[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 121 (Friday, September 5, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H7993-H7994]
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 am pleased to yield to my friend, the 
distinguished majority leader, for the purposes of inquiring about the 
schedule for next week and the remainder of the day, if there is any 
schedule for the remainder of the day.
  So that Members who are gathered here will know, have we had the last 
vote of the day, Mr. Leader?
  Mr. DeLAY. I thank the gentleman from Maryland for yielding.
  Yes, we have just had the last vote of the day.

                              {time}  1415

  The House will convene on Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. for morning hour and 
2 p.m. for legislative business. We expect to complete consideration of 
H.R. 2989, which is the Transportation, Treasury, and Independent 
Agencies Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2004. Any votes called on 
amendments on this bill will be rolled until after 6:30 p.m.
  On Wednesday we will consider several measures under suspension of 
the rules. A final list of these bills will be sent to Members' offices 
by the end of the day. We will plan then to consider H.R. 2622, the 
Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, and hope to conclude 
with consideration of the conference report on H.R. 2115, the Vision 
100, Century of Aviation Reauthorization Act.
  Thursday, as you know, is September 11, and we are currently working 
on several measures to recognize the second anniversary of the 9/11 
attacks. In addition to these measures, which we would expect to have 
broad bipartisan support on, I would certainly expect to have a moment 
of silence on the floor of the House and a ceremony similar to the one 
held in the Rayburn Courtyard last year.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, I would like to note for all the Members, we do 
not plan to have votes next Friday, September 12.
  I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the leader for his information. I 
want him to know on this side of the aisle we are going to be joining 
the majority side of the aisle as we reflect upon the tragic loss of 
some of our fellow citizens and the tragic loss of all of us and our 
country on that September 11.
  Mr. Leader, can you tell me what time on Tuesday Members need to be 
here to assure themselves that they will be able to offer the 
amendments on the Transportation-Treasury bill?
  Mr. DeLAY. If the gentleman will yield further, I would say at least 
by 2 p.m. on Tuesday, because for Members who are offering the 
amendments or who wish to be heard in the debate, we will begin 
consideration of the Treasury-Transportation bill at 2 p.m. in the 
afternoon.
  Mr. HOYER. We had a number of questions, one of which I will ask now 
because it is in my mind.
  Apparently, there is a delegation leaving for Doha Wednesday night. 
Can the gentleman reflect upon what might be on the schedule for 
Thursday that they might miss?
  Mr. DeLAY. If the gentleman will continue to yield, I have heard of 
delegations leaving on Wednesday night and understand that, and that is 
why we anticipate a very light load, if any, on Thursday. But I cannot 
definitively say there will not be votes on Thursday. I think with the 
two sides of the aisle working together, we can come to some 
accommodation to where we can properly celebrate, not celebrate, that 
is not the right word.
  Mr. HOYER. Commemorate.
  Mr. DeLAY. Commemorate the events of 9/11, and still allow Members to 
go about their normal business.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the leader for that information.
  Also, Mr. Leader, I know you did not anticipate this, but when do you 
expect to attempt to conclude with the D.C. appropriations bill? Will 
that be done next week?
  Mr. DeLAY. I would expect that the votes on final passage of the D.C. 
appropriations bill could very well be held the evening of Tuesday, 
after the rolled votes on the Transportation-Treasury bill.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman.
  Mr. Leader, we have had a lot of concern and discussions about the 
child tax credit. It has been 85 days since the President urged us to 
pass it. Does the gentleman have any expectations that that might be on 
the agenda, either next week or in the near term?
  I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
  Mr. DeLAY. I appreciate the gentleman yielding and his concern on 
this issue, and I assure the gentleman that we would very much like to 
address his concern. But the truth is, we disagree so strongly on this 
issue, on how to address this issue. We on our side just do not believe 
that the tax credit should expire right after next year's election and 
certainly do not want to see it decrease in value over the next several 
years, so we have continued to insist to the other body in our 
negotiations that the child tax credit cover more families for a longer 
period of time with more relief. I just hope very soon that we can 
convince the conferees that this is the right approach to take.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I appreciate the 
gentleman's position. Of course, as the leader knows, the problem that 
we have on this side of the aisle with that position and your concern 
about having the tax credit expire shortly after the election next 
year, we have not given relief to the 200,000 service personnel who are 
covered and the 12 million children and 6.5 million families that would 
have been covered by the Senate amendment that was dropped in 
conference. So I understand your concern, and I share that concern. On 
this side of the aisle we do not want the tax credit to expire either.
  Having said that, however, we would hope that the 6.5 million 
families and 12 million children and 200,000 Armed Forces personnel 
would not be held hostage to our concern about making sure that it does 
not expire in an untimely way.
  Mr. DeLAY. If the gentleman will yield further, I share the 
gentleman's concern; but I do not think that that 6.5 million families 
would want to see a tax increase right after the election, having 
enjoyed getting a tax credit and then seeing their taxes go up $300 per 
child almost immediately. So I totally agree with the gentleman. But 
this bill, as the gentleman may recall, has very important provisions 
for the military in it.
  I would just urge the gentleman to make his concerns known to those 
over in the other body that could move this bill within nanoseconds if 
they had real concerns for those 6.5 million families and the military 
families in this country.
  Mr. HOYER. Reclaiming my time, respectfully the leader and I have a 
different perspective, as you know. We could move within a nanosecond 
to include those children today with unanimous consent. Frankly, as the 
leader well knows, we had a vote of 422 to 0 on much of the military 
tax relief in terms of moving expenses, capital gains expenses from 
selling homes and other expenses, the death benefit exclusion from 
taxes. So all of those items, there is agreement on my side, 
unanimously, as there was on your side. So the only issue is are we 
going to hold those two items hostage, the child tax credit and the 
military, for other items which are much more controversial, both 
within this body, Mr. Leader, as

