[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 65 (Thursday, May 6, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H2897]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. FROST asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. FROST. Mr. Speaker, I would inquire of the gentleman from New 
York about next week's schedule.
  Mr. LAZIO. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. FROST. I yield to the gentleman from New York.
  Mr. LAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to announce that we have 
concluded legislative business for the week. There will be no votes 
tomorrow, Friday, May 7.
  The House will next meet at 2 p.m. on Monday, May 10, for a pro forma 
session. Of course, there will be no legislative business and no votes 
on that day.
  On Tuesday, May 11, the House will meet at 12:30 p.m. for morning 
hour and 2 p.m. for legislative business.
  We will consider a number of bills under suspension of the rules, a 
list of which will be distributed to all Members' offices. Members 
should note that we expect votes after 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 11.
  On Wednesday, May 12, and the balance of the week, the House will 
take up H.R. 775, the Year 2000 Readiness and Responsibility Act; and 
H.R. 1555, the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000; and 
we expect the conference report for the supplemental appropriations 
bill.
  On Wednesday, May 12, the House will meet at 10 a.m. for legislative 
business.
  On Thursday, the House will meet at 9 a.m. and recess immediately for 
the annual meeting of the Association of Former Members of Congress. 
The House will reconvene for legislative business at approximately 10 
a.m. on Thursday, May 13.
  And on Friday, May 14, the House will meet at 9 a.m. for legislative 
business.
  Mr. Speaker, we hope to conclude legislative business by 2 p.m. on 
Friday, May 14, and I want to thank the gentleman from Texas for 
yielding to me.
  Mr. FROST. Mr. Speaker, I have several questions for the gentleman.
  First, will we definitely be here voting next Friday, in view of the 
rather light work schedule that the gentleman has just announced?
  Mr. LAZIO. If the gentleman from Texas will further yield, I would 
say it appears as though, if we can move quickly through the week, if 
we have the conference report on the supplemental available to us by 
Thursday, it would be more likely than not that we would not have to be 
in on Friday. But that will depend on the work of the conference and 
whether we have that supplemental conference report available to the 
House by that time.
  Mr. FROST. Mr. Speaker, I would ask the gentleman one other question. 
During the last several weeks we have been here fairly late at night on 
a regular basis. I would ask the gentleman whether he expects any late-
night sessions next week.
  Mr. LAZIO. Again, we do not expect any extraordinarily late nights 
for next week. Again, assuming that we can move through our legislative 
business as expected, we are not expecting to have any very late 
nights.
  Mr. STENHOLM. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. FROST. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
  Mr. STENHOLM. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield for a 
question, I do not believe that I heard that we would have the campaign 
finance reform legislation next week, or did I miss that? And if not, I 
would ask, it seems it is a very light week, it will be the second or 
third 3-day week that we have had in 2 or 3 weeks, and I was wondering 
when we might expect to have the campaign finance reform bill slipped 
into this rather busy agenda?
  Mr. LAZIO. If the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Frost) will further 
yield, the gentleman may recall and be cognizant of the fact that the 
Speaker of the House has announced and has committed himself to the 
fact that we will have campaign finance reform on the floor sometime by 
the end of September.
  The gentleman from Illinois, the Speaker, is a man of his word. I 
have every confidence that that will happen, that this House will 
consider campaign finance reform in a prompt and expeditious way before 
the end of September.
  Mr. STENHOLM. I would concur with everything that the gentleman said 
about the Speaker. There are about 191 Democrats and about 60 on the 
Republican side that I think would like to see it considered a little 
earlier, and I would respectfully ask that we take a look at the 
scheduling and see if we cannot find a way to bring it up a little bit 
before September.
  Mr. LAZIO. I want to thank the gentleman from Texas. I know that the 
Speaker is trying to be sensitive to all the concerns of the Members 
but is very anxious to complete the business of the House, particularly 
the appropriations work that will see us through the summer. I think if 
it is at all possible for there to be a reconsideration of that date, 
that he will probably seize the opportunity.
  He is committed to having campaign finance reform considered in this 
House by the end of September, and there is no doubt in my mind that 
this body will be acting far earlier than the body down the hall.
  Mr. STENHOLM. The gentleman said one other thing that prompts me to 
again just observe that it is precisely because we are going to have a 
rather ambitious appropriations schedule, and as we have seen today 
with the debate and all of the rhetoric that has gone on, I think it is 
a fairly good prophecy that we are not going to have a very smooth 
appropriations schedule and cycling this year, that therefore it would 
seem to me it would be prudent for us to move the campaign finance 
reform before we get into what obviously we are going to be getting 
into.
  I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. LAZIO. Let me note as well that we are confident and the Speaker 
is confident that we will have several appropriations bills available 
to the House for a vote before Memorial Day break. That is well in 
front of schedule, and it is something I think the Speaker is committed 
to doing, to ensuring that we consider our appropriations bills earlier 
and get our work done earlier.
  Hopefully, that will allow us the time both to consider campaign 
finance reform and to have a less contentious situation over the next 
few months. But the gentleman can rest assured the Speaker's word is 
good, that he is committed to a full hearing of campaign finance 
reform. It will be on the House floor, and it will be voted on.

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