[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 138 (Tuesday, October 6, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H9626-H9628]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     WAIVING REQUIREMENT OF CLAUSE 4(b) OF RULE XI WITH RESPECT TO 
                  CONSIDERATION OF CERTAIN RESOLUTIONS

  Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I 
call up House Resolution 575 and ask for its immediate consideration.
  The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:

                              H. Res. 575

       Resolved, That the requirement of clause 4(b) of rule XI 
     for a two-thirds vote to consider a report from the Committee 
     on Rules on the same day it is presented to the House is 
     waived with respect to any resolution reported from that 
     committee before the legislative day of October 11, 1998, 
     providing for consideration or disposition of any of the 
     following:
       (1) A bill or joint resolution making general 
     appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1999, 
     any amendment thereto, any conference report thereon, or any 
     amendment reported in disagreement from a conference thereon.
       (2) A bill or joint resolution that includes provisions 
     making continuing appropriations for fiscal year 1999, any 
     amendment thereto, any conference report thereon, or any 
     amendment reported in disagreement from a conference thereon.
       Sec. 2. It shall be in order at any time before October 11, 
     1998, for the Speaker to entertain motions to suspend the 
     rules, provided that the object of any such motion is 
     announced from the floor at least two hours before the motion 
     is offered. In scheduling the consideration of legislation 
     under this authority, the Speaker or his designee shall 
     consult with the Minority Leader or his designee.

                              {time}  1345

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Blunt). The gentlewoman from North 
Carolina (Mrs. Myrick) is recognized for 1 hour.
  Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, for the purposes of debate only, I yield 
the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. 
Moakley), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. 
During consideration of this resolution, all time is yielded for the 
purpose of debate only.
  Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Committee on Rules met and reported H. 
Res. 575 providing for expedited procedures in the House. The 
resolution waives clause 4(b) of Rule XI, requiring a two-thirds vote 
to consider a rule on the same day it is reported from the Committee on 
Rules.
  The resolution applies the waiver to any special rule reported before 
October 11, 1998, providing for a consideration or disposition of a 
bill or joint resolution, making general appropriations for the fiscal 
year ending September 30, 1999, any amendment thereto, any conference 
report thereon, and any amendment reported in disagreement from a 
conference thereon.
  The resolution also applies a waiver to any special rule reported 
before October 11, 1998, providing for consideration or disposition of 
a bill or joint resolution, making continuing appropriations for the 
fiscal year ending September 30, 1999, any amendment thereto, any 
conference report thereon, and any amendment reported in disagreement 
from a conference thereon.
  Finally, the resolution allows at any time before October 11, 1998, 
for the Speaker to entertain motions to suspend the rules, provided 
that the object of any such motion is announced from the floor at least 
2 hours before the motion is offered, and that in the scheduling of 
legislation under this authority, the Speaker or his designee shall 
consult with the minority leader or his designee.
  Mr. Speaker, as we all know, we are in the last days of the 
legislative session. House Resolution 575, short and simple, allows the 
House to complete its work for the year in a timely manner.
  House rule 27 normally limits House consideration of suspension bills 
to Mondays and Tuesdays. But now, in the final weeks of the session, 
there is no reason to put off noncontroversial legislation until next 
year.
  In addition, H. Res. 575 allows for the same-day consideration of 
urgent appropriations bills. Without congressional action, the funding 
for many

[[Page H9627]]

