[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 136 (Friday, October 2, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H9336]
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 want to thank my colleagues 
first for their very gracious remarks, and I appreciate the Speaker's 
latitude in allowing them to make them.
  At this time I ask the chief deputy whip, my friend the gentleman 
from Illinois (Mr. Hastert), to enter into a dialog with me about next 
week's schedule.
  Mr. HASTERT. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. FAZIO of California. I yield to the gentleman from Illinois.
  Mr. HASTERT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California, and 
we, too, want to extend our best, Mr. Fazio, for your future.
  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to announce that we have concluded 
legislative business for the week.
  The House will next meet on Monday, October 5, at 12:30 p.m. for 
morning hour and at 2 p.m. for legislative business. We do not expect 
any recorded votes before 5 p.m. on Monday.
  On Monday, October 5, 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 Tuesday, October 6, and through the balance of the week, the House 
will consider the following legislation:
  H.R. 3694, the Intelligence Authorization Act, which is a conference 
report;
  H.R. 4274, the Labor-HHS Appropriations Act;
  H.R. 4570, the Omnibus National Parks Act;
  H.R. 3789, the Class Action Jurisdiction Act; and
  H.R. 4259, the Haskell Indian Nations University Act of 1998.
  Mr. Speaker, we also expect a number of appropriation and 
authorization conference reports to be ready next week. As we head into 
the final days of this session, Members should be ready to work late 
throughout next week in order to finish work on important conference 
reports.
  Mr. Speaker, the target adjournment is still October 9th, but of 
course Members should be prepared to stay through the weekend, if 
necessary.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.
  Mr. FAZIO of California. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, I do have a 
couple of questions I would like to pose.
  First of all, it looks increasingly as if we may need another 
continuing resolution, or CR. I know a good deal of effort will be put 
forth next week to avoid that, but I also do not see any provision on 
the schedule that would allow us to have additional time should the 
October 9 deadline pass.
  Is the gentleman aware of a time when we might have another, 
hopefully short-term, CR?
  Mr. HASTERT. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to yield, 
obviously, our goal is October 9. The date on the CR that we have under 
action right now is October 9, and we will have to take that into 
assessment next week as bills move along, and especially the conference 
reports. We would be ready to move such a bill, if necessary.
  Mr. FAZIO of California. Could the gentleman indicate what the 
tentative time frame for that would be? I realize that we would be 
running into the Columbus Day holiday and possibly into the next week, 
and I am moved to ask what the gentleman thinks the time frame of that 
might be.
  Mr. HASTERT. As I repeat it, it is our hope we will be able to 
adjourn by October 9. If there are signals that that will not be able 
to happen, we will take that under consideration later next week in a 
timely manner.
  Mr. FAZIO of California. Well, it is not my intention to fail to keep 
hope alive, but I think we all realize it is going to be difficult. So 
we are not expecting to be in that next week.
  Is it the intention of the majority to complete the Labor-HHS 
appropriations next week? And what day would the gentleman understand 
that might come up?
  Mr. HASTERT. Well, as the gentleman knows, we passed the rule on that 
bill today and it would be the intention of the House, after passing 
the rule, to act on that legislation. Hopefully, as that bill would 
come back, we could act on that as early as Tuesday.
  Mr. FAZIO of California. I appreciate the gentleman's comments. One 
more question, if I could reclaim my time and yield again.
  Obviously, at some point next week the Committee on the Judiciary 
will bring us their best efforts on the decision regarding impeachment. 
Is there any time at this point that the majority would point to as the 
day and time when we might anticipate taking that very important issue 
up?
  Mr. HASTERT. As the gentleman knows, the Committee on the Judiciary 
would either act on Monday or Tuesday and, depending on what the 
parameters of the rules are for that particular measure, we would take 
that bill up probably later in the week, possibly Thursday or Friday.
  Mr. FAZIO of California. Thursday or Friday. I appreciate the 
information of the majority and the good work of my friend from 
Illinois, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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