[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 153 (Wednesday, November 3, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H11420-H11422]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF MOTIONS TO SUSPEND THE RULES

  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I 
call up House Resolution 353 and ask for its immediate consideration.
  The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:

                              H. Res. 353

       Resolved, That it shall be in order at any time on or 
     before the legislative day of Wednesday, November 10, 1999, 
     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}  1630

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Pease). The gentleman from California 
(Mr. Dreier) is recognized for 1 hour.
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, for the purposes of debate only, I yield the 
customary 30 minutes to my very good and hard-working late-at-night 
friend, the gentleman from South Boston, Massachusetts (Mr. Moakley). 
Pending that, I yield myself such time as I may consume. All time I 
will be yielding will be for debate purposes only.
  (Mr. DREIER asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks, and include extraneous material.)
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, House Resolution 353 will provide for the 
consideration of motions to suspend the rules at any time up to and 
including the legislative day of Wednesday, November 10. In addition, 
this resolution requires that the Speaker or his designee consult with 
the minority leader or his designee on the designation of any matter 
for consideration under suspension of the rules. Finally, this 
resolution provides that the object of any motion to suspend the rules 
be announced, based on a brilliantly crafted amendment from the 
gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Moakley) for at least 2 hours prior 
to its consideration.
  Under clause 1 of rule XV of the rules of the House, the Speaker may 
only entertain motions to suspend the rules on Mondays, Tuesday, and 
the last 6 days of the session. Since the House has not yet passed an 
adjournment resolution, the last 6 days of this session have not been 
determined, although we still hope they will be the last 6 days that 
begin before too terribly long. Therefore, Mr. Speaker, it is necessary 
for us to pass this resolution in order to allow the House to consider 
suspensions on days other than those designated as suspension days 
under the rules of the House.
  Mr. Speaker, as we near the end of the first session of this 
Congress, it is imperative we allow ourselves the utmost flexibility in 
scheduling and considering the remaining matters before us. While we 
have produced such success in this session, most notably reforming 
education, providing for our national defense and protecting Social 
Security, there still are a number of items that do need to be 
considered. This resolution will allow us to expeditiously consider the 
noncontroversial and narrowly tailored, yet important matters, that 
remain unresolved.
  Every year around this time we consider a resolution such as this in 
order to officially dispose of the remaining bipartisan matters before 
us.
  Therefore, Mr. Speaker, in pursuit of that, I urge adoption of this 
resolution and thank the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Moakley) for 
helping us in this quest.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. MOAKLEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague and my very dear friend, the 
illustrious gentleman from California (Chairman Dreier), for yielding 
me the customary 30 minutes.
  Mr. Speaker, by bringing up this rule making every day a suspension 
day, one might be led to believe my Republican colleagues have seen the 
light at the end of the tunnel; but from what I can tell, we still have 
a lot to do before Congress finishes the work for the year.
  I hope the people negotiating the omnibus appropriations bill will be 
able to

[[Page H11421]]

come to an agreement by Veterans' Day, but, Mr. Speaker, I have my 
reservations. Omnibus bills are traditionally very big and very 
complicated, and there is no reason to think this year's will be any 
different.
  I want to thank my chairman and my Republican colleagues on the 
Committee on Rules for graciously allowing us an extra hour's notice on 
these suspension bills. Although my chairman was personally opposed to 
it, he supported our request nonetheless, and I appreciate this very 
much.
  But as a Member of the minority, I have to object to this rule making 
every day a suspension day. Suspensions, by their very nature, bypass 
House rules, including the rules that protect the minority. Far too 
many bills this Congress has bypassed the committee process. Both the 
D.C. appropriations bill coming up next and the foreign operations 
appropriations bill that is probably coming up tomorrow have completely 
skipped the committee process; and the Labor, Health and Human Services 
bill was never considered in such a way that Members could actually 
amend it. So I fear this rule will make it even easier for my 
Republican colleagues to continue to run rough-shod over the rules of 
the House, and particularly the rules that protect the minority.
  Therefore, I urge my colleagues to oppose this rule.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume to 
simply say my good friend from Sugarland, Texas, has just informed me 
that the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Moakley) referred to some 
omnibus bill that is out there, and none of us on this side are aware 
of that at all. I do not know that we are going to be considering 
anything like that. We are not planning to consider anything like that 
at all.
  The second thing I would like to say is that I was very happy to 
encourage all of the majority Members to support the Moakley amendment 
upstairs last night when we considered this, and I only assumed that 
having done that that my friend would enthusiastically join us in 
helping move these suspension measures, as is always the case at the 
end of the year.
  I would also add that on both the D.C. and the Labor, Health and 
Human Services bills, we did see full committee action on both of 
those, and there are clearly, on the D.C. bill modifications that have 
been made, but we know the chairman of that Subcommittee on the 
District of Columbia spent a lot of time on the D.C. bill, and on the 
Labor-HHS bill, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Porter) did. So we are 
doing what is very much the norm for trying to move legislation towards 
the end of the session. So I think there should be very strong 
bipartisan support of this measure.
  Mr. MOAKLEY. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I 
yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. DREIER. 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 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 222, 
nays 200, answered ``present'' 1, not voting 10, as follows:

