming?
  I yield further to the gentleman from Texas.
  Mr. ARMEY. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Yes, our expectation is that that budget resolution will be brought 
to the floor early in May, we are very confident, by the middle of May.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the majority leader.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to my friend, the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. 
Roemer].
  Mr. ROEMER. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the distinguished 
majority leader a couple of questions if I may. As the majority leader 
is aware, and as we are painfully aware on this side, we are in the 
minority but we still have families and children, and even though there 
are only 204 of us on the Democratic side, we have large families with 
lots of children in them, and we like to spend time with those 
children.
  Last night we had an instance where we voted until 10 o'clock at 
night. We are now out at about 2:30 in the afternoon.
  Could the distinguished majority leader tell me why we would not roll 
the votes from last night and not been in until 9:30, 10, last night, 
but be out by about 7 o'clock and have that time rolled over into 
today's time and debate and still be able to get home to our districts 
to work tonight.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. HOYER. I yield to the majority leader, the gentleman from Texas.
  Mr. ARMEY. I thank the gentleman again.
  Mr. Speaker, again let me express my appreciation for the concerns 
the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Roemer] raises. We have had a couple of 
windfalls. The gentleman may recall, we were able to shorten our 
proceedings last night by withdrawing one of the amendments and then 
moving more quickly than anybody anticipated to a final passage vote.
  Second, today we had the additional unexpected windfall which enabled 
us to avoid having a recorded vote on the conference report. These 
things are not always predictable. In order to, on the one hand, be as 
confident as we can that we give the Members as certain as possible a 
departure time for those who have to make their planes, all too often, 
to the west coast, we try to be as complete in our planning as 
possible, and we appreciate the windfalls when we can get them.
  Mr. HOYER. I yield further to the gentleman from Indiana for an 
additional question.
  Mr. ROEMER. My second question of the majority leader would be a 
number of us on authorizing committees have not been marking up bills 
for various reasons. Some of the chairmen have been in budget 
committees, there has been a very, very busy schedule on the floor.
  Now, when we come back from our work period after the April time 
frame, the authorization bills are going to be coming to the floor, 
trying to get time not only to mark up and get their bills out of 
committee and give vision and a macro picture of the budgetary process 
to the appropriators. The Appropriations Committee are also going to be 
trying to get time both in committee and on the floor.
  Could the majority leader tell us with some kind of certainty what 
type of schedule we are looking at in this time period when we are 
going to have to make some very, very serious decisions on the budget, 
on appropriations bills? What is the schedule going to look like after 
April?
  Mr. HOYER. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
  Mr. ARMEY. Again, the gentleman raises, I think extraordinary and 
important points. We should be able to put in your hands prior to your 
departure for your April work period back in your districts a schedule 
that will at least give you a clear understanding of what days we will 
be in and actually in the period of time after the April work period 
and before the August work period when we will be in session during 
that time frame 1 day fewer than we were last year.
  There is no doubt, as I look at that, our congressional schedule will 
be much more close to normal in terms of last year and preceding years 
relative to what we have just been through in these 86 or 87 days.
  When we take up business, obviously one of the first items we will 
have will be the budget and we will then subsequently move from budget 
to the appropriations, and a great deal of our 
[[Page H4010]] time on the floor will be by the committee 
appropriations bills, whereas the gentleman knows the Committee on 
Appropriations has on it membership those Members who have exclusive 
committee jurisdiction, and that should alleviate a great deal of the 
problem between committees.
  But I would expect and fully anticipate that whether it be with 
respect to your committee work or floor work or a combination of both, 
and with respect to the hours we keep, that you are going to find a 
very refreshing change of pace, one that is much more congenial to your 
sincere desire to spend more time at home with your families.

                              {time}  1430

  Mr. ROEMER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Maryland [Mr. 
Hoyer] and the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Armey].
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I would thank the majority leader for the 
information he has given to us, to Members on both sides of the aisle, 
with reference to the schedule. I know I speak for the majority, that 
we are very pleased that there is the plan to give to the Members a 
pretty good understanding of what the schedule is going to be over the 
months of May and June and July. That would be very helpful to all of 
us I know.
  I would urge the majority leader, as I have on my own said for almost 
all the years I have been here as a member of the Committee on 
Appropriations, to move the budget as quickly as possible so we can get 
our allocations to the Committee on Appropriations so they could report 
them out. As the gentleman knows, one of the problems we have had, not 
so much in recent years, but we had in the early 1980's, was the 
inability to pass appropriation bills prior to the September 30 end of 
the fiscal year, the consequential looking to continuing resolutions, 
the failure of funding the Government's operations for the new fiscal 
year, and so I would hope that we could see the budget come to the 
House as early in May as is possible, and I appreciate the majority 
leader's information and attention to these matters.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield, I would just 
say the gentleman's point is well taken, and we have every intention of 
making this as expeditious and as full of process as possible.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Armey].
  

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