[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 51 (Thursday, April 30, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H2692]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. FAZIO of California asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. FAZIO of California. Mr. Speaker, I take this time so that so I 
may yield to the majority whip to outline the schedule for next week.
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. FAZIO of California. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman from 
California (Mr. Fazio), chairman of the Democratic Caucus, for 
yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to announce that we have concluded 
legislative business for the week and that the House will next meet on 
Monday, May 4, at 2 p.m. for pro forma session. There will be no 
legislative business and no votes that day.
  On Tuesday, May 5, the House will meet at 12:30 p.m. for morning hour 
and at 2 p.m. for legislative business.
  On Tuesday we will consider a number of bills under suspension of the 
rules, a list of which will be distributed to the Members' offices. But 
Members should know that we do not expect any recorded votes before 5 
o'clock on May 5.
  On Wednesday, May 6, and the balance of the week, the House will meet 
at 10 a.m. for legislative business.
  On Tuesday evening we could resume H.R. 6, or we could pick it up 
again on Wednesday, but we do hope to continue consideration of H.R. 6, 
the Higher Education Amendments of 1998.
  Also on Wednesday and throughout the balance of the week the House 
will consider the following legislation: H.R. 1872, the Communications 
Satellite Competition and Privatization Act of 1997; H.R. 10, the 
Financial Services Competition Act of 1997; and H.R. 3694, the 
Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1999.
  Mr. Speaker, we hope to conclude legislative business for the week by 
2 p.m. on Friday, May 8.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time.
  Mr. FAZIO of California. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I have a 
few questions I would like to pose to the majority whip. First of all, 
does the gentleman really anticipate any late nights next week? I am 
happy to yield for a response.
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, Wednesday and Thursday could be late nights. 
But we do not like late nights, so we are going to discourage them as 
much as we can.
  Mr. FAZIO of California. Mr. Speaker, again reclaiming my time and 
then I will yield further, in reference to the Higher Education bill, 
can we anticipate that the Riggs amendment, which has been so hotly 
debated, will take place on Wednesday so Members who wish to 
participate and vote on that can be assured that it will not occur on 
Tuesday night?
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman again yielding, I 
just want to say that we are trying to work that out with the 
gentleman's side of the aisle. Certainly, we will come to some sort of 
agreement before we move on the Riggs amendment. We want to cooperate 
with everyone and make sure that everyone has an opportunity to debate 
that bill.
  As soon as we know what the gentleman's side wants and what we agree 
to, then we will announce it to the membership.
  Mr. FAZIO of California. Mr. Speaker, I think it does appear at end 
of the bill so it would be very likely to be the last debate prior to 
final passage, I would assume.
  Mr. DeLAY. I hope we can work it out.
  Mr. FAZIO of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for that 
assurance. Let me also ask, given the fact that we have Mother's Day 
weekend coming, I know that the gentleman from Texas would be sensitive 
to the issue of Friday votes. Is it possible that votes on Friday may 
not occur, or is this just simply a reservation to assure that we would 
accomplish the main goals of the week?
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding again and 
would say that if we have the kind of cooperation we got today from his 
side, we possibly may not have votes on Friday. But I think Members 
should anticipate that we could have votes on Friday. We are going to 
work as hard as we can to avoid that, but we cannot guarantee that that 
will not happen.
  Right now we are telling Members that we will have votes on Friday up 
until about 2 p.m.
  Mr. FAZIO of California. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that. Let me ask 
one further question, Mr. Speaker, and I would be happy to yield to the 
gentleman for an answer.
  Where are we on working out the details under which we will take up 
campaign finance reform on the floor? How close are we, and what kind 
of a rule are we going to be dealing with? Obviously, there is a great 
deal of interest on our side in this regard.

                              {time}  1800

  Mr. DeLAY. We want to make sure that this is an open and honest 
process, an honest debate. So your side will be consulted, even before 
we go to rules.
  The Committee on Rules chairman has been charged by the Speaker to 
write an open rule so that every Member, both Democrat and Republican, 
will have an opportunity to address the issues that are important to 
them. We want to make sure that the gentleman's side is as happy with 
the rule as we are, and that we have an open rule.
  Mr. FAZIO of California. I appreciate that. And I see the gentleman 
from upstate New York (Mr. Solomon), my friend, shaking his head. He is 
committed, and we look forward to working that out with the majority.

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