[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 132 (Thursday, October 19, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H10450-H10452]
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 and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, I would like to inquire of the distinguished 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Bonilla) of the schedule for the rest of 
today and the remainder of the week.
  Mr. BONILLA. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. BONIOR. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
  Mr. BONILLA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and, 
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to announce that the House has completed its 
legislative business for the week. The House will not be in session 
tomorrow. The House will next meet on Monday, October 23, at 12:30 p.m. 
for morning hour and 2 p.m. for legislative business.
  The House will consider a number of measures under suspension of the 
rules, a list of which will be distributed to Members' offices 
tomorrow. On Monday, there will be no votes in the House. Any requests 
for recorded votes on Monday will be rolled until Tuesday after 2 p.m.
  On Tuesday and the balance of the week the House will consider the 
following measures:
  H.R. 4656, the Lake Tahoe Basin School Site Land Conveyance Act;
  H.R. 4577, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and 
Education Appropriations Conference Report;
  H.R. 4942, the District of Columbia Appropriations Conference Report;
  H.R. 2614, the Certified Development Company Program Improvements Act 
of 2000 Conference Report;
  And the Foreign Operations Appropriations Conference Report.
  Mr. Speaker, the House will also consider any other conference 
reports that may become available throughout the week.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, if I could inquire of 
the gentleman from Texas, are there any other bills on next Tuesday 
that the gentleman expects to bring to the floor other than the 
suspension bills?
  Mr. BONILLA. If the gentleman will continue to yield, the Foreign Ops 
bill is expected to be filed Monday evening. In terms of additional 
suspensions, is that specifically what the gentleman is inquiring 
about?
  Mr. BONIOR. Other bills besides the suspension bills.
  Mr. BONILLA. The Committee on Rules is meeting on Monday night, and 
we hope to have the Foreign Ops bill ready for Tuesday.
  Mr. BONIOR. So we expect to have the Foreign Ops bill on the floor on 
Tuesday?
  Mr. BONILLA. That is correct.
  Mr. BONIOR. Are there any votes besides the suspensions that are 
going to occur before 6 p.m.?
  Mr. BONILLA. Yes, we do expect votes at 2 p.m. on Tuesday.
  Mr. BONIOR. But beyond suspension bills, does the gentleman expect 
votes on other bills before 6?
  Mr. BONILLA. It is possible that nonsuspension bills will be held as 
of 2 p.m. on Tuesday.

                              {time}  1915

  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, could the gentleman tell me when we expect 
to adjourn sine die?
  Mr. BONILLA. I wish I could. At this point, the remainder of the 
schedule has not been determined.
  Mr. BONIOR. May I ask the distinguished gentleman from Texas when we 
expect to vote on the minimum wage bill?
  Mr. BONILLA. At this point that has not been determined.
  Mr. BONIOR. How about the prescription drug bill?
  Mr. BONILLA. At this point that has not been determined.
  Mr. BONIOR. How about the HMO bill?
  Mr. BONILLA. Same answer.
  Mr. BONIOR. How about the education program that we talked about in 
the debate a little earlier this afternoon?
  Mr. BONILLA. Same answer.
  Mr. BONIOR. Well, Mr. Speaker, I just want to say, and I will end 
with this comment, we are here 19 days into the fiscal year, the 
President has received and signed three appropriations bills out of 13, 
and the work of the country is not done. The work on key issues like 
minimum wage, HMO reform, prescription drugs, hate crimes, and the list 
goes on, is not done. We are taking a 5-day period before we vote. We 
will not come back until next Tuesday.
  I just want to make it very clear this evening so no one 
misunderstands that these CR's will not be tolerated by us or by the 
President of the United States beyond Wednesday. We are going to do 
them in 24-hour increments, and we are going to get the work of the 
country done.
  I just want to tell my friend from Texas and his colleagues and my 
colleagues here on this side of the aisle, we will not yield and we 
will not leave here until we get some of these major issues done.
  We want the minimum wage done. I am not going to limit myself to what 
we want done, but I will tell you we will not leave here certainly if 
the educational pieces are not done; and that includes 100,000 
teachers, the construction for modernization of our schools, as well as 
the after-school program and teacher certification. Those are key 
pieces to what we think we should be able to accomplish as a Congress.
  And so, anyway, my colleagues are forewarned of our concern, and we 
hope that we can do this in an expeditious manner to take care of the 
needs of the country and so we can get back to our home districts and 
do not expect a CR to run beyond 24 hours if in fact the business of 
the House is not done.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to my friend, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. 
Obey).
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  I would like to take this opportunity to give the House a status 
report on what is probably the major bill that still remains before we 
get out of here on the appropriations front. We had yet another meeting 
of the Labor-HHS conference, the seventh meeting we have had, I 
believe. And at the beginning of the meeting, we were told by the 
Senate Chair of the conference that he

