[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 157 (Sunday, November 9, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H10577]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. ARMEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I take this time to speak out of order for 
the purposes of announcing the schedule and pending business before the 
House.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank all the Members for their patience and 
good humor at this very, very late hour on Sunday and early hour on 
Monday.
  Mr. Speaker, I do not believe we will have any more business before 
the House this evening that will require a vote before the House. 
However, we have been working with the minority, and, I believe, and I 
am pleased to see the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Bonior], there for 
the purpose of concurrence on this, I believe that the minority agrees 
in some clearances for some unanimous consent requests that would still 
be taken tonight and for which we should not expect a vote.
  We would conclude our legislative business for this week, but I 
should advise Members that we would resume legislative business at noon 
on Wednesday next, with no votes until after 5 o'clock on next 
Wednesday, with the expectation that we would conclude the legislative 
work for the year on that Wednesday evening and on Thursday.
  In order to facilitate that work to be done on Wednesday and 
Thursday, we would, with the concurrence of the minority, be looking 
for unanimous consent to have a CR that would take us through Friday of 
next week, and then a unanimous consent to allow a rule that would give 
us same day authority under which we could consider any additional 
appropriations conference reports to come before us, the ISTEA 
legislation, the Amtrak legislation, the fast-track legislation, and 
any suspensions that we might properly notice in agreement with the 
minority. That authority, incidentally, Mr. Speaker, would last through 
Friday.
  Those particular unanimous consents will be asked, of course, upon 
the conclusion of this advisory commentary on the schedule.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. ARMEY. I yield to the gentleman from Michigan.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  I would ask the gentleman at this time if I heard correctly that the 
fast-track legislation has been put off indefinitely? Does the 
gentleman concur on that?
  Mr. ARMEY. I am not sure I heard the word ``definitely'' or 
``indefinitely.''
  Mr. BONIOR. There was an ``in'' before the ``D.''
  Mr. ARMEY. The fast-track legislation will not come up at this time. 
However, the gentleman may have noticed that we will be asking 
unanimous consent that that be included in that list of legislation 
that would be available for same-day authority on Wednesday night or 
Thursday.
  Mr. BONIOR. So is the gentleman telling us this morning that he 
expects the fast-track legislation to come before us next Thursday or 
Friday?
  Mr. ARMEY. I thank the gentleman. I guess I feel a little bit like 
Pip; I still have great expectations. They are shared at the White 
House. We are hopeful that might be worked out, but I have no 
announcement or even, for that matter, prediction to make at this time. 
We just want to have that contingency available to us, should things 
develop favorable to that course of action.
  If I could hold the gentleman's attention, I wonder if the gentleman 
can concur that we should expect no objections to the unanimous consent 
requests that I outlined?
  Mr. BONIOR. That would be my recommendation on the two unanimous 
consents that the gentleman has propounded to the body this morning.
  Mr. ARMEY. If that be the case, Mr. Speaker, I would like to propound 
some unanimous consents right now.
  If I may, before I do so, for the benefit of my good friend, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Shuster], who is very anxious about 
his own legislation and has worked very hard, and for so many Members 
who have unanimous consents, please understand that we are working with 
the minority. We may not be able to have officially cleared and 
prepared for the floor through the leadership of the minority and the 
majority your unanimous consent for today, but we are attentive to 
these matters, and we are hopeful to have those worked out for you 
before we conclude business next week. I do again appreciate 
everybody's patience.

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