[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 140 (Wednesday, October 17, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H6944]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. LaFALCE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. LaFALCE. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the majority leader, it 
is the disposition of the loyal minority to proceed as expeditiously as 
possible to join this bill with the PATRIOT bill we passed Friday and 
to go to conference with the Senate. It is my understanding that the 
Senate is probably going to adjourn as of about 2:00 o'clock this 
afternoon, and that we are going to adjourn about 4:00 o'clock.
  I want the majority leader to know that if it is possible, we would 
like to come back with a conference report today, before 2:00 in the 
Senate, before 4:00 today, so that we could send the bill to President 
Bush for his signature today. We are ready to do anything. I know there 
are difficulties because some Senate offices have been quarantined. If 
it is necessary, we could meet on the House side. The conferees, if 
necessary, could be appointed immediately. We are willing to work with 
the gentleman in a most expeditious manner.

                              {time}  1130

  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. LaFALCE. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman.
  Let me take this moment if I may, to say that what was agreed to this 
morning by the Speaker and the minority leader and myself is we had 
certain work we could get done today and we thought we needed to get 
done today, and we would do that work and then adjourn for the week. We 
are progressing nicely on this.
  I think it was a clear anticipation on the part of all three of us 
that should this conferencing of these two very important bills get 
done that expeditiously and be available to us at a reasonable time, we 
would be happy to take it and try to move it. So I would encourage 
Members to go to work on that.
  In the meantime, Members should be advised that the basic ground 
rules are we will do the additional work that is available to us. When 
that work is completed, we will adjourn the House. We will then not 
reconvene the House until Tuesday. The exact time of reconvening will 
be announced later in the day. Between that adjournment today and 
Tuesday, we ask on behalf of the research team that will survey our 
work areas that Members go ahead and give their staffs the couple of 
days off and give that space over, make it available for this research, 
so we can establish the condition of the properties, not only in terms 
of securing their current safety, but establishing a base from which we 
can evaluate any future changes in these circumstances.

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