[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 69 (Thursday, May 13, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H3147-H3148]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. BONIOR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, I ask for this 1 minute to inquire of the 
distinguished majority leader the schedule for today and the remainder 
of the week.

[[Page H3148]]

  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Armey).
  Mr. ARMEY. I thank the gentleman from Michigan for yielding, and I 
appreciate the opportunity to advise the Members.
  As my colleagues know, of course this week was scheduled to proceed 
through tonight and through tomorrow. It is true that we have had our 
last vote of the day for today, and we will probably go into either 
special orders or recess as we continue to work with the conference 
committee on the supplemental. Members of both bodies are working 
together and working, I think, quite diligently. It is still our 
expectation that sometime this evening they will complete their work, 
we will be able to file that bill, process the rule in order to begin 
consideration early tomorrow morning and move on with the completion of 
the work by the originally scheduled departure time for a Friday 
departure.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, and I would just add 
to his comments that because of the necessity to deal with this bill, 
the tornado relief, the hurricane relief for those who have been 
waiting for 6 months as a result of Mitch as we have just heard in the 
last debate, our troops in the field, and, of course, the agricultural 
crisis that we have in the country, I hope that we can have this bill 
before the body and that it will be there without extraneous riders, 
particularly environmental riders and other riders that have been added 
in both bodies, and we can get this work done, and I hope we can do 
this expeditiously.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey).
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I would simply observe that the last vote that 
we just had was to instruct the conferees to reject any items that were 
not in either the House or the Senate bill. I find that interesting, 
but the fact is that the hang up in the conference is over items that 
were in the Senate bill or in the House bill, and I know of no progress 
that has been made through the remainder of this day so far on this 
bill. We are presently marking up appropriations for the coming fiscal 
year right now.

                              {time}  1530

  We are supposed to be, as soon as we finish the Subcommittee on 
Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and 
Related Agencies, we are supposed to be going into a Treasury Post 
Office markup, but I do not know of any progress that has been made in 
resolving the outstanding issues before us.
  I guess, I think, there is at least a 50/50 chance Members will be 
kept here tomorrow only to discover that there will be nothing to vote 
on. So I guess what I would ask the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Armey), 
the distinguished majority leader, is if we are going to be held around 
here, why do we not simply bring a clean bill to the floor that takes 
the items that we know are agreed upon by everybody and pass 
legislation which is a truly clean bill, rather than waiting around 
here for a miracle to happen on a bill that has so many barnacles that 
it is not likely to sail any time soon?
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. BONIOR. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. 
Bonior) for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, let me thank the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) for 
his remarks. I must say I thought the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. 
Bonior) made the point so clearly well that, one, this is a very, very 
important piece of legislation on such a wide range of fronts. The 
Members of Congress have worked hard on it and have a lot of commitment 
to this proposition.
  Obviously, it is no inconvenience for any of us to stay within the 
bounds of the regularly-scheduled work week, as we are, in fact, today, 
to complete our work. So as we continue this week through our normal 
time for closing the week, I am sure all the Members are very pleased 
to be able to look forward to completing this work.
  The gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) reminds me of the gratitude 
that all of the Members of this body might have for the workmanship of 
the House appropriators, as they did, indeed, provide through this body 
a clean supplemental bill, showing the kind of commitment to the 
express purposes of the bill and discipline in fulfilling that 
commitment that we are so proud of in the House. And, yes, indeed, even 
while this conference committee is doing its hard work, dealing in 
conference between the two bodies, the continued excellent, committed, 
disciplined work of our House appropriators goes on even as they mark 
up some of the first of the 13 appropriations bills.
  So if the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) would allow me, I think 
the body might take a moment to give a round of applause and 
appreciation to our appropriators for their hard work and their 
commitment.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. BONIOR. I yield to the gentleman from Florida, one of those 
appropriators who is doing this magnificent job that the majority 
leader referred to.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from 
Michigan (Mr. Bonior) for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I have not had a chance to talk with the gentleman from 
Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) about this so this will be new, but we are going 
to reconvene the conference in about 15 minutes. We believe that we 
have worked out a resolution to settle the differences. We expect to 
have the paperwork done later this evening, early enough to file 
tonight, and possibly have the Committee on Rules meet tonight, which 
would possibly give us the opportunity to have a vote on the floor 
tomorrow.
  We have broken through some of the obstacles that were there, so we 
will reconvene in about 15 minutes; and, hopefully, we can get this 
good bill to the President.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. BONIOR. I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, let me simply ask the gentleman from Florida 
(Mr. Young) two questions.
  First of all, would he be kind enough to tell us, if that is the 
case, what is the fate of the two markups now going on? We are both 
supposed to be attending both of those.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, yes, we are.
  I would respond that we completed the legislative markup several days 
ago. We are almost through with the agriculture markup. We would go 
back to the ag markup probably at about 4:30 or 5:00 at the latest and 
complete that. We will postpone the markup of the Treasury Postal until 
the Chair calls for a new markup schedule because of the lateness of 
the ag bill now, because we do not want to mark up both of them at the 
same time.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, could I simply ask the gentleman, if there is 
a breakthrough which would enable the bill to pass, God help us given 
some of the provisions that are now in it, but if it does nonetheless 
pass, so be it, but could I also ask the gentleman to entertain the 
possibility of also, as a backup, preparing a stripped-down bill so 
that if this does not go anywhere that we, in fact, have something for 
Members to vote on tomorrow if they are going to be here, something 
which will not get jammed up in a filibuster in the Senate?
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I would simply say that if we do 
not have something to vote on tomorrow early enough tonight to get a 
rule, the leadership would be advised of that and advise the Members 
about tomorrow. That would be a leadership decision.

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