[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 50 (Thursday, March 27, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H2444-H2446]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. HOYER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I take this time for the purpose of inquiring 
of the schedule of the distinguished majority leader, the gentleman 
from Texas (Mr. DeLay), and I yield to the majority leader.
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, the House will convene on Monday at 12:30 p.m. for 
morning hour and 2 p.m. for legislative business. We will consider 
several measures under suspension of the rules. A final list of those 
bills will be sent to Members' offices by the end of the week. Any 
votes called on these bills will be rolled until 6:30 p.m. on Monday.
  On Tuesday, we expect to consider several additional bills under 
suspension of the rules, including legislation that will provide relief 
from student loan payments to our men and women currently serving in 
the Middle East. We would also hope to go to conference on the 2004 
budget resolution.
  For Wednesday and the balance of the week, we have several measures 
that we will consider under a rule. Those include H.R. 522, a bill to 
reauthorize the Federal Deposit Insurance Program; H.R. 735, which 
would alter the method used to calculate Postal Service contributions 
to the Federal Employee Pension System; and H.R. 743, the Social 
Security Protection Act.
  Finally, next week, we hope to be considering the Fiscal Year 2003 
War Supplemental that was requested by the President earlier this week. 
I believe that the Committee on Appropriations has tentatively 
scheduled a markup of this legislation for Tuesday.
  Now, Members should be aware, while I remain hopeful that we could 
consider this legislation on the floor on Thursday, I know that this 
schedule would disrupt the traditional 3-day layover practice by the 
Committee on Appropriations, but if the supplemental is not available 
for floor consideration on Thursday, Members should be advised we would 
be in session next Friday to consider this very important bill.
  I thank the gentleman for yielding. I would be happy to answer any 
questions.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his information.
  Following up on what he said at the end of his statement, am I to 
understand that if the supplemental is passed on Thursday, it is the 
gentleman's expectation we will not be in next Friday?
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, the gentleman is 
correct. If we can get the supplemental passed by the House by 
Thursday, we would not be in on Friday. But Members need to be advised 
that the President has asked the bipartisan leadership to try to get 
the supplemental to his desk before the Easter break, and we have to 
get it done next week in order to accomplish that.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his comments.
  I would say to the distinguished majority leader, having talked to 
the ranking member and former chairman of the Committee on 
Appropriations, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), I think if we 
can reach a bipartisan agreement, we too want to make sure that we 
provide the appropriate resources for our men and women in harm's way 
to assure them that there is going to be no reluctance on our part to 
accomplish that effort. But I emphasize that my belief is that if we 
can reach a bipartisan agreement, and I am hopeful, I know the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young) and the gentleman from Wisconsin 
(Mr. Obey) can accomplish that; and if the leadership would help in 
accomplishing that objective, I think that would be a worthy objective 
for our country and for this House.
  The budget conference and conferees, does the gentleman know when 
they will be appointed? I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding.
  We are hoping to go to conference and name conferees on Monday, if we 
can get the papers from the Senate. Right now we could have done it 
today, but we are waiting for the papers to come over from the other 
body, and they tell us it will be very difficult to get those papers to 
us by Monday. But if we can get everything straight, then we will go to 
conference on Monday. If not, we will have to wait until Tuesday.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Leader, the reason I was looking to staff, obviously, 
as the gentleman well knows, if we are not going to go in until 6:30 
and we will probably do suspension bills that night, clearly, if we go 
to conference, a motion to instruct would be in order; and I think it 
would be our intention to offer such a motion.
  Therefore, having notice at this juncture, or I understand the 
gentleman's not having specific knowledge of when the papers are going 
to come over, but I might say to the gentleman that if we can have some 
specificity, and apparently Tuesday we will have the papers, the 
gentleman is reasonably confident, perhaps we could agree that it would 
be then Tuesday so that on our side we could plan to have the motion to 
which we would be entitled ready and available at that time.

                              {time}  1400

  Mr. DeLAY. I thank the gentleman for his comment, Mr. Speaker. We 
want to make sure that the minority protects their rights and reserves 
their rights to proceed to a motion to instruct.
  My assumption is that we will have what we need to go to conference 
on the floor of this House no later than Tuesday, and we have every 
anticipation that we will be going to conference on Tuesday, but we 
would like to go a day earlier. As the gentleman knows, there is a lot 
of legislation we would like to do in the next 2 weeks, and floor time 
is at a premium.
  Mr. HOYER. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the 
gentleman's view. I share that view. We want to try to get this done. I 
am going to ask him about the week following.

[[Page H2445]]