Federal agencies will expire on October 9. While the House and Senate 
continue to negotiate spending priorities, it is important that the 
House be able to act immediately to pass any measure that keeps the 
government working for the taxpayers.
  H. Res. 575 is a reasonable measure that will allow us to finish our 
work for the year on time.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. MOAKLEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my dear friend, the gentlewoman 
from North Carolina (Mrs. Myrick) for yielding me the customary half-
hour.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, the fiscal year started just 6 days ago and my 
Republican colleagues have not finished, have not finished, 9 of the 13 
appropriations bills. So unless this Congress gets to work on something 
other than investigating, the Federal Government may end up closing up 
for business.
  This rule will enable them to bring up appropriations conference 
bills and continuing resolutions more quickly, but it could reduce the 
amount of time that Members have to read through these bills before 
they go to a vote. But, Mr. Speaker, without martial law, conference 
reports have to be available for at least 3 days before they are 
considered on the House floor. Otherwise, we may have only moments to 
look over very important appropriations conference reports as they come 
up for votes, and as members of the minority party, that is just 
unacceptable.
  Mr. Speaker, the rule we are considering today is limited to the 
appropriations conference reports and it is further limited to the end 
of this week. This rule will also enable my Republican colleagues to 
bring up suspension bills with 2 hours notice. Mr. Speaker, they asked 
for this authority last week and they promised 2 hours notice, and they 
kept their promise, and I feel that they will keep their promise this 
time.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. McIntosh).
  Mr. McINTOSH. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me 
this time.
  I rise today with some serious questions about this rule, chiefly 
focusing not on the question of suspensions which I think many Members 
would like to have in this what is hopefully our final week here; not 
on the question of most of the bills that will be coming out, but a 
question on what is being labeled the omnibus appropriations bill, the 
final, large bill that will supposedly wrap all of those that we have 
not been able to pass in this House and the Senate and have signed by 
the President into one large spending package.
  In previous years, that bill has been used to negotiate a lot of 
different issues, some of them having to do with spending, some of them 
having to do with totally extraneous matters, some of them having to do 
with tax cuts, which this House passed a little over a week ago. 
Unfortunately, it appears to me that right now, the likelihood of that 
bill coming out in a way that Republicans, conservative Republicans in 
particular, can be proud about is very nil, because the President has 
already indicated he is looking for a veto fight. He is hoping to veto 
that large spending bill, as he has indicated he will do with the 
agriculture appropriations bill that was passed in this House last 
Friday, simply to have more spending and to have his priorities in the 
way this government is operated. Many of us fear that that may be only 
part of the motive for why he would veto that and possibly engage in a 
strategy where he might shut down parts of the government in order to 
have that type of disagreement over priorities in that bill.
  Mr. Speaker, conservatives want to avoid that type of shutdown. We 
also want to avoid a bill that would give away many of the priorities 
that this Republican Congress has laid out in the last 8 months.
  Let me mention for the body some of those priorities that are at 
stake in this bill. The reason I talk about this bill and the rule is 
this rule would waive the 24-hour notice for consideration of that 
bill. So I think it is important that we know what we may be waiving 
notice about in order to allow us in a rush to leave town to give up on 
some of these important policy issues.
  The first would have to do with the spending caps that were 
negotiated last year in the budget agreement. There is already on the 
table proposals from somewhere between $9 billion to $15 billion 
additional spending beyond those caps. In the agriculture bill, we in 
this Congress spend $4 billion above those caps. The President in his 
veto message indicates he wants to spend an additional $3 billion or $4 
billion. So the total will be somewhere between $15 billion and $25 
billion in one year above the budget deal that was agreed to just one 
year ago.

  The second issue is on IMF spending, whether we will provide funds 
for the IMF to the full $18 billion. These are technically loans, but 
many of us realize that they may never be paid back, and so therefore, 
the American taxpayer will be paying the bill.
  Another key issue is what we do on the so-called Mexico City policy, 
the question of whether this government will spend United States 
taxpayer funds in order to support lobbying for abortions around the 
world.
  A fourth issue that is of importance to us is whether we will have a 
policy of national testing in our schools or whether we will continue 
the policy that says, we cannot spend taxpayer dollars to develop that 
national test here in Washington; we see testing as better done by the 
States and local community schools.
  Other issues of importance will be the choice provision in the D.C. 
bill that allows scholarships to go to parents here in the District of 
Columbia so that they can afford to send their children to a good 
school; the ban on needle exchanges in drug programs that this House 
has passed; the ban on adoptions by 2 unmarried individuals for the 
District of Columbia. The question of whether there will be parental 
notification, which this House has not yet been able to address because 
we have not been able to bring the Labor-HHS Appropriations bill to the 
floor, and we hear rumors that perhaps that will never come to the 
floor, it will be part of this omnibus bill, presumably without that 
parental notification provision that the committee put into its draft 
of that bill.
  So there are many weighty issues that will be resolved in these final 
days in negotiations between the White House, the Senate, and the House 
leadership, and there are many of us who have grave concerns about how 
those issues will be resolved.
  One of the things that we have as a concern about this rule is 
whether we will have sufficient time to know what it is we will be 
voting on in this final day of this session. How will those issues be 
resolved? Will we bust the budget caps? Will we give $18 billion to the 
IMF of American taxpayer dollars? Will we allow needle exchanges in 
this country? Those are issues that we need to know about before we can 
make our decisions on how to vote on that final bill.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I have grave reservations about that provision in 
this rule that governs our processes for the remaining days of this 
session. As I say, the other provisions in it, particularly allowing 
suspensions to occur, I fully support, and those of us on the 
Conservative Action Team fully support. But I think we need to have 
answers on how we as a body will be notified about these contentious 
issues with enough time to make our decisions on how we would vote in 
the final days of this session.
  Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume 
to tell the gentleman that I share his concerns and very much hope that 
we can deal with those issues in a way that is satisfactory to all of 
us.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. MOAKLEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I 
move the previous question on the resolution.
  The previous question was ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the resolution.
  The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that 
the ayes appeared to have it.
  Mr. MOAKLEY. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a 
quorum is not present and make the