[[Page H10451]]

would not sign a conference report one dime above the level contained 
in the conference report for Labor, Health, and Education.
  At that point, frankly, I asked if I could be pointed in the 
direction of whatever room or whatever person would be in a position to 
negotiate so that we could reach an agreement on that bill. And at that 
point the White House and those of us on our side of the aisle, myself 
and the Senator representing the Senate caucus, laid a compromise on 
the table which was in essence a 20 percent reduction in the amount of 
funding that we have been asking but insisting that we still meet the 
needs on school construction, on class size reduction, on teacher 
training, on after-school programs, on Pell, and on IDEA.
  We presented the offer, which is a 20 percent movement on our part, 
and we asked him to please be prepared to sit down at 10 o'clock Monday 
morning to deal with this issue so that we can get some movement. And 
it is my earnest hope that we do not have to wait until Wednesday or 
Thursday or Friday to begin serious negotiations on this. We have 
moved. And as far as I am concerned, we need to see movement on the 
other side.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues for their comments.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. BONIOR. I yield to the gentleman from Florida.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. I did not have a chance to listen to all of the 
discussion on the schedule, but I just have a question either for you 
or Mr. Obey. We are trying our darnedest to have the Labor-HHS bill 
filed by Monday night. That would require the presence of the 
principals here tomorrow and possibly Saturday.
  I wonder if that would be possible for the minority principals to be 
here?
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. BONIOR. I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin.
  Mr. OBEY. As the gentleman well knows, we have stayed here for three 
weekends waiting to find someone to negotiate with. And as the 
gentleman also well knows, no one with the power to make decisions on 
the issues has been here.
  I do not have any intention of sitting around for another weekend 
waiting for the persons who have the authority to make the decisions to 
come around.
  It is obvious that the chairman from the other body is not prepared 
to make any movement whatsoever in negotiations. It is also obvious 
that it is the leadership of both caucuses that is making the decision 
about what the contents are in these bills.
  And so far as I know, they are going to be roaming around the country 
again, which is their right, performing their duties on behalf of 
candidates running for reelection. But I am not about to again not go 
to my own district waiting for meetings that will not happen.
  We asked that people be prepared to meet at 10 o'clock Monday 
morning. We laid an offer on the table. We are giving their side and 
both the Senate and the House Chambers an opportunity to respond to it, 
and we have asked and Senator Stevens has indicated that he would like 
to meet on Monday to discuss this.
  My question would be, when will the Speaker and the majority leader 
and the majority whip in this House and the majority leader on the 
Senate side and the majority whip on the Senate side be available next 
week so that we can in fact get these decisions made?
  You and I know that if we could work out a deal between the two of us 
we would have it done in an hour. We know that. But every time we try 
to get a decision out of the Committee on Appropriations, we get vetoed 
by somebody on your side.
  The House made an offer to us of several billion dollars earlier in 
the week. That was taken off the table tonight by the Senate chairman 
of the subcommittee. That is not a way to negotiate. I do not think the 
gentleman from Florida would negotiate that way, and we did not 
appreciate being stiffed on it this evening.
  So we will be prepared to meet anytime that your leadership is in 
town in both Chambers so that when we get stiffed again, we can go to 
someone else who has the authority to provide some movement. I hope it 
is by Monday, but I frankly would be surprised if even then we get 
movement from them.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. If the gentleman would yield further, the 
principals that are necessary to conclude this agreement on the Labor, 
Health and Human Services bill will be available tomorrow or Saturday.
  Mr. OBEY. Would you name them, please.
  Mr. YOUNG Of Florida. I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. Could you say 
that again?
  Mr. OBEY. Would you name who would be available tomorrow?
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. The gentleman knows who the principals are that 
need to be here.
  Mr. OBEY. We just met with the principals and got stiffed. We were 
just told by the principal from your party on the Senate side I would 
not move one dollar. And we were asked by the Senate chairman of the 
Committee on Appropriations to sit down and meet Monday. I expect and I 
hope that we will find him more reasonable than we have found the 
principals that we have been dealing with.
  We had seven meetings with the principals and we have gotten the same 
thing out of them every time, no movement. That is not the way we are 
going to end this session.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield 
further, I want to respond to my friend from Wisconsin that he knows 
who the principals are. He also knows who the one big principal is at 
the White House. And I think he also knows that we finally, just this 
evening, got the offer from the White House that we have been waiting 
for for quite some time.
  It is essential, if we are going to negotiate, we need an offer and a 
response.
  Mr. OBEY. You got the offer. We are waiting for your response. We 
were told that we would get it on Monday. And I am relying on Senator 
Stevens, he is a man of good faith, and I am relying on you to be ready 
Monday to deal with it. But I have been here for a month.
  The Speaker has gone to his district; he has gone all over the 
country campaigning for people. The majority leader has. The majority 
whip has. I have been stuck here like a fugitive on a chain gang 
waiting for somebody in the leadership on your side of the aisle with 
the power to negotiate to actually engage in negotiations. And, as you 
know, all we get is no, no, no.
  We have moved 20 percent off our position. But we are not going to 
leave here, as the distinguished minority whip says, until we get a 
Labor-HHS bill that provides an additional ability to reduce class 
size, to train more teachers in a better fashion, to provide for after-
school centers, to provide for the same level of Pell Grant funding 
that you yourself said you wanted in May, and to provide additional 
funding for the disabled.
  That is what we are asking for, along with the school construction. 
And we moved 20 percent from our position today. The only answer we got 
from your side is no movement. And so there is no point in meeting with 
the same four people all around because we get no new results.
  So what we are hoping is that we will get different results by moving 
it to a different level, and that is what we have been told would take 
place on Monday.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would further 
yield, after sifting through everything that I have heard from my dear 
friend from Wisconsin, I think the answer to my question is, no. He 
would not be available tomorrow or Saturday or Sunday, but he would be 
available Monday. And if that is the best we can do, that is the best 
we can do.
  Mr. OBEY. The gentleman knows that I said on this floor and I said to 
you that I would be prepared to be here any day, Saturday, Sunday or 
Monday, if your leadership was prepared to be here. Because it is 
obvious they are the people making the decisions and they have stripped 
you of all ability to make decisions without checking with them and 
then they vetoed virtually every decision that you made.

