[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 158 (Thursday, October 12, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H10022-H10023]
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 and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I rise for the purpose of inquiring of the 
distinguished majority leader the schedule for the coming week.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. HOYER. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I would like to just take a moment to thank 
the members of the Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee, the 
Committee on Commerce and the Committee on Science on both sides of the 
aisle for their cooperation that enabled us to complete this week's 
work tonight and have had now our last vote for the week.
  We will be in session tomorrow pro forma only. We will not be in 
session on Monday. But to get to the point of the question, Mr. 
Speaker, the House will not be in session on Monday, October 16. There 
will be no recorded votes on Monday.
  On Tuesday, the House will meet at 12:30 p.m. for morning hour and at 
2 p.m. for legislative business.
  After 1-minutes we pan to take up 10 bills under suspension of the 
rules. These bills are H.R. 1715, a bill to reverse the Supreme Court 
decision in Adams versus Barrett; H.R. 1606, the Harry Kizirian Post 
Office Designation Act; H.R. 1026, the Winfield Scott Stratton Post 
Office Designation Act; H.R. 587, Biotechnical Process Patents Act; 
H.R. 1506, Digital Performance Rights in Sound Recordings Act; H.R. 
2070, Providing for the United States distribution of the ``Fragile 
Ring of Life'' film; H.R. 629, the Fall River Visitor Center Act; S. 
268, Collection of Fees for Triploid Grass Carp Certification 
Inspection; H.R. 1743, Water Resources Research Act Amendments of 1995; 
and H.R. 2353, Extending Certain Veterans' Affairs Health and Medical 
Care Expiring Authorities.

  Members should be advised that any recorded votes ordered on these 
suspensions will be postponed until 5 p.m. on Tuesday next.
  On Wednesday and Thursday, the House will met at 10 a.m. for 
legislative business. We plan to complete consideration of H.R. 39, the 
Fishery Conservation and Management Amendments of 1995, before turning 
to H.R. 2259, Disapproving Certain Sentencing Guidelines, which will be 
subject to a rule.
  The House will then consider H.R. 2425, the Medicare Preservation Act 
of 1995, also subject to a rule.
  Members should also be advised that conference reports may be brought 
to the floor at any time.
  There will be no recorded votes on Friday, October 20, and we hope to 
have Members on their way home to their families by 6 p.m. on Thursday.
  I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished majority leader for 
informing us of the schedule next week.
  I would ask the gentleman if he knows specifically when the Medicare 
bill will be going to the Committee on Rules?
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to yield, we 
will be going to Rules on Wednesday.
  Mr. HOYER. Is it the intention to bring the bill up on the floor on 
Thursday?
  Mr. ARMEY. Yes, Mr. Speaker.
  Mr. HOYER. So can I ask the gentleman, obviously that will be one 
day, 

[[Page H 10023]]
and we hope to get out by 6. I presume we are going in at 10 on 
Thursday?
  Mr. ARMEY. Yes.
  Mr. HOYER. Does the gentleman have any idea as to how much debate 
will be allowed on the Medicare bill on Thursday? Under the rule?
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, at this time I cannot say for certain because 
the Committee on Rules has not met, but it would certainly be a couple 
hours at least.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I say in all due respect to my friend, the 
majority leader, this is a bill that I understand exceeds 450 pages. 
The bill has not received any days of hearings because it was not 
drafted. But there were no hearings in the Committee on Commerce.
  I say with all due respect to my friend, the majority leader, does 
the majority leader believe that 2 hours or so of debate on a bill of 
this magnitude is sufficient to fully inform the Members on all the 
issues that will be incorporated in the bill?
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, yes.
  Mr. HOYER. The problem we have on this side is that we do perceive 
this as a bill which will have very serious impact on millions of 
people in this country. Obviously, we have had bills on this floor of 
relatively small consequence which have been debated, frankly, for days 
on this floor. Is there any possibility that we might get at least a 
guarantee of maybe 4 hours of general debate on this bill?
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, If the gentleman will continue to yield, of 
course, I can understand the gentleman is interested in such a request. 
I think the appropriate place to make the request would be before the 
Committee on Rules. They will write the rules, and I would welcome the 
gentleman to make his case before the committee.

  Mr. HOYER. Well, Mr. Speaker, I will tell the majority leader that we 
certainly intend to ask the Committee on Rules, and I hope the majority 
leader and the Speaker who, of course, will advise the Committee on 
Rules, as we did, as to what they believe to be the appropriate time 
and rule under which the Medicare bill ought to be considered. But I 
hope, in all seriousness, that the majority leader and the Speaker 
would advise the Committee on Rules that a sufficient time be allotted 
for debate on this bill which gives the Congress the opportunity to 
fully explore the effects of the legislation on each of its parts on 
the people of this country and on the budget and on the health care 
security of our senior citizens.
  I would urge the leader to do that this week and next week when we 
talk to members of the Committee on Rules.
  Furthermore, nearly 2 weeks have passed since this body passed a 
continuing resolution. We have approximately a month remaining until 
that continuing resolution expires.
  To date, only one bill, appropriation bill, has been signed by the 
President, as we all know, which means that 12 still remain unsigned. 
The last bill, last week, only one bill has passed the House. As a 
member of, for instance of the Treasury Postal bill, that bill has been 
ready, in my opinion, to pass out of conference for the last 15 days. 
And it is my understanding that the President has indicated, if the 
bill passes without the Istook amendment, that it will be signed.
  Now, it seems to me, the gentleman talked a little bit on NPR this 
morning about cooperation and about moving ahead on those issues where 
we could reach agreement. That bill and some other appropriation bills, 
if they could move forward, we would serve the American public's 
interest in having their government funded in a timely fashion.
  The fiscal year, of course, ended 2 weeks ago. We had no 
appropriation bills signed by then. And is the majority leader aware of 
what the plans are to see that appropriation bills move in a timely 
fashion so that we do not have to be confronted on November 16 with the 
necessity to pass another continuing resolution?
  I know the majority leader in the past has stated his deep concern 
about continuing resolutions. I tend to share that concern. I am 
wondering whether or not we have plans to preclude that from happening.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his observations. 
Let me just say, we are working on all these bills. We are making good 
progress. Having just completed foreign operations today, I am pleased 
to hear that the President has stipulated the conditions under which he 
might sign one of the other bills. I look forward to hearing from the 
President on that matter. I am sure he will want to communicate that to 
me.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I will tell the majority leader that I 
believe that has been essentially communicated to the committee.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I will look into it.
  Mr. HOYER. I will certainly see if we can get information directly to 
the gentleman.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his information and would 
simply again urge him to provide for the opportunity for this House to 
fully debate a bill on the consequence of the Medicare proposal.

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