[[Page H9628]]

point of order that a quorum is not present.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Evidently a quorum is not present.
  The Sergeant at Arms will notify absent Members.
  The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 218, 
nays 206, not voting 10, as follows:

                             [Roll No. 484]

                               YEAS--218

     Aderholt
     Archer
     Armey
     Bachus
     Baker
     Ballenger
     Barr
     Barrett (NE)
     Bartlett
     Barton
     Bass
     Bateman
     Bereuter
     Bilbray
     Bilirakis
     Bliley
     Blunt
     Boehlert
     Boehner
     Bonilla
     Bono
     Brady (TX)
     Bryant
     Bunning
     Burr
     Burton
     Buyer
     Callahan
     Camp
     Campbell
     Canady
     Cannon
     Castle
     Chabot
     Chambliss
     Chenoweth
     Christensen
     Coble
     Coburn
     Collins
     Combest
     Cook
     Cooksey
     Cox
     Crane
     Crapo
     Cubin
     Cunningham
     Deal
     DeLay
     Diaz-Balart
     Dickey
     Doolittle
     Dreier
     Duncan
     Dunn
     Ehlers
     Ehrlich
     Emerson
     English
     Ensign
     Everett
     Ewing
     Fawell
     Foley
     Forbes
     Fossella
     Fowler
     Fox
     Franks (NJ)
     Frelinghuysen
     Gallegly
     Ganske
     Gekas
     Gibbons
     Gilchrest
     Gillmor
     Gilman
     Goodlatte
     Goodling
     Goss
     Graham
     Granger
     Greenwood
     Gutknecht
     Hansen
     Hastert
     Hastings (WA)
     Hayworth
     Hefley
     Herger
     Hill
     Hilleary
     Hobson
     Hoekstra
     Horn
     Hostettler
     Houghton
     Hulshof
     Hunter
     Hutchinson
     Hyde
     Inglis
     Jenkins
     Johnson (CT)
     Johnson, Sam
     Jones
     Kasich
     Kelly
     Kim
     King (NY)
     Kingston
     Klug
     Knollenberg
     Kolbe
     LaHood
     Largent
     Latham
     LaTourette
     Lazio
     Leach
     Lewis (CA)
     Lewis (KY)
     Livingston
     LoBiondo
     Lucas
     Manzullo
     McCollum
     McCrery
     McDade
     McHugh
     McInnis
     McIntosh
     McKeon
     Metcalf
     Mica
     Miller (FL)
     Moran (KS)
     Morella
     Myrick
     Nethercutt
     Ney
     Northup
     Norwood
     Nussle
     Oxley
     Packard
     Pappas
     Parker
     Paul
     Paxon
     Pease
     Peterson (PA)
     Petri
     Pickering
     Pitts
     Pombo
     Porter
     Portman
     Quinn
     Radanovich
     Ramstad
     Redmond
     Regula
     Riley
     Rogan
     Rogers
     Rohrabacher
     Ros-Lehtinen
     Roukema
     Royce
     Ryun
     Salmon
     Sanford
     Saxton
     Scarborough
     Schaefer, Dan
     Schaffer, Bob
     Sensenbrenner
     Sessions
     Shadegg
     Shaw
     Shays
     Shimkus
     Shuster
     Skeen
     Smith (MI)
     Smith (NJ)
     Smith (OR)
     Smith (TX)
     Smith, Linda
     Snowbarger
     Solomon
     Souder
     Spence
     Stump
     Sununu
     Talent
     Tauzin
     Taylor (NC)
     Thomas
     Thornberry
     Thune
     Upton
     Walsh
     Wamp
     Watkins
     Watts (OK)
     Weldon (FL)
     Weldon (PA)
     Weller
     White
     Whitfield
     Wicker
     Wilson
     Wolf
     Young (AK)
     Young (FL)

