[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 106 (Thursday, July 26, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H4661]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. YOUNG of Florida asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Chair for allowing me 
this time to advise the Members that we will do the best we can to 
expedite the conclusion of this bill today, if possible. It is a 
lengthy bill, and there are a lot of amendments. If the Members will 
cooperate and help us in assembling a list of all the amendments we 
will have to consider, we ask the Members who have amendments to offer 
to the VA-HUD bill to please present them at least by the close of the 
general debate on the bill. Hopefully, we would be able to finish this 
bill tonight.
  I would also say that our leadership has made the decision that if we 
cannot finish the bill tonight that we would come back tomorrow to 
finish this bill, but we need to finish it before the beginning of next 
week.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Let me simply say I share the gentleman's desire to try to find a way 
to reach some type of understanding on this bill, but we have a 
practical problem. The problem is that there is considerable feeling on 
this side of the aisle that it is a might strange to ask for 
cooperation from the minority in setting time immediately after a 
martial law approach to this House was just rammed down our throats.
  So while I will certainly work with the gentleman and I would urge 
every Member who has a potential amendment to, by the time general 
debate is over, get the text of those amendments to both sides so that 
we have some idea of what the universe of amendments is and we can try 
to work out a proposed timetable, I am not very optimistic at this 
point that we can get clearance on our side of the aisle.
  I am told, for instance, that our leadership at this point is not 
contemplating providing clearance, but I would like us to continue to 
try to work this out. I know the possibility has been raised by myself 
of trying to get a time limit that would make certain that we would 
finish this bill. If we cannot finish it today, we could make sure that 
the timetable assured that we could finish it early on whatever day it 
was continued to.
  I would hope, in light of the requests we have had from both sides, 
that that would not be tomorrow; that if we could not finish it 
tonight, it would go over to Monday or Tuesday. But I frankly do not 
care. I will be here either time. But I think people on the majority 
side need to understand that it is very difficult to get clearance on 
this side of the aisle after martial law has just been rammed down our 
throats. That is not usually the way in which the majority in this 
House elicits the cooperation of the minority in changing the rules.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I would say to the gentleman that 
I do appreciate his comments and I do appreciate the way we have been 
able to cooperate on the previous appropriations bills to have the time 
limit agreements so that no Member would be denied an opportunity to 
say what they have to say, but that we would try to do it in an 
expeditious manner.
  As our former colleague and dear friend, Moe Udall, used to say on 
many of these debates, anything that needs to be said has already been 
said. The problem is not everyone has said it yet.
  So with the cooperation of the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) 
and both sides, we would be able to expedite the consideration of this 
and get done today.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, would the gentleman continue to yield?
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from 
Wisconsin.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I would simply like to point out to the House 
that each of the previous regular appropriations bills has been 
supported on a bipartisan basis by the majority and minority. This is 
the first bill that we run into trouble on because, in our view, the 
allocation provided to the bill is insufficient, which means we will be 
starving housing, we will be starving veterans medical care and 
environmental enforcement.
  Nonetheless, we had indicated our intention to work with the majority 
to try to work out time limits, but a little thing called martial law 
has blown that up. And I wish that people who have no responsibility 
for managing bills in this place, and I am speaking specifically of the 
leadership on the other side of the aisle, I know they like to wave 
magic wands and tell the committee to get its work done, but I wish 
that people who have an interest in seeing that work done in a timely 
fashion would work in a more cooperative manner with this side of the 
aisle if they are asking me to be able to get cooperation on this side 
of the aisle so we can do what the majority leadership wants to do.
  It is sometimes hard to help people who do not want to help 
themselves.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, I would like 
to thank Members for the bipartisan support on this rule. It was 
somewhat contentious, but we are prepared to take up the rule.

                          ____________________