[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 125 (Friday, September 18, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H8072-H8073]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. SOLOMON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to announce we have concluded 
legislative business for this week.
  The House will meet next week at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, September 22, 
for a pro forma session. There will not be votes that day.
  Wednesday, September 23, the House will meet at 2 p.m. for 
legislative business. However, we do not expect any recorded votes 
before 5 p.m. on Wednesday. Of course, this is because of the Jewish 
holidays. On Wednesday, September 23, we will consider a number of 
bills under suspension of the rules, a list of which will be 
distributed to Members' offices this afternoon.
  On Thursday, September 15 and throughout the balance of the week, the 
House will consider the following legislation:
  H.R. 4006, the Lethal Drug Abuse Prevention Act; H.R. 3736, the 
Workforce Improvement and Protection Act of 1998; H.R. 2621, the 
Reciprocal Trade Agreement Authorities Act, Fast Track; H.R. 4579, the 
Taxpayer Relief Act of 1998; and, finally, H.R. 4578, the Save Social 
Security Act.
  Mr. Speaker, we also hope to consider conference reports on the 
Department of Defense authorization, a very important bill; the higher 
education bill, and a number of appropriation conference reports.
  Mr. Speaker, Members should be prepared to work late next week on all 
of these appropriation bills. As the majority leader alerted Members in 
a Dear Colleague just yesterday, it may also be necessary to work on 
Saturday, September 26 to complete work on those important 
appropriation bills as we are nearing the end of the Federal fiscal 
year.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. SOLOMON. I yield to the gentleman from Michigan, the minority 
whip.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, I have several questions of the gentleman 
from New York. What day are you anticipating the fast track legislation 
coming to the floor?
  Mr. SOLOMON. The schedule needs to be worked out, but more than 
likely it will be Friday. It all depends on all of the conference 
reports that we are getting back. But I think you can pretty much count 
on Friday.
  Mr. BONIOR. The House has already completed its work on the 
continuing resolution that really has addressed the failure of this 
body to deal with the whole question of getting our work done on time. 
Now that we have passed that CR this week, why are we meeting on 
Saturday? The gentleman alluded to appropriation bills. Is the 
gentleman from New York saying that, if we meet on Saturday, it will be 
on appropriation bills, or are we thinking of other pieces of 
legislation to work on Saturday?
  Mr. SOLOMON. As the gentleman knows, there have been some 
distractions, and we really need to keep the Members here. We are 
getting near the end of the year. None of us want to be faced with this 
problem of a shutdown as we perhaps were in the past. Personally I 
would say we may not be here, but I think Members better be prepared to 
be here on Saturday in case we need to get the work done.
  Mr. BONIOR. Let me ask the question in another way, then. There was a 
concern that the majority may try to bring up fast track or the Tax/
Social Security issue on Saturday. Can I have an assurance from my 
friend from New York that that will not happen?
  Mr. SOLOMON. I say to the minority leader who has been in the 
majority, he knows how the schedule goes, and there is that 
possibility. Again, I think we will probably be able to stick to the 
schedule as was outlined by the majority leader.
  Mr. BONIOR. Just so I am clear here, the gentleman from New York is 
saying that if we do meet on Saturday, and that is only a possibility, 
we will be doing appropriations bills?
  Mr. SOLOMON. And we may do other business, too. It is all in an 
effort to get the work done. We certainly do not want to be here any 
longer in an election year than we have to be. But I think the 
gentleman is probably going

[[Page H8073]]

to be pleased with how things work out.
  Mr. BONIOR. I just want to point out once again, then I will stop, to 
my friend from New York, that the budget was supposed to have been done 
in April. Here we are pushing on October, and we still do not have a 
budget. The question of working on Saturday to finish the business of 
this House and of this country with respect to a budget obviously could 
make some sense, but if we are going to try to play games here and come 
in on Saturday to do a Tax/Social Security, raid on the Social Security 
trust fund, or if we are going to try to bring up fast track on a 
Saturday, I want the gentleman from New York and the leadership and 
you, Mr. Speaker, and others to understand that that is not going to be 
acceptable on this side of the aisle, and I suspect there are many 
Members on your side of the aisle. All we are looking for is assurances 
of fairness here. Given the fact that we have had difficulty with the 
question of fairness in the last two weeks, we regret that, we hope 
this will not continue but we regret it with respect to the question of 
the President in terms of how that has been dealt with. We hope, and I 
strongly want to emphasize, that these two issues need not be a part of 
the workday on Saturday if in fact we are in.
  Mr. SOLOMON. With all due respect to the gentleman, we all have to 
have an effort of cooperation. I look back to the years of Ronald 
Reagan. We sat down and we worked on this budget. We worked on it when 
Democrats were in control of the House and Republicans were in control 
of the Senate; then when the Democrats had control of both houses. We 
worked together. That is what we should be doing now and getting this 
budget together. Let us just be frank about it. Saturday Members had 
better be prepared to be here. However, if there is no compelling 
reason to keep us here, we will not be.

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