[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 144 (Thursday, October 21, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H10715-H10716]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. OBEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I asked for 1 minute to inquire about next 
week's schedule.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. OBEY. I yield to the distinguished majority leader.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I would like to announce that the previous 
vote on final passage of the Straight A's bill was our last vote for 
the week. We are continuing to meet on appropriations bills, but I do 
not expect that they will be ready for a vote by tomorrow. The House 
will, therefore, meet next Monday, October 25, at 12:30 p.m. for 
morning hour and 2 o'clock 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 Members' offices tomorrow. On Monday we do 
not expect recorded votes until 6 o'clock p.m. On Tuesday, October 26, 
and the balance of the week the House will take up the following 
measures, all of which will be subject to rules:
  H.R. 2260, the Pain Relief Promotion Act of 1999, H.R. 1987, the Fair 
Access to Indemnity and Reimbursement Act, and H.R. 3081, the Wage and 
Employment Growth Act.

[[Page H10716]]

  Mr. Speaker, we have completed our work on 12 of the 13 
appropriations bills. We expect to complete the Labor-HHS 
appropriations bill and consider the D.C. appropriations conference 
report sometime early next week.
  Mr. Speaker, I wish all of my colleagues safe travel home tonight, 
and I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, if I could ask the gentleman two additional 
questions. First of all, could the gentleman tell me whether or not he 
expects to take up the minimum wage bill next week.
  Mr. ARMEY. I thank the gentleman for asking, Mr. Speaker.
  Mr. Speaker, we do have that scheduled, but I must say it is 
tentatively scheduled. There have been a great many people working on 
that. We believe their work is coming together; and should it do so, we 
should expect to have it on the floor next week.
  I would just say that my best predilection is that it will be there 
next week.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.
  Could the gentleman also answer another question.
  Which day does the gentleman expect the Labor Health conference 
report, which has never been voted on in the House, to be before the 
House for consideration?
  Mr. ARMEY. I thank the gentleman for the inquiry, Mr. Speaker; and I 
do appreciate the gentleman's inquiry.
  Mr. Speaker, of course, as we all know, we had a very good meeting at 
the White House the other night. We all agreed to try to complete this 
work as quickly as possible. The gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) 
certainly knows the Labor-HHS appropriations bill is one of the more 
difficult ones. They are continuing work on that; and as that progress 
continues, we will be able to give a more complete report.
  I can only say that it is my expectation at this time on the basis of 
progress we see that it should be fairly early in the week next week.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, if I could ask the gentleman further, and let 
me explain first why I ask the question.
  We have been told for most of the evening that it was the 
expectation, and in fact I was told by the Chairman of the Committee on 
Rules earlier this evening that it was his expectation that the 
Committee on Rules would be filing tonight the District of Columbia new 
conference report to which they expected to see attached the Labor, 
Health, Education appropriation bill and that they expected to bring 
that up tonight. It is now not going to be up tonight.
  The problem is that we are supposed to have negotiations tomorrow or 
at least preliminary discussions on a number of the outstanding bills 
that we still have to pass.

                              {time}  2300

  It is very difficult to discuss a bill that we do not know the 
contents of, and without going on any further on that, I would simply 
ask the gentleman, can the gentleman give us some idea of how much time 
we will have to examine that bill after it is filed so that everyone on 
both sides of the aisle is familiar with what they are voting on, since 
the House has never seen this legislation.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I again thank the gentleman for his inquiry, 
and I appreciate the gentleman's reminder. Mr. Speaker, if the 
gentleman will continue to yield.
  Mr. OBEY. Surely.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I think it is appropriate that we advise the 
Committee on Rules that they will not have that meeting that the 
gentleman referred to tonight. The work is still in progress. The 
gentleman's schedule, as the ranking Democrat on the Committee on 
Appropriations I am sure will be communicated to him by the Chairman as 
the committee continues its work, and I expect that there will be work 
that will proceed tomorrow. I just have to tell the gentleman, frankly, 
I just do not know the committee's schedule. I wish I could tell the 
gentleman more.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, let me simply urge the gentleman, those of us 
on the Committee on Appropriations, such as the gentleman from Florida 
(Mr. Young) and myself, we will probably have at least a few minutes to 
review the bill before it is before us. But for the average Member who 
is not on the committee, I do not want them on either side of the aisle 
to be in a position where they do not know what the contents of that 
bill are, since it is the most important domestic appropriation bill 
that we will handle this year. So I would urge that there be enough 
time for your folks and ours to be able to review the contents before 
it is put to a vote.
  Mr. ARMEY. Again, Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, let me 
say that I do again appreciate the point the gentleman has made. The 
point is made well, and I think the point is an important point. We 
certainly want to do exactly what the gentleman does, and that is to 
give everybody as much opportunity as we can to review the legislation. 
I am confident in my mind that the gentleman from Wisconsin will attend 
to that, and I will do my best to attend to it, and I expect that if 
the gentleman from Wisconsin is not satisfied that we have done the 
very best possible, he will let me know about it.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, that is probably true, I 
would say. I guess I have no further questions. I would simply observe 
that I am sorry, but I do not wish the Dallas Cowboys well this 
weekend.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield for one last 
retort, we in Dallas, of course, have nothing but the highest regard 
for the Green Bay Packers, and we hope them the best of luck this 
weekend.

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