[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 106 (Thursday, July 18, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H7990-H7991]
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. Mr. Speaker, I ask the distinguished gentleman from 
Pennsylvania [Mr. Walker], what the schedule will be for the rest of 
the week and for the following week.
  Mr. WALKER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

[[Page H7991]]

  Mr. BONIOR. I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. WALKER. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to announce that the House has 
concluded its legislative business for the week.
  We will meet on Monday, July 22, at 10:30 a.m. for Morning Hour, and 
12 noon for legislative business. Members should note that the House 
will postpone any recorded votes until 5 p.m. On Monday the House will 
first consider a number of bills under suspension of the rules before 
turning to the District of Columbia Appropriations Act. Mr. Speaker, I 
will not read through the list of suspensions now, but a complete 
schedule will be distributed to all offices.
  On Tuesday, July 23, the House will meet at 9 a.m. for Morning Hour, 
and 10 a.m. for legislative business. We hope to consider the following 
measures: H.R. 2779, the Soft Metric Conversion Act, on the Corrections 
Day Calendar; H.R. 3564, the NATO Enlargement Facilitation Act, as a 
suspension; and H.R. 3814, the Commerce, Justice, State appropriations 
bill, which will be taken up under an open rule.
  For Wednesday, July 24, and the balance of the week the House will 
consider the following bills: H.R. 3814, the Energy and Water 
appropriations bill, under an open rule; H.R. 3760, the Campaign 
Finance Reform Act, under a modified closed rule; and H.R. 2391, the 
Compensatory Time for All Workers Act, which will be granted a rule 
next week.
  Due to the full agenda next week, we may have to work later on 
Tuesday and Wednesday nights. However, we will finish legislative 
business by 2 p.m. on Friday, July 26.
  I would also like to remind the Members that on Thursday, July 25, 
the annual congressional baseball game will be held, and I believe we 
can finish the votes that night in time for batting practice.
  It is my personal hope that the Republicans' stellar one-game winning 
streak can be extended, although I understand that the Democrats have 
gotten themselves an unusually good left field this year and that may 
cause us a problem.
  I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, I would say to my friend, the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania, that having just come from practice today, I can assure 
the gentleman that the Democrats are very strong up the middle, and I 
would also say to my friend, the gentleman from Pennsylvania, on the 
way to practice this morning I went by the field that the 
Republicans were practicing on and I noticed everybody shagging fly 
balls along the right field line, so we are looking forward to the 
game, and we are pleased that we will be out on time to enjoy that 
evening next Thursday.

  Mr. Speaker, I have a comment or a question to raise to my friend, 
the gentleman from Pennsylvania. He mentioned late nights next week on 
Tuesday and Wednesday, I believe. How late is the gentleman 
anticipating that we might be those evenings?
  Mr. WALKER. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to yield, I 
would say to the gentleman that we are going to proceed under open 
rules on the appropriations bills. I think the Members could expect 
that it could go until 9, 10, or 11 o'clock on those two evenings.
  Mr. BONIOR. I thank the gentleman for that information.
  How about Friday? Are we certain to have votes on Friday, and if so, 
does the gentleman anticipate a certain specific bill coming up on 
Friday?
  Mr. WALKER. We have a very full legislative calendar. If we could get 
through some of this expeditiously and complete the schedule, including 
not only the appropriations bill but the compensatory time bill and 
some of those, it is possible, this gentleman would love to think 
personally that it could take place that we would not have a session on 
Friday, but we would intend to complete the schedule, and I think now 
Members should plan on a Friday session being over by 2 o'clock.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, we were all very disappointed to see that 
virtually all of the items on reform week were pulled from the schedule 
this week. We hate for all of these reform measures to die in this 
Congress. Is the gentleman sure we are going to deal with campaign 
reform next week?
  Mr. WALKER. That is certainly our intention. We believe it will be up 
on Wednesday if the time for the appropriation bills allows that. If 
not, it would probably come on Thursday.
  Mr. BONIOR. Finally, Mr. Speaker, let me just say to my friend, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania, and to others on the other side of the 
aisle who may want to comment on this, Members on this side of the 
aisle and the public in general have been reading conflicting reports 
from the Republican leadership about the continuing resolution and a 
possible early adjournment date in this Congress.
  On the one hand we are hearing that. On the other hand, the chairman 
of the Committee on Rules, the gentleman from New York [Mr. Solomon], 
has said that we have more than 85 more bills to finish before we 
adjourn in this Congress.
  We have so much unfinished business, including all the appropriations 
bills, the health care reform bill, the minimum wage bill, the welfare 
reform bill that we passed today that has to be processed, and so many 
others, we are on our side very concerned that it appears that Congress 
will fail to pass the regular appropriation bills again this year, and 
that we may have to consider another continuing resolution.
  Can the gentleman advise us over here what the possibilities are of 
another CR, and when in fact that might happen?
  Mr. WALKER. We will complete our appropriation bills in the House 
next week. Of course, we cannot predict what the gridlock in the Senate 
may produce in terms of bills reported from there, but it is certainly 
our intention to complete as many of the appropriation bills as 
possible, if not all of them, before the House adjourns.
  The gentleman is correct that this House does have much other 
business to be done, and it seems to me that we are going to want to 
complete our work before settling on an adjournment date.
  Mr. BONIOR. That is good to hear. I thank my colleague for his 
comments. We will look forward to finishing our business before we 
leave this Congress.

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