[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 119 (Thursday, September 19, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H6406-H6407]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Ms. PELOSI asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I take this time to inquire about the 
schedule for next week.
  I am pleased to yield to the distinguished majority leader.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, let me thank the gentlewoman from California 
for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to announce that the House has completed 
its legislative business for the week. The House will next meet for 
legislative business on Tuesday, September 24, at 12:30 p.m. for 
morning hour and 2 o'clock p.m. for legislative business. I will 
schedule a number of measures under suspension of the rules, a list of 
which will be distributed to Members' offices tomorrow. Recorded votes 
on Tuesday will be postponed until 6:30 p.m.
  Mr. Speaker, for Wednesday and Thursday, I have scheduled the 
following measures: a conference report to accompany H.R. 1646, the 
State Department Authorization Act; a resolution calling for completion 
as soon as possible for the worker pension security legislation that 
passed this House in April and has not been considered in the other 
body; H.R. 4691, the Abortion Nondiscrimination Act of 2002; a 
continuing resolution; and H.R. 4600, the Health Act of 2002.
  I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for that information. 
I have some further questions if the gentleman will be available.
  I understand the gentleman is saying H.R. 4600, the medical 
malpractice bill, will be on the floor next week. Could the gentleman 
give us a little more what day it would be?
  Mr. ARMEY. I thank the gentlewoman for the inquiry; and if the 
gentlewoman would continue to yield, we expect to deal with that bill 
on Thursday of next week.
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, so it is my understanding that next week we 
will be in Tuesday night, Wednesday and Thursday again; we have given 
away Monday and Friday again?
  Mr. ARMEY. I thank the gentlewoman for the inquiry; and if the 
gentlewoman will yield, in fact, the gentlewoman understood exactly 
correct.
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, we have given away tomorrow, we are giving 
up next Monday, we are giving up next Friday, and the list of 
unfinished business continues to grow. The number of legislative days 
continues to shrink.
  Does the gentleman expect the bill to deduct education expenses to be 
scheduled for next week? If so, on what day?
  Mr. ARMEY. I thank the gentlewoman for the inquiry. I am sorry I did 
not hear the bill the gentlewoman was referring to.
  Ms. PELOSI. The back to school act, so-called.
  Mr. ARMEY. Oh, I am sorry. No, I do not expect to see that back on 
the floor, at least not next week.
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, how long will the continuing resolution be?
  Mr. ARMEY. Again, I want to thank the gentlewoman for the inquiry. 
There are consultations going on bicamerally and bipartisan in the 
highest leadership levels and with the two respective bodies' 
Committees of Appropriations, and that information has not yet been 
finally agreed to; and when it is, I expect the Speaker will make an 
announcement, as I would expect the majority leader in the other body 
to do so as well.
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, my understanding is, the gentleman, when 
asked about this continuing resolution, if we are going to have a lame 
duck session, et cetera, said that he consults with Puff the Magic 
Dragon. Puff the Magic Dragon, lame duck, this place is getting more 
and more like a menagerie or some would say a zoo.
  I have some concerns because today we voted on a resolution that 
urges the Senate to take certain action; but I know there is a bill 
that has overwhelmingly passed the Senate 78 to 21 that the 
Congressional Budget Office estimated would lower prescription drug 
prices by $60 billion over the next 10 years, $60 billion. Can the 
majority leader inform us if that bill will be scheduled before 
Congress adjourns in October, heeding the gentleman's concern about not 
following up on business completed by the Senate?
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for her inquiry, and 
I understand that perhaps the animal rights caucus may be a little bit 
concerned about some of the examples we use around here. We do consult 
with magic dragons, indeed tolerate lame ducks in our committed effort 
to keep pork off the floor of this House.
  That having been said, with respect to the bill the gentlewoman has 
asked about, this bill is a poor and paltry substitute for a 
comprehensive prescription drug benefit for American seniors. The House 
passed a bipartisan comprehensive Medicare prescription drug benefit in 
June. The Senate has not yet passed a bill. This bill is quite simply 
not good enough for those of us in the House who did the hard work to 
pass a real prescription drug benefit bill available to all American 
seniors, and it remains our hope that we will be able to pass a real 
prescription drug bill before the end of this year.
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, perhaps the gentleman did not hear me. He 
said that the Senate had not passed a bill. The Senate had passed it 78 
to 21, the prescription drug bill relating to generic drugs which would 
lower the cost by $60 billion over 10 years, according