                               NAYS--206

     Abercrombie
     Ackerman
     Allen
     Andrews
     Baesler
     Baldacci
     Barcia
     Barrett (WI)
     Becerra
     Bentsen
     Berman
     Berry
     Bishop
     Blagojevich
     Blumenauer
     Bonior
     Borski
     Boswell
     Boucher
     Boyd
     Brady (PA)
     Brown (CA)
     Brown (FL)
     Brown (OH)
     Capps
     Cardin
     Carson
     Clay
     Clayton
     Clyburn
     Condit
     Conyers
     Costello
     Coyne
     Cramer
     Cummings
     Danner
     Davis (FL)
     Davis (IL)
     DeFazio
     DeGette
     Delahunt
     DeLauro
     Deutsch
     Dicks
     Dingell
     Dixon
     Doggett
     Dooley
     Doyle
     Edwards
     Engel
     Eshoo
     Etheridge
     Evans
     Farr
     Fattah
     Fazio
     Filner
     Ford
     Frank (MA)
     Frost
     Furse
     Gejdenson
     Gephardt
     Gonzalez
     Goode
     Gordon
     Green
     Gutierrez
     Hall (OH)
     Hall (TX)
     Hamilton
     Harman
     Hastings (FL)
     Hefner
     Hilliard
     Hinchey
     Hinojosa
     Holden
     Hooley
     Hoyer
     Istook
     Jackson (IL)
     Jackson-Lee (TX)
     Jefferson
     John
     Johnson (WI)
     Johnson, E. B.
     Kanjorski
     Kaptur
     Kennedy (MA)
     Kennedy (RI)
     Kildee
     Kind (WI)
     Kleczka
     Klink
     Kucinich
     LaFalce
     Lampson
     Lantos
     Lee
     Levin
     Lewis (GA)
     Lipinski
     Lofgren
     Lowey
     Luther
     Maloney (CT)
     Maloney (NY)
     Manton
     Markey
     Martinez
     Mascara
     Matsui
     McCarthy (MO)
     McCarthy (NY)
     McDermott
     McGovern
     McHale
     McIntyre
     McKinney
     McNulty
     Meehan
     Meek (FL)
     Meeks (NY)
     Menendez
     Millender-McDonald
     Miller (CA)
     Minge
     Mink
     Moakley
     Mollohan
     Moran (VA)
     Murtha
     Nadler
     Neal
     Neumann
     Oberstar
     Obey
     Olver
     Ortiz
     Owens
     Pallone
     Pascrell
     Pastor
     Payne
     Pelosi
     Peterson (MN)
     Pickett
     Pomeroy
     Price (NC)
     Rahall
     Rangel
     Reyes
     Rivers
     Rodriguez
     Roemer
     Rothman
     Roybal-Allard
     Rush
     Sabo
     Sanchez
     Sanders
     Sandlin
     Sawyer
     Schumer
     Scott
     Serrano
     Sherman
     Sisisky
     Skaggs
     Skelton
     Slaughter
     Smith, Adam
     Snyder
     Spratt
     Stabenow
     Stark
     Stenholm
     Stokes
     Strickland
     Stupak
     Tanner
     Tauscher
     Taylor (MS)
     Thompson
     Thurman
     Tiahrt
     Tierney
     Torres
     Towns
     Traficant
     Turner
     Velazquez
     Vento
     Visclosky
     Waters
     Watt (NC)
     Waxman
     Wexler
     Weygand
     Wise
     Woolsey
     Wynn
     Yates

                             NOT VOTING--10

     Calvert
     Clement
     Davis (VA)
     Kennelly
     Kilpatrick
     Linder
     Poshard
     Pryce (OH)
     Riggs
     Stearns

                              {time}  1418

  Messrs. EVANS, HEFNER, and STRICKLAND, and Ms. WOOLSEY changed their 
vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
  So the resolution was agreed to.
  The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________