[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 69 (Thursday, May 22, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H3187-H3189]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. MOAKLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. MOAKLEY. Mr. Speaker, I would like to engage my dear friend, the 
gentleman from New York [Mr. Solomon], the chairman of the Committee on 
Rules, in a little dialogue so that the House, or at least I, will know 
where we are at the present time.
  As the Speaker knows, we do not have any papers concerning the budget 
or the supplemental budget in front of us, so I would like to ask my 
dear friend from New York when we can expect to see something on the 
budget resolution, and when we can expect to

[[Page H3188]]

see something from the conference on the supplemental.
  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. MOAKLEY. I yield to the gentleman from New York.
  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, as we all know, there are two pending 
pieces of legislation that are holding up the recess of this body to go 
home over the Memorial Day weekend, which is a very, very important 
weekend to all Americans. Those two pieces of legislation are the 
supplemental appropriation bill and the budget resolution.
  The supplemental appropriation bill is presently tied up with several 
contentious substantive issues, legislative issues and some policy 
issues. I am informed that that may or may not be finished today, and 
if it is not, it would be put off until a day or two after we return on 
June 2 or 3.
  The issue that is really holding us here is the budget resolution. As 
most of my colleagues may know, the Senate failed to meet into the 
night last night; therefore, when they go back into session today, they 
have 13 hours remaining of debate time. As my colleagues know about the 
other body, they tend to pontificate and use all of that time.
  So there are several alternatives, and right now there was a meeting 
going on between the leadership of both bodies until the gentleman from 
Massachusetts [Mr. Moakley] called for this procedural motion to 
adjourn. That broke up that meeting. Now they are going back into that 
meeting and hopefully, in about an hour or two, we will have better 
direction for the body.
  Mr. MOAKLEY. Mr. Speaker, I hear strong rumors that there might be 
some changes on the short-term supplemental bill. Does the gentleman 
have any information on that situation?
  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, on the short term?
  Mr. MOAKLEY. On the supplemental bill. I understand that there might 
be some changes on the supplemental bill.
  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would further yield, the 
supplemental bill is not what is holding up the recess period. The 
supplemental bill, hopefully we can get it worked out, and as the 
gentleman knows, in the rule that we will be taking up in a few 
minutes, it is going to allow us to bring that supplemental to the 
floor should there be a final agreement. But that is not the issue that 
is really holding up the body. The budget resolution is the issue that 
must be resolved today.
  Mr. MOAKLEY. Mr. Speaker, as the gentleman knows, that causes us a 
problem on this side. They are about to work on two bills, the 
supplemental bill and the budget bill, and we have neither, we have 
paper on neither one of them.
  Last night we gave our permission for two-thirds to bring it to the 
floor today so we can expedite it. We cannot expedite it to the degree 
that we are going to vote on it without seeing it. So all I am 
wondering is when we can expect to see the paper.
  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to yield, 
let us just make it clear to the Members here and the Members back in 
their offices, this rule does not approve any bill at all. This simply 
allows us, if we successfully pass this two-thirds rule now, within the 
next 45 minutes, it would allow us then, at some later time today, to 
bring another rule and whatever bill to the floor. That is the time 
when my colleagues might want to be concerned.
  Right now, all this is doing, and the reason why we would debate it 
now, is to save the Members an extra hour later on this evening at 4, 
5, 6, 7 or 8 o'clock. If Members have planes that are leaving at 3 
o'clock or 4 o'clock or 5 o'clock, this is going to move up the whole 
debate by 1 hour, and it would be my advice to the gentleman to let us 
go ahead and have this debate, discuss what is going to be happening 
and get this 1 hour out of the way, so that Members can go home to 
their obligations they have home in their districts later on today, 
hopefully.

