[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 133 (Friday, October 5, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H6411-H6413]
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.)
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, I take this time to inquire of the gentleman 
from Texas (Mr. Armey), the distinguished majority leader, the schedule 
for the remainder of the day and for the following week.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, I am pleased to 
announce the House has completed its legislative business for the week.
  The House will next meet for legislative business on Tuesday, October 
9, 2001, at 12:30 p.m. for morning hour and at 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 
later today. On Tuesday, no recorded votes are expected before 6 p.m.
  On Wednesday and the balance of the week, the House will consider the 
following measures, subject to rules being granted: the Departments of 
Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act for 
fiscal year 2002; and H.R. 2975, the PATRIOT Act of 2001.
  Mr. Speaker, appropriators are also working hard on many bills now in 
conference, and it is my hope that the appropriations conference 
reports will be available for consideration in the House at some point 
next week.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, if I might inquire of 
the distinguished gentleman from Texas a couple of questions. Can the 
gentleman from Texas, the distinguished majority leader, tell us what 
appropriation conference report might in fact surface next week for our 
consideration?

                              {time}  1230

  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield, I am pleased to 
respond. We believe that Interior is the most likely appropriation bill 
to come back from conference next week.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, if we could just review 
for a second where we are through the appropriation process. There are 
two left here in the House to do, the Labor-HHS and the Defense bill; 
is that correct?
  Mr. ARMEY. Yes, Mr. Speaker.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, in the Senate, they have four or five left; 
is that the gentleman's understanding?
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I am not sure exactly, but it is four or 
five, yes.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, we should expect these conference reports to

[[Page H6412]]

start to flow with some rapidity here within the next couple of weeks 
so that we can finish them by the end of perhaps October; is that a 
fair assessment?
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to yield, that 
is my expectation. I am told by the appropriators who are, in fact, 
negotiating bicamerally and bipartisanly with the White House that 
things are going well, and we should have every reason to expect that 
we could complete our work by the end of the month.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, is the Aviation Security bill possible for 
schedule next week?
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, again, I want to thank the gentleman for the 
inquiry. If the gentleman will continue to yield, the negotiations on 
that bill continue. I believe they are really down to one issue, and it 
is possible that we might see that bill on the floor next week. And as 
soon as it is agreed to, we will bring it to the floor.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, if I could just make a brief comment on that 
to the gentleman from Texas. We believe that those who protect and 
screen our airports should be professionally trained and hired by the 
Federal Government, and we hope that that will be a part of the bill 
that moves through this body. And, if not, we hope to have the 
opportunity to provide the body with a chance to support that concept 
and that proposal.
  The second thing that I want to point out about this bill to the 
gentleman from Texas is that we believe it is essential that workers 
who have been laid off be given relief. We passed, the Congress passed, 
I should say, this $15 billion bill for the airline industries and a 
$70 billion farm bill. It seems to me we certainly can take care of the 
literally hundreds of thousands of workers now who have been affected 
by the results of what occurred on September 11, so I am hopeful that 
the workers are a part of a relief package.
  If we are moving together, I would say to the distinguished gentleman 
from Texas, as a country, as Americans, through this very difficult 
period of ours, everyone has to move, everyone has to be brought 
together, everyone has to be a part of resolving the problems that 
beset us and are before us. American workers who have borne the brunt 
of this catastrophe, who are there cleaning up the sites, who will be 
there reconstructing the sites, and who are fighting for our country 
today and wearing our uniform, those Americans deserve to have the 
consideration of the support they need in a time of economic layoffs.
  So I want to really emphasize how important that is and how strongly 
we are going to push that measure as we move ahead in the next week or 
so. I would ask the gentleman, what is the likelihood of this economic 
piece being included in the Aviation Security bill?
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, let me thank the gentleman again for the 
inquiry and let me express my sincere appreciation for the points the 
gentleman has made. On the first point of airline security, there is no 
doubt about it. Airline security is important; in fact, the security of 
all transportation in America is important, and that is why indeed we 
are working so hard. Like the gentleman from Michigan, we believe that 
the people who are charged with these responsibilities should be 
professionally trained and competent in the manner in which they carry 
out their duties. That is why indeed we are working so hard to complete 
the Airline Security Act which, frankly, would be better understood as 
a Transportation Security Act for all of America.
  Again, the second point that the gentleman raises, the workers that 
have been finding themselves out of work are, indeed, weighing heavily 
on the President's mind; and he has sent up a Workers Compensation bill 
that is being looked at as we speak.
  Furthermore, Mr. Speaker, and perhaps even on a larger sense of 
importance, it is our desire to get every American who wants work and 
who is able to work back on the job as soon as possible. And that is 
why so much time and effort is being put into this economic stimulus 
package which, hopefully, we can find its way working through the 
Committee on Ways and Means in the near future, in which case we should 
be able to work together to address these concerns of all of these 
good, deserving American citizens.