[[Page H6407]]

to the Congressional Budget Office. We have a discharge petition to 
that end to bring it to the floor. I urge our colleagues to sign it, 
but it was passed by the Senate, contrary to the gentleman's comment 
that the Senate had not passed a prescription drug bill.
  We now have 4 legislative working days until the end of the fiscal 
year. We also have eight appropriations bills to fund the entire 
government, and the House has yet to consider them. Are there any 
appropriations bills that will be considered to be scheduled next week 
or the week after so that Members can be prepared?
  Mr. ARMEY. Again, I want to thank the gentlewoman for her inquiry 
with respect to the appropriations bills. We continue to work on our 
efforts to maintain the commitments we have made to not only the 
President's budget recommendation but this House's own passed budget, 
and those remaining appropriations bills, while insofar as we are able 
we work on those bills with respect to which we have gotten to 
conference with the other body, and it is our hope that at least some 
of those conferencing bills might come to the floor in the next week or 
two.
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, there are no dates in particular.
  Can the gentleman tell us when the Iraq resolution will be brought to 
the floor that was distributed to us today?
  Mr. ARMEY. Again, I want to thank the gentlewoman for her inquiry. 
This is, of course, a matter of serious consideration by each Member of 
this Congress, as it is with the administration and the American people 
also sharing our concern here. The President has sent a resolution 
draft up before the two bodies of Congress. As my colleague knows, the 
President and his team continue to make information available through, 
many times, secured briefings to Members of Congress and through the 
committee process, when possible, before the American people. We would 
expect that the committees of jurisdiction on these matters would 
continue to work their will on this resolution and bring it to the 
floor.
  It has been, I think, the insistence of the Speaker in matters 
especially of such gravity that we work through our normal process, 
respecting the jurisdictional rights and the expertise of the 
committees. So I would encourage the gentlewoman and all of my 
colleagues to watch as the committees work on this very important 
resolution; and I would, however, expect that we should see this 
resolution on the floor in the not-too-distant future. I hate to be so 
ambiguous, but I think it is only fair to the committee to give them 
the time to do their job as they see fit.
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the seriousness with which the 
gentleman is treating the consideration of that resolution; and as soon 
as my colleague knows, I am sure he will let us know and when it will 
be brought to the floor.
  There are many other issues that the American people are concerned 
about that relate to education, to a prescription drug benefit, to 
access to health care, pension security. The list goes on and on; and 
as we come in for our 2-day-a-week work weeks in Washington, D.C., we 
are becoming less relevant to the problems that the American people are 
facing. It is almost as if they are saying to us, Earth to Congress, we 
are still here, we have these challenges in our economy and our 
workforce, et cetera, and get to work and get some of this done so that 
we can go forward.
  Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, will the gentlewoman yield?
  Ms. PELOSI. I yield to the gentleman from Arizona.
  Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, if the gentlewoman would yield for a question 
to the majority leader, and I know the gentlewoman's interest. I just 
filed a few minutes ago the Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee 
on Foreign Operations Export Financing and Related Programs bill which 
had passed the committee last week and the subcommittee the week 
before.

                              {time}  1545

  While there are certainly differences of opinion on it, it is a 
bipartisan product; and I wonder if the gentleman can give us any 
indication when that bill might come to the floor.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentlewoman yield?
  Ms. PELOSI. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, first, I thank the gentleman from Arizona 
(Mr. Kolbe) for filing the bill. I am very pleased about that. I will 
discuss the scheduling of it with the Speaker. We will schedule it as 
soon as possible.
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, as a member of the subcommittee of the 
distinguished gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Kolbe), I have a great deal 
of interest when the bill comes to the floor as well. I associate 
myself with the questions asked by the gentleman from Arizona.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished majority leader.

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