[[Page H7994]]

you well know, and between the two bodies.
  I think probably there is not much purpose in discussing this 
further, but we would hope that perhaps we could try to move those 
items on which we have agreement and continue to work on those that we 
do not forge agreement on. But we ought not to, in light of our 
disagreement on some things, damage those folks.
  Lastly, let me make an observation. I agree with you, Mr. Leader, 
that those families, those 6.5 million families, would not want to see 
a tax increase next year after the election; but if you ask them 
whether they wanted a $300 to $600 credit between now and the next 
election or simply stay at the same rate ad infinitum, I have a feeling 
there is little doubt they would say, well, we will take the help for a 
year, even if you do not give it to us permanently.
  Let us go on perhaps to the energy bill, Mr. Leader. You did not have 
that on your schedule. Obviously there was, as you know, a motion to 
instruct yesterday so that we could try to address the problem that all 
of us saw dramatically in the blackout that occurred on the 11th of 
August. Would the leader tell me what his perspective is on the energy 
bill?
  Mr. DeLAY. If the gentleman will yield further, the gentleman is very 
aware that, as he just stated, we just appointed conferees last night. 
They had their first conference this morning. They are working as hard 
as they can to get this bill out as soon as possible.
  The gentleman knows that the Nation's energy crisis is not just about 
electricity. Gasoline prices are at an all-time high, natural gas 
prices are at an all-time high, natural gas supplies are at an all-time 
low. This is not the time to do piecemeal work or patchwork in putting 
together a bill. We need a comprehensive energy policy to meet the 
urgent needs across this country and across the spectrum of energy 
sources.
  I might say that this House has tried for the last 3 years to pass a 
comprehensive energy package; and we are now only two votes away, a 
vote in the House and a vote in the Senate, to being able to put 
together a good package that we can send to the President, and I am 
hoping that work can be done expeditiously and we can see a bill in the 
next 2 to 3 weeks.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the leader for his observations on that.
  Two additional questions. The next one would be the Medicare 
prescription drug bill. Obviously this is a very contentious piece of 
legislation, with different perspectives on how we can provide seniors 
in particular with relief on the prescription drug costs.
  Can the gentleman tell us what you believe the status of that to be 
and when we might expect that bill, the conference report, on the floor 
of the House?
  Mr. DeLAY. If the gentleman will yield further, the gentleman knows, 
as we all do, that improving and strengthening Medicare is going to be 
one of the toughest conferences that we will face. There are a lot of 
issues, very complicated issues, that have to be dealt with.

                              {time}  1430

  The chairman of the conference, the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Thomas), is working with all parties on the conference and it just 
takes a lot of time to work through these issues. We have already 
worked through some. I happen to serve on the conference. We have 
worked through some and progress is being made. But our Members need to 
stay focused. The Members of the other body need to stay focused in 
order for us to get this done before the end of this session. But as 
far as predicting when we will be able to do that, that would be very 
difficult for me to do. But I hope that everyone will work together and 
get something out before we adjourn for this session of the 108th 
Congress.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for the information and the 
observation.
  Let me close. We talked about Thursday, September 11, when we will 
come together, controversies that we have discussed. The significant 
differences we have discussed with respect to how to solve the problems 
that confront this country will I think be put aside by all of us on 
September 11 as we come together, as we did on that September 11 
evening when we stood together, you and I, shoulder to shoulder, and we 
sang God Bless America. At a time of tragedy we came together with 
resolve and without partisanship, resolve to confront the terrorists 
that afflict this world, this global community, and to make our country 
safer and more secure.
  Mr. Leader, on Thursday at what point in time do you expect us to end 
our session on Thursday and to participate in such both collective 
remembrances as we may have and individually to participate in 
remembrances?
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. DeLAY. I appreciate the gentleman's words and they are heartfelt 
and honest and straightforward, and I greatly appreciate those words.
  I would like to give the gentleman a time, but there are two reasons; 
one is I am a little concerned at this moment that if I gave a 
projected time of being through on Thursday, Members would leave on 
Wednesday. We just saw what has happened to this House where some, 
almost 30 Members were not here to vote on the last pieces of 
legislation, of both parties. And it greatly concerns me that when we 
give notice that we might be leaving, Members take advantage of that 
and move on and leave the Chamber and are not here to vote like they 
should be. And so I do not know.
  Secondly, I would hope, and we have been in touch with your offices, 
I would hope that we would continue to work today and through the 
weekend to put together the right kind of commemoration of the day so 
that we exhibit to the country that the people's House has great 
concerns about the events of 9/11 and the events that have followed 9/
11 and we want to express the feelings and the emotions of the American 
people on this very important day.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the leader for his comments and I know that the 
gentlewoman from California's (Ms. Pelosi) office will cooperate fully 
in that objective, as will mine and others, and we look forward to 
participating in a very positive way but a very solemn and prayerful 
way as we remember that loss and the challenge that lies ahead.

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