  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. We are in a position now that we are dealing 
with the White House. And we finally, just a few minutes ago, got an 
offer from the White House. The gentleman can stand there and raise his 
voice all he wants.

[[Page H10452]]

 We just got the offer from the White House.
  Now, we would like to have an hour or two to look at it. We would 
like to meet tomorrow to try to give a response. Hopefully, we can 
agree to it.
  Mr. OBEY. Are we supposed to meet with Senator Specter again who says 
there is no give? We were told we should meet with people at a higher 
level on Monday. That is what we are doing.
  As you well know, your leadership has kept you on a tight leash, and 
every time we try to negotiate something with the Committee on 
Appropriations, we are told it is vetoed by your leadership.
  If the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hastert) will be in town, if the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Armey) will be in town, if the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. DeLay) will be in town so the people with the real power 
over there can make some decisions, you bet I will be in town. But 
absent their participation in that room, I am not going to waste my 
time again waiting for a call that has not come. I have waited for 
three weeks, and I am tired of it.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Well, as the gentleman knows, the names that he 
mentioned are not members of the Committee on Appropriations.
  Mr. OBEY. But they do make the choices, do they not? Do you deny 
that?
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. They are leaders. They have the right, and they 
have the power to make certain decisions, of course, the same as your 
leadership does. It is a two-sided coin.
  Mr. OBEY. The difference is our leadership has given us the power to 
negotiate.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. The gentleman is not available. That is the 
answer. The gentleman is not available.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Gutknecht). The gentleman from Michigan 
(Mr. Bonior) controls the time.
  Mr. BONIOR. Since you mentioned our leadership, I would like to, if I 
could, register a polite complaint, as well.
  Since I am the author of the minimum wage bill, I have not been asked 
to participate in any meetings on this bill that has been languishing 
now for months and months and months. I am waiting for an opportunity 
to participate in trying to resolve that. And in waiting for that, we 
are denying the people who are working so hard in our country for $5.15 
an hour, there is about 10 million of them out there that have been 
denied about $2,000, which is a huge percent of their disposable income 
while we wait and we wait.
  We think that there ought to be some movement here. We are willing to 
be here and meet on that. I have been willing to meet on that for 
months now. We have not had a meeting on the minimum wage. We have not 
had a meeting on prescription drugs. We have not had a meeting on some 
of these other issues that are important to us, like hate crimes and 
other things. And we certainly have not been able to do the things we 
need to do on education.
  So we are ready to go, and we have been ready to go. I hope we made 
our point very clear today that this is unacceptable, that three out of 
13 bills is unacceptable 3 weeks into the new fiscal year and these 
other major issues that you guys and you women are campaigning on all 
over the country with ads you refuse to take up. They are basic issues 
of justice and equity for poor people, whether they are an HMO bill or 
a prescription drug bill or a minimum wage bill or basic education 
issues. We want to do them.

                              {time}  1930

  We hope that you do, too.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. BONIOR. I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I just want to make it clear I will be happy 
to cancel my plane in 5 minutes if the Republican leadership of this 
House will be here tomorrow so that every time we get a, well-we-have-
to-check-with-upstairs response from the gentleman, we can get that 
response from the boys upstairs. We keep being told those issues are 
being kicked upstairs into different rooms, but we cannot find who is 
in those rooms.

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