  I understand floor time is at a premium, but we are not going to 
meet, apparently, on Friday if we get the supplemental done in a timely 
fashion, so we are not going to be using that time.
  My only point is that if we do not know until Monday at noontime or 
Monday at 10 o'clock, it makes it more difficult for us. Frankly, I 
think it would be appropriate if the gentleman could perhaps agree that 
this will be on Tuesday, because he is not sure it is going to get over 
on Monday. I think that puts us in a little better shape.
  Mr. DeLAY. If the gentleman will continue to yield, Mr. Speaker, we 
will inform the leadership of the minority as soon as we know. We are 
urging the other body to move quickly, and we will keep the leadership 
of the minority informed at every step of this process so their side 
will have plenty of notice. Hopefully, we will have this decision done 
by tomorrow, and the gentleman will have plenty of time to do his 
planning.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman, Mr. Speaker.
  Reclaiming my time again, Mr. Speaker, and I do not want to beat this 
dead horse too badly, but on Monday my presumption is that the only 
votes at 6:30 are suspension votes; is that correct?
  Mr. DeLAY. If the gentleman will continue to yield, that is correct, 
unless we try to go to conference on the budget. We would have a motion 
to instruct.
  Mr. HOYER. Would we do that subsequent to the vote on the 
suspensions, or in the afternoon? Obviously, the problem with the 
afternoon is most Members, as the gentleman knows, come back in time 
for the vote, Members flying from the West Coast. So there are those 
complications.
  Would the gentleman inform me as to what the intent would be, either 
before the 6:30 suspension votes or after?
  Mr. DeLAY. If the gentleman will yield, Mr. Speaker, I would suspect 
that certainly, with the gentleman's agreement, that we could start the 
process around 5 or 5:30 and wait on the votes until we have finished 
voting on the suspensions; or we could start the debate on the motion 
to instruct after the vote on the suspensions. We will be glad to work 
with the gentleman on how we do that, whatever is most convenient to 
the Members.
  Mr. HOYER. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. We 
will discuss this with the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Spratt), 
the ranking member. I am sure the gentleman will want to discuss it 
with the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Nussle) as well. Hopefully, we can 
reach an agreement so all Members can be accommodated to participate in 
that important debate.
  Mr. Leader, the partial birth abortion bill, I understand that was 
marked up yesterday. Does the gentleman know when that will be coming 
to the floor? Is it going to be next week or the week after?
  Mr. DeLAY. If the gentleman will yield, Mr. Speaker, the gentleman is 
correct, the Committee on the Judiciary reported this legislation out 
early this week. We would like to consider this bill in the very near 
future, but, as I mentioned earlier, over the next 2 weeks floor time 
is going to be at very much a premium. We would like to do it, but it 
looks like in trying to assess what the needs of the House are for the 
next 2 weeks we are not going to be able to get to this bill before the 
Easter break. It is more likely that we will consider the bill in May.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for that response.
  The smallpox vaccination compensation bill, I know there are ongoing 
discussions. It is my understanding, from what I have heard the 
gentleman say, that the expectation is that is not going to be on the 
calendar next week.
  Mr. DeLAY. If the gentleman will yield, Mr. Speaker, he may remember 
that last week during our discussion I mentioned that we are trying to 
move forward on a product under a very tight time frame that all 
Members could support. We really would like to see this bill come to 
the floor in a bipartisan way.
  I understand the gentleman from Louisiana (Chairman Tauzin) and the 
ranking member, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell), have had 
daily, if not hourly, discussions on this legislation and at times have 
become very close to a compromise that all Members could likely 
support. The bill was pulled from consideration this week primarily 
because the interested parties believe that the differences on the 
issues are minimal now and that more time could in fact yield a 
reasonable compromise.
  I would just note for the gentleman that this is a relatively small 
authorization for a fund that would serve a very targeted community, 
and usually the House considers legislation of this nature under 
suspensions of the rules. I would hope that we could bring this bill 
under suspension as soon as possible.
  Mr. HOYER. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, I would ask the leader, 
and we have had this discussion before, we are all hopeful, I think, 
that the discussions between the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Tauzin) 
and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell) and the gentlewoman from 
California (Mrs. Capps), who is on the floor, who has been such a 
leader in this legislation, and others on the gentleman's side of the 
aisle could come and reach agreement.
  However, if an agreement could not be reached, the problem is with 
the Suspension Calendar that it allows no amendments and therefore 
allows of no alternative possibilities to be considered by the whole 
House.
  We would hope that if this matter cannot be resolved, and we are 
hopeful that it can, and I know I speak for the gentlewoman from 
California (Mrs. Capps), she is hopeful that it can, and I think I 
speak for the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell) and the gentleman 
from Louisiana (Mr. Tauzin) as well, that they would like to reach 
agreement; but if agreement cannot be reached, I would urge the 
majority leader to bring this bill to the floor with the procedure that 
allows for alternative proposals to be considered by the whole House.
  Mr. DeLAY. If the gentleman will continue to yield, Mr. Speaker, I do 
understand his concerns. We are working very, very hard on this bill. I 
think we can bring this bill to the floor. It is needed.
  Frankly, we have been working on it for way too long. It should have 
been passed weeks ago. I have every confidence that we can bring a bill 
to the floor that will get an overwhelming vote by this House.
  Mr. HOYER. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
his comments. We all agree that this bill is needed. We also all know 
that the President's expectation of the number of people who would have 
gotten the smallpox vaccination at this point in time, particularly as 
it relates to first responders, nurses, police, emergency medical 
technicians, would have been far higher than it has been to date, so we 
are trying to facilitate that.
  Clearly, the passage of this bill would be facilitated by having a 
bipartisan agreement that will not be contentious. But of course, as 
the gentleman knows, at the nub of this issue is how substantively we 
can accomplish the objective of getting as many of our nurses and 
police and emergency response personnel to voluntarily participate in 
this vaccination process.
  So, again, I would urge the gentleman, if we cannot reach agreement, 
let the floor consider alternatives and let them decide, the floor, the 
Members of this House, as to what procedures and process and 
compensation will best facilitate that end. I thank the gentleman for 
his comments.
  Lastly, Mr. Speaker, I would ask the leader, regarding the tax bill, 
I know the gentleman mentioned it, but when does he anticipate that 
coming to the floor?
  Mr. DeLAY. If the gentleman will continue to yield, Mr. Speaker, the 
gentleman knows we are sort of at the mercy of the other body. The 
quicker we can complete a conference report on the budget, the quicker 
we can move the economic growth package. We are working as hard as we 
can to convince the Committee on the Budget, the budget committees of 
both houses, to work through the weekend, work all through next week, 
so we can bring the conference report to the floor.
  If that happens, then we know what we have to deal with; and I would 
hope

[[Page H2446]]

that this House could bring the economic growth and jobs creation 
package to the floor before the Easter break.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for his comments, Mr. Speaker.

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