  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. The President made 
the first step on this worker compensation package yesterday in his 
announcements. I understand his position; but I do not agree with it. I 
think it is woefully inadequate. I do not think there is enough 
resources there.
  The whole unemployment compensation picture is very cloudy in this 
country. Very few people are eligible for it today. People will be 
shocked to know that less than 40 percent of the workers in this 
country are eligible for compensation. In my own State of Michigan, we 
have a freeze of $300 per week; it has been there since 1995. There are 
all kinds of reforms that are needed in unemployment compensation.
  I know we are moving very quickly to take care of the needs of 
workers in this country, given what has happened and what was happening 
before September 11, but we have some very major reforms that are 
needed. And I hope we can work together to embody these reforms as we 
move ahead with a transportation security package and with the stimulus 
package as such in the next week and month ahead.
  Finally, if I could just raise this one other point with the 
gentleman from Texas, my friend, and then I will finish. The markup on 
Fast Track has been now scheduled for Tuesday. I understand it was 
postponed today. Is that bill coming to the floor soon? If the 
gentleman from Texas could help us with that, I would certainly like to 
know when.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, again, I want to thank the gentleman from 
Michigan for asking. If the gentleman will continue to yield, the Fast 
Track or Trade Promotion Authority bill will be, I am told by the 
chairman of the committee, marked up on Tuesday. I understand this is 
by agreement with both the Republicans and Democrats in the committee. 
We would obviously be looking for an opportunity to schedule that bill 
for the floor as soon after it is reported as possible. At this point, 
though, until they actually have the markup, I cannot make any 
pronouncements about its actual floor schedule.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I will just share this 
final comment with my colleague. I have done it before with him, he 
knows it, and I just think it is important to reiterate it, and that is 
that is a very, very divisive issue.
  I am sure that it would not be wise to bring that up at this point in 
this session. To the extent that I could be heard over there, and I 
know I am talking to people who believe deeply in a concept that is 
different from mine; I think it would be wise not to raise this issue 
in this Congress and certainly in this session. I would advise my 
colleague so. But if it is brought up, we are prepared to have a 
vigorous debate on it.
  I would just say one final thing; I am sounding like a Baptist 
preacher here, excuse me, I am doing a lot of conclusions and finals, 
but just let me say in the final conclusion, let me just say to the 
gentleman from Texas that the industrial heartland of this country has 
been rocked very hard over the, not just since the September 11 tragedy 
that has occurred, but prior to that. We have huge numbers of folks in 
steel and auto and iron and hotel and restaurant and you name it that 
have been affected by this economy. I really think that the leadership 
on the gentleman's side of the aisle really has to think hard about 
whether or not we want to have this debate at this time.
  We can go ahead and have it, and we will have a vigorous debate and a 
vigorous argument and we can respect each other's opinions. But Members 
need to know that it will be an enormously vigorous, difficult issue. I 
do not think that is the kind of division that the country is looking 
for right now. I do not think it would be helpful, and I just hope that 
the leadership on the gentleman's side of the aisle, including the 
distinguished majority leader, will factor that in in his decision-
making. And I thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Armey) for listening 
to me this afternoon.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, I thank the 
gentleman again. If I might say, Mr. Speaker, that one of my favorite 
parts of my week are these weekly exchanges with the gentleman from 
Michigan.

[[Page H6413]]

 The gentleman is always very well focused and to the point in the 
points he makes. I do appreciate the point the gentleman makes, and I 
do also look forward to what will be a good floor debate and one that I 
think we will all enjoy participating in.
  But if I might, Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would continue to 
indulge me, it has been brought to my attention that the gentleman from 
Michigan and, very likely, the gentleman from St. Louis, Missouri (Mr. 
Gephardt) might find some time, and I would hope very much, to get 
together Monday night to enjoy the Monday night football game. I have 
no doubt that one or the other will enjoy it more than one or the 
other, but I do wish the two gentlemen from Michigan and Missouri an 
opportunity to watch that game, perhaps together, put down their bets, 
and maybe just take one evening to have a little bit of good, relaxed 
companionship around a good sporting event. And we will be back to work 
with rigorous debate soon after that, but I do not think it hurts any 
of us to indulge ourselves in what is America's favorite fall-time 
pastime.

  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, I think the gentleman from Texas and the 
gentleman from Michigan share more in common with their respective 
teams than the gentleman from Missouri; I only wish we had as great a 
success as the Rams this year. But I appreciate the gentleman's comment 
and I will take him up on it.

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