                              {time}  1215

  Mr. MOAKLEY. Mr. Speaker, as the chairman knows, we offered to 
postpone or to limit debate, if the gentleman wants to postpone it 
until a later time, so we are not trying to run the clock out. But I 
feel that our side has to know what is in those bills, even at this 
juncture, to go ahead.
  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, there are a number of alternatives on the 
budget resolution itself. We could wait out the Senate the 10, 12, 14 
hours. That is one alternative. We could come back with a rule that 
would deem us agreeing with the Senate amendment, which has nothing to 
do with numbers, which has nothing to do with policy, but minuscule 
differences. We could do that. That is an alternative. Or we could just 
leave town, and the chairman of the budget committees could notify the 
authorizers and the appropriators, their staffs, to go ahead next week 
while we are out of town and proceed, based on those numbers.
  Those are really the three alternatives we have before us on the 
budget.
  Mr. LIVINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. MOAKLEY. I yield to the gentleman from Louisiana.
  Mr. LIVINGSTON. I appreciate the gentleman yielding to me, Mr. 
Speaker. I would simply say, speaking on behalf of the majority on the 
Committee on Appropriations, I think there has been a joint, bipartisan 
effort in this body to get an agreement on the disaster relief 
supplemental. However, it has not been possible to finalize our 
negotiations with the other body and reach an agreement on the overall 
conference. Therefore, we have not been able to report back to the 
House floor with a final conference report.
  It appears entirely unlikely that is going to happen before we 
adjourn today for business, which means that, frankly, while there is 
plenty of money in the pipeline in most accounts for the victims of the 
various disasters, it is not at all certain that money will be 
sufficient as we get into the month of June, and let alone July. So for 
that reason, it has been my objective to see if it is possible to come 
up with a stripped down version of the supplemental that would provide 
some moneys in some of the most needy accounts to submit to the House 
and to the Senate under unanimous consent.
  Because of the lateness of the hour, frankly, it would not be 
possible to adhere to traditional rules, to go through traditional 
procedures with such a bill. Also, any single Member can stop the bill 
in its tracks, and therefore, deny the passage of an interim disaster 
relief bill.
  But if it is the intent of the membership to go along with the 
stripped-down version, and we do not have the final version to present 
to the House just yet but we expect to within a matter of hours, if not 
minutes, I would expect that we could call up such a bill by unanimous 
consent. Any Member in this House or in the other body could stop it, 
but if by unanimous consent it seems that the membership of both houses 
agree, then we can have a bill to pass, and certainly alleviate any 
short-term problems that might arise in the coming weeks.
  Mr. MOAKLEY. I thank the gentleman. I yield to the gentleman from 
Wisconsin [Mr. Obey], the ranking minority member of the Committee on 
Appropriations.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. MOAKLEY. I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I think this is a time for pity in the House. 
What is happening to this supplemental reminds me of what my favorite 
philosopher, Archie the cockroach, said once. He said, now and then, 
somebody is born who is so unlucky he runs into accidents that started 
out to happen to somebody else.
  That is what is happening to this supplemental. Here we have a 
disaster supplemental which we have all wanted to get to the President 
before Memorial Day, so there is no doubt in anybody's mind that we can 
get the assistance that is needed out in the field, and yet we are 
being held up by the fact that the other body is still droning on on 
almost a continuous basis on the budget resolution.
  The supplemental itself is being bogged down by dragging in a large 
number of extraneous issues, not the least of which would be the 
permanent CR dispute plus another large issue about Alaskan roads. 
There are some other issues as well which are still holding up that 
supplemental.
  Mr. Speaker, we have had around here a lot of devices in the past. We

[[Page H3189]]

have had continuing resolutions. It looks to me like before the week is 
up we may need a continuing resolution for a continuing resolution, and 
on this one it looks to me like we are going to have to invent a new 
device, which is a continuing supplemental. So go the perils of 
Pauline, I guess.
  I find this very regrettable. I hope that the House will be able to 
find some way out of it by the time the day is over. There is no reason 
why this supplemental should be held up because of extraneous causes.
  I am confused about why this specific resolution is before us at this 
time, however, because certainly I share the view of the gentleman from 
Louisiana, the chairman of the committee, that it is highly unlikely 
that there will even be a supplemental vehicle that will ride along 
after this rule. So if we are interested in resolving the problem, I 
think we are going to need a lot of other action, including a speed-up 
of the Senate schedule, which I fully do not expect to see.
  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to yield, 
let me just say that the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Moakley] and 
I had discussed, we had originally expected to bring a rule to the 
floor dealing only with the budget. However, because of great concerns, 
some of which the gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Obey] has just stated, 
it was thought we would just add the supplemental to it as well.
  Having said this, we are far past our minute. We need to get on with 
the work of the day. I would suggest that the gentleman has used more 
than his minute. Let us get on with the rule before us.
  Mr. MOAKLEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.

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