                             [Roll No. 561]

                               YEAS--222

     Aderholt
     Archer
     Armey
     Bachus
     Baker
     Ballenger
     Barr
     Barrett (NE)
     Bartlett
     Barton
     Bass
     Bateman
     Biggert
     Bilbray
     Bilirakis
     Bliley
     Blunt
     Boehlert
     Boehner
     Bonilla
     Bono
     Brady (TX)
     Bryant
     Burr
     Burton
     Buyer
     Callahan
     Calvert
     Camp
     Campbell
     Canady
     Cannon
     Castle
     Chabot
     Chambliss
     Chenoweth-Hage
     Coble
     Coburn
     Collins
     Combest
     Cook
     Cooksey
     Cox
     Crane
     Cubin
     Cunningham
     Davis (VA)
     Deal
     DeLay
     DeMint
     Diaz-Balart
     Dooley
     Doolittle
     Dreier
     Duncan
     Ehlers
     Ehrlich
     Emerson
     English
     Eshoo
     Everett
     Ewing
     Fletcher
     Foley
     Fossella
     Fowler
     Franks (NJ)
     Frelinghuysen
     Gallegly
     Ganske
     Gekas
     Gibbons
     Gilchrest
     Gillmor
     Gilman
     Goodlatte
     Goodling
     Goss
     Graham
     Granger
     Green (WI)
     Greenwood
     Gutknecht
     Hall (TX)
     Hansen
     Hastings (WA)
     Hayes
     Hayworth
     Hefley
     Herger
     Hill (MT)
     Hilleary
     Hobson
     Hoekstra
     Horn
     Hostettler
     Houghton
     Hunter
     Hutchinson
     Hyde
     Isakson
     Istook
     Jenkins
     Johnson (CT)
     Johnson, Sam
     Jones (NC)
     Kasich
     Kelly
     King (NY)
     Kingston
     Knollenberg
     Kolbe
     Kuykendall
     LaHood
     Largent
     Latham
     LaTourette
     Lazio
     Leach
     Lewis (CA)
     Lewis (KY)
     Linder
     LoBiondo
     Lucas (OK)
     Manzullo
     McCollum
     McCrery
     McHugh
     McInnis
     McIntosh
     McKeon
     McNulty
     Metcalf
     Mica
     Miller (FL)
     Miller, Gary
     Moran (KS)
     Morella
     Myrick
     Nethercutt
     Ney
     Northup
     Norwood
     Nussle
     Ose
     Oxley
     Packard
     Paul
     Pease
     Peterson (PA)
     Petri
     Pickering
     Pitts
     Pombo
     Porter
     Portman
     Pryce (OH)
     Quinn
     Radanovich
     Ramstad
     Regula
     Reynolds
     Riley
     Rogan
     Rogers
     Rohrabacher
     Ros-Lehtinen
     Rothman
     Roukema
     Royce
     Ryan (WI)
     Ryun (KS)
     Salmon
     Sanford
     Saxton
     Schaffer
     Sensenbrenner
     Sessions
     Shadegg
     Shaw
     Shays
     Sherman
     Sherwood
     Shimkus
     Shuster
     Simpson
     Skeen
     Smith (MI)
     Smith (NJ)
     Smith (TX)
     Souder
     Spence
     Stearns
     Stump
     Sununu
     Sweeney
     Talent
     Tancredo
     Tauzin
     Taylor (NC)
     Terry
     Thomas
     Thornberry
     Thune
     Tiahrt
     Toomey
     Traficant
     Upton
     Vitter
     Walden
     Walsh
     Wamp
     Watkins
     Watts (OK)
     Weldon (FL)
     Weller
     Whitfield
     Wicker
     Wilson
     Wolf
     Young (AK)
     Young (FL)

