[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 103 (Friday, July 12, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H7506-H7507]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. BONIOR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. BONIOR. Madam Speaker, I ask for this time for the purpose of 
asking the distinguished majority whip the schedule for the remainder 
of the week and next week.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas [Mr. DeLay].
  Mr. DeLAY. Madam Speaker, I thank the distinguished minority whip for 
yielding.
  Madam Speaker, I am pleased to announce that the House has concluded 
its legislative business for the week. We will next meet on Tuesday, 
July 16, at 10:30 a.m. for morning hour and 12 noon for legislative 
business. Members should note that the House will postpone recorded 
votes until 5 p.m. in accordance with an agreement with the minority to 
voice vote the rule on Treasury, Postal appropriations bill.
  On Tuesday, Madam Speaker, the House will consider the following 
seven bills under suspension of the rules: H.R. 3166, The Government 
Accountability Act of 1996; H.R. 3458, the Veterans' Compensation Cost-
of-Living Adjustment Act of 1996; H.R. 3643, Extending Benefits to 
Veterans Exposed to Agent Orange; H.R. 3673, The Veterans' Compensation 
and Readjustment Benefits Amendments of 1996; H.R. 3674, The Veterans' 
Education and Compensation Benefits Amendments of 1996; H.R. 361, The 
Omnibus Export Administration Act of 1995; and H.R. 3161, Extending 
Most-Favored-Nation Status to Romania.
  After suspensions, we will take up under an open rule H.R. 3756, the 
Treasury, Postal Service and General Government appropriations bill.

  On Wednesday, July 17, the House will turn to the Commerce, Justice, 
State and Judiciary appropriations bill, also subject to a rule.
  On Thursday, July 18, we will consider H.R. 3760, Campaign Finance 
Reform and H.R. 3734, the Balanced Budget Reconciliation Act. Both 
bills, of course, will be subject to rules.
  Members should note that next week will be a very busy week. We have 
a lot of important business to cover and it will probably be necessary 
to work very late on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. However, we will 
finish legislative business by 6 p.m. on Thursday, July 18.
  Mr. BONIOR. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his information, 
and I would ask my friend a couple of questions here. Will the welfare 
reform proposal be considered separately from Medicaid or will they be 
considered together as my colleague previously had planned?
  Mr. DeLAY. Madam Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. BONIOR. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
  Mr. DeLAY. We anticipate bringing welfare reform to the floor as a 
freestanding bill separate from Medicaid.
  Mr. BONIOR. Reclaiming my time, I thank the gentleman for that 
answer.
  The second question I have is on the rule and on debate time. Can my 
colleague or the gentleman from New York [Mr. Solomon], if he is here, 
give us any indication on how long we will have for debate in this 
particular rule or any information about the rule itself?
  Mr. DeLAY. If the gentleman will continue to yield, the Committee on 
Rules has not met yet on the welfare reform bill. We certainly want to 
work with the minority to make sure ample amount of debate time on this 
very important piece of legislation will be held, plus the fact that we 
want to make sure that every opportunity for the minority to have a 
substitute will be available to the minority.
  Mr. BONIOR. Well, I thank my colleague for that assurance, because as 
we know, there are Members, most of the Members on our side, in fact, 
all the Members on our side have been deeply interested in the 
principle of getting people off welfare and into work. We are very much 
interested in assurance from my colleague, which I would believe we 
have just received, that we will have the opportunity to present a 
Democratic alternative to this body when the bill comes to the floor.

  Mr. DeLAY. If the gentleman would yield, I appreciate it, and I 
concur with the distinguished whip. I do point out that under the 
budget resolution, though, any substitute that would be allowed on the 
floor must conform to the budget resolution and therefore have to 
conform to the savings outlined in the budget resolution in the 
underlying bill.
  Mr. BONIOR. I would ask my colleague from Texas about the reform week 
that was announced earlier in the summer by the majority. Several press 
reports have outlined six or seven reform bills which would be 
considered, and I am wondering what happened to that list of reforms. 
Are we going to have just the campaign finance reform bill next week? 
Is the majority going to have some additional suspension bills that 
were not listed in those that he read to us just a few minutes ago?

[[Page H7507]]

What does the gentleman have in store beyond the campaign finance piece 
next week in terms of reform?

                              {time}  1430

  Mr. DeLAY. If the gentleman will continue yielding, I appreciate the 
whip asking the question because it allows me the opportunity to point 
out that this is the reform Congress; that on the first day of this 
Congress we went until 1:30 the next day reforming this House, reforms 
that we are all very proud of and voted for, to open this House and 
give it back, and finished the day with the Congressional 
Accountability Act that is now law that makes all of us live under the 
same laws that we have passed. We have passed the gift ban and lobby 
reforms, and many reforms over the course of the year.
  Because of the problem of floor time, what we are bringing next week 
is the campaign finance reform, and I believe one other on suspension. 
Well, just campaign finance reform next week, to continue the efforts 
and the accomplishments of this reform Congress, the 104th Congress.
  Mr. BONIOR. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague. I do not intend to 
debate, at 2:30 on Friday, how much reform this Congress has achieved. 
We will have a good go at that for I suspect about 3 hours next week, 
and we obviously have a different point of view than my friend from 
Texas on this issue.
  But I thank him for his information and we wish him a good weekend.
  Mr. DeLAY. Madam Speaker, if the gentleman would yield further, I 
also wish everyone a good weekend and urge them to get rest, because of 
the short week and an intense week. And I wish my friend a good weekend 
also.

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