[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 87 (Friday, June 18, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H4657-H4658]
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 for the purpose of 
inquiring from the distinguished Majority Leader the schedule for today 
and next week.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. BONIOR. I yield to my friend from Texas.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to announce we have concluded legislative 
business for the week.
  The House will not be in session on Monday, June 21.
  The House will next meet on Tuesday, June 22, at 12:30 p.m. for 
morning hour and 2 p.m. for legislative business. Members should note 
that we expect recorded votes after 2 p.m. on Tuesday, June 22. On 
Tuesday we will consider a number of bills under suspension of the 
rules, and H.R. 659, the Patriotic Act, under an open rule.
  On Wednesday, June 23, and the balance of the week the House will 
consider the following legislation, all of which will be subject to 
rules:
  H.R. 2084, the Department of Transportation Appropriation Act;
  H.R. 1658, Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform;
  H.J. Res. 33, Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of the 
United States Authorizing the Congress to Prohibit the Physical 
Desecration of the Flag of the United States; and
  H.R. 1802, Foster Care and Dependents Act of 1999.
  Mr. Speaker, we expect to conclude legislative business by 2 o'clock 
p.m. on Friday, June 25, and I thank the gentleman for having yielded 
me the time.
  Mr. BONIOR. If I could ask the gentleman from Texas: Do we expect any 
late nights next week, any anticipated late evenings?
  Mr. ARMEY. I thank the gentleman.
  We do have a fairly full legislative schedule, but it seems to me 
given that most of the work is considered under the rules and not very 
controversial we should not expect a flood of amendments, and we should 
be able to manage ourselves into relatively reasonable working hours.
  Mr. BONIOR. I thank my colleague.
  Let me ask him a further question and inquiry:
  When are we going to take up campaign finance reform? I understand 
that the Committee on House Administration is going to have a series of 
hearings, and I would just implore my friend from Texas and my 
colleagues on this side of the aisle in the majority that the time has 
come for us to have this bill on the floor where we can have an open 
debate on an issue in which we debated for weeks and weeks and months 
on end in the last Congress. I think the country is ready, we are tired 
of waiting, and I hope the gentleman can give us some indication of 
when that bill will be before this body.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, let me again remind the gentleman the summers 
belong to the appropriations process. The Speaker and the leadership 
have correctly, I think, in terms of the management of the year's flow 
of business placed that priority on the process, and yet the Speaker 
has given assurance, and I would second the assurances that he has 
given, that we should be able to address this matter of campaign 
finance reform on the floor before the end of September.
  Mr. BONIOR. Before the end of September.
  Mr. Speaker, I regret hearing that once again. I understand that was 
the Speaker's assurance and the gentleman's assurance, but that seems 
awfully late in terms of making sure that we have something that can 
change the law of this country to clean up our campaign finance.
  I yield for a comment to my friend and leader on this issue, the 
gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer).
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the distinguished whip for yielding, and I will 
say to my friend, the Majority Leader, I quoted him yesterday in 
hearings that we had in the Committee on House Administration saying 
that he hoped initially that this would be on the floor in July, 
campaign finance reform. I also quoted the gentleman from Tennessee 
(Mr. Wamp), who indicated that if we delayed until September he was 
fearful that it would kill campaign finance reform.
  As the distinguished Majority Leader knows, we had over 50 hours of 
debate on the Shays-Meehan bill last Congress and we had 252 Members 
vote in favor of passing that bill, and frankly with all due respect 
the hearing that we had yesterday, three good Members of Congress, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Calvert), the gentleman from Maryland 
(Mr. Gilchrest) and the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Sabo), came and 
testified, but very frankly, Mr. Leader, they testified on bills they 
have had in it for at least two congresses. Very little change in their 
testimony. They indicated to me it was essentially no different than it 
was before. So I fear that the hearings will simply delay us and will 
be a device to kill rather than pass campaign finance reform.
  I would hope that the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Armey) would consult 
with his leadership and see if we could accelerate that so we could 
bring Shays-Meehan to the floor as quickly as possible, and I thank the 
distinguished gentleman from Michigan (Mr.

[[Page H4658]]

Bonior) for yielding, and I thank the leader for his consideration of 
that request.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, I just have one other request, and I yield 
to the gentleman from California (Mr. Farr) for a comment.
  Mr. FARR of California. Mr. Speaker, I just have a question for those 
of us traveling from the West Coast. Is there any possibility that 
those votes on Tuesday could be rolled until 5 o'clock? If we leave the 
West Coast first thing early Tuesday morning, the first plane gets in 4 
p.m., and we can be on the floor by 5:00. It would be very helpful.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his request, and I 
do understand how important and sensitive that is.
  Ordinarily, especially on a Monday, we would almost assuredly give 
Members a 6 o'clock vote time. We do have again an opportunity to have 
an orderly week's business, but to begin, being a Tuesday beginning, I 
just at this point am not comfortable. Should we see a modification in 
the schedule, we would put out over the whip notice, but I just do not 
believe we can get there now.

                              {time}  1430

  But I just do not believe we can get there now.
  Mr. FARR of California. So the gentleman does not think the votes 
could be rolled?
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield, we always look 
for these opportunities to the best of our ability, but we need to get 
more quickly than in many weeks to considerations of legislation under 
rules, and therefore we just simply cannot make that Tuesday 
accommodation that is so usual and, I think, so necessary and 
desirable. But we will continue to keep the needs of Members in our 
planning priorities.
  Mr. FARR of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.

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