                               NAYS--200

     Abercrombie
     Allen
     Andrews
     Baird
     Baldacci
     Baldwin
     Barcia
     Barrett (WI)
     Becerra
     Bentsen
     Berkley
     Berman
     Berry
     Bishop
     Blagojevich
     Blumenauer
     Bonior
     Borski
     Boswell
     Boucher
     Boyd
     Brady (PA)
     Brown (FL)
     Brown (OH)
     Capps
     Capuano
     Cardin
     Carson
     Clay
     Clayton
     Clement
     Clyburn
     Condit
     Conyers
     Costello
     Coyne
     Cramer
     Crowley
     Cummings
     Danner
     Davis (FL)
     Davis (IL)
     DeFazio
     DeGette
     Delahunt
     DeLauro
     Deutsch
     Dickey
     Dicks
     Dingell
     Dixon
     Doggett
     Doyle
     Edwards
     Engel
     Etheridge
     Evans
     Fattah
     Filner
     Forbes
     Ford
     Frank (MA)
     Frost
     Gejdenson
     Gephardt
     Gonzalez
     Goode
     Gordon
     Green (TX)
     Gutierrez
     Hall (OH)
     Hastings (FL)
     Hill (IN)
     Hilliard
     Hinchey
     Hinojosa
     Hoeffel
     Holden
     Holt
     Hooley
     Hoyer
     Inslee
     Jackson (IL)
     Jackson-Lee (TX)
     Jefferson
     John
     Johnson, E. B.
     Jones (OH)
     Kanjorski
     Kaptur
     Kennedy
     Kildee
     Kind (WI)
     Kleczka
     Klink
     Kucinich
     LaFalce
     Lampson
     Lantos
     Larson
     Lee
     Levin
     Lewis (GA)
     Lipinski
     Lofgren
     Lowey
     Lucas (KY)
     Luther
     Maloney (CT)
     Maloney (NY)
     Markey
     Martinez
     Mascara
     Matsui
     McCarthy (MO)
     McCarthy (NY)
     McDermott
     McGovern
     McIntyre
     McKinney
     Meehan
     Meek (FL)
     Meeks (NY)
     Menendez
     Miller, George
     Minge
     Mink
     Moakley
     Mollohan
     Moore
     Moran (VA)
     Murtha
     Nadler
     Napolitano
     Neal
     Oberstar
     Obey
     Olver
     Ortiz
     Owens
     Pallone
     Pascrell
     Pastor
     Payne
     Pelosi
     Peterson (MN)
     Phelps
     Pickett
     Pomeroy
     Price (NC)
     Rangel
     Reyes
     Rivers
     Rodriguez
     Roemer
     Roybal-Allard
     Rush
     Sabo
     Sanchez
     Sanders
     Sandlin
     Sawyer
     Schakowsky
     Serrano
     Shows
     Sisisky
     Skelton
     Slaughter
     Smith (WA)
     Snyder
     Spratt
     Stabenow
     Stark
     Stenholm
     Strickland
     Stupak
     Tanner
     Tauscher
     Taylor (MS)
     Thompson (CA)
     Thompson (MS)
     Thurman
     Tierney
     Towns
     Turner
     Udall (CO)
     Udall (NM)
     Velazquez
     Vento
     Visclosky
     Waters
     Watt (NC)
     Waxman
     Weiner
     Wexler
     Weygand
     Wise
     Woolsey
     Wu
     Wynn

                        ANSWERED ``PRESENT''--1

       
     Farr
       

                             NOT VOTING--10

     Ackerman
     Bereuter
     Dunn
     Hulshof
     Kilpatrick
     Millender-McDonald
     Rahall
     Scarborough
     Scott
     Weldon (PA)

                              {time}  1659

  Mr. FATTAH and Mr. LEVIN changed their vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
  So the resolution was agreed to.
  The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.

[[Page H11422]]

  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
  Stated against:
  Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 561, I was 
detained by constituents and was unable to make it in time for this 
vote. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no.''

                          ____________________