[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 124 (Friday, October 6, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H9048]
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 and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. FROST. Mr. Speaker, I take this time to inquire about next week's 
schedule.
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. FROST. I yield to the gentleman from California.
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I thank my fellow Committee on Rules member, 
the gentleman from Dallas, for yielding.
  I am pleased to announce to our colleagues, Mr. Speaker, that the 
House has completed its legislative business for the week. The House 
will next meet for legislative business on Tuesday, October 10, at 
12:30 p.m. for morning hour and 2 p.m. for legislative business. The 
House will consider a number of bills under suspension of the rules, a 
list of which will be distributed to Members' offices later today.
  On Tuesday, the House will also consider H.R. 4205, the National 
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001. We are hoping in the 
Committee on Rules to be able to report the rule on that conference 
report out before too terribly long. I hope my friend from Texas will 
remain with us while we attempt to do that.
  On Tuesday, I should say there are no votes anticipated until after 6 
p.m.
  On Wednesday, October 11, and the balance of the week, the House will 
consider the following measures: H.R. 4461, the Agriculture 
Appropriations Conference Report; H.R. 4577, the Departments of Labor, 
Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Conference 
Report; and H.R. 4942, the District of Columbia Appropriations 
Conference Report. The House will also consider any other conference 
reports that may become available throughout the week.
  I thank my friend for yielding and hope that when we do report out 
this conference report rule upstairs that we will be able to send 
everyone home for the weekend.
  Mr. FROST. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin, the 
ranking member of the Committee on Appropriations.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I wonder if I could inquire, can we be assured that next 
week all of the appropriations conference reports will actually be in 
the conference reports, or will we again have to go through the charade 
that we went through today where, if you went to the conference report 
on the bill passed earlier, you could not find one word of the bill 
that was being conferenced?
  Mr. DREIER. Well, I will assure my friend that we will not continue 
with any kind of ``charade'' that he thinks may or may not have taken 
place. We are going to try to proceed with conference reports and have 
votes on those next week.
  Mr. OBEY. Can the gentleman assure us that every bill that has been 
conferenced will, in fact, be found in the conference report?
  Mr. DREIER. If my friend would continue to yield, I cannot provide 
assurance that my friend from Wisconsin will be completely happy with 
the procedure that will be followed.
  Mr. OBEY. I did not think so.
  Mr. FROST. Mr. Speaker, I have several questions, if I may. First, I 
listened carefully to what my colleague on the Committee on Rules said. 
I am not sure I understood exactly one point. Do we expect any 
appropriation bills on the floor on Tuesday, or are they only going to 
come up later in the week?
  Mr. DREIER. At this juncture, we do not anticipate any appropriation 
conference reports to be on the floor on Tuesday.
  Mr. FROST. If I could ask the gentleman an additional question, when 
will our business be completed for the week next week? Do we anticipate 
a weekend session?
  Mr. DREIER. Do we anticipate? As my friend knows, the Continuing 
Resolution expires one week from tomorrow, and we hope very much we 
will have the work of the 106th Congress completed by that time. So, at 
this juncture, we hope that we will be completed by next Saturday.
  Mr. FROST. Do we anticipate being here on Saturday?
  Mr. DREIER. I think it would be great if we could finish it midweek 
and adjourn sine die, but that probably will not happen. At this 
juncture, we have until Saturday, when the Continuing Resolution 
expires; and it is our hope that we will complete our work by that 
time.
  Mr. FROST. Should we not complete our work by next Saturday, by the 
day on which the CR expires, do we anticipate very short-term CRs after 
that? Can we tell how long the next one would be, if in fact the next 
one were necessary?
  Mr. DREIER. We will obviously want to work closely with our friends 
on the other side of the aisle and down Pennsylvania Avenue to bring 
about some kind of resolution on that question. I think it is too early 
to raise that question, and we are all hoping that by the expiration of 
the Continuing Resolution next Saturday, we will be able to adjourn 
sine die.

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