[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 35 (Thursday, March 18, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H1275-H1276]
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 yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
DeLay), the distinguished majority leader, for the purpose of inquiring 
of the majority leader the schedule for the coming week.
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Maryland, the 
distinguished whip, for yielding to me, and I will try to be brief as I 
am sure my friend is anxious to get back to watch the end of the Terps 
game.
  Mr. HOYER. He is right.
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, the House will convene on Tuesday 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 this 
week. Any votes called on these measures will be rolled until 6:30 p.m. 
on Tuesday.
  On Wednesday and Thursday, the House will convene at 10 a.m. We plan 
to consider the budget resolution for fiscal year 2005. We would hope 
to complete several hours of general debate on Wednesday before moving 
into the amendment process on Thursday.
  And, finally, I would like to note for all the Members, and they 
should take note, that we are making a change to the schedule that was 
sent to offices at the beginning of the year. We do not plan to have 
votes next Friday, March 26.
  I thank the gentleman for yielding and would be happy to answer any 
questions.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for the information. 
There are, of course, so many things which disappoint us when the 
majority leader announces them; but that is not one of them, I assure 
him.
  I appreciate the majority leader's advice that Wednesday and Thursday 
we will be considering the budget, obviously one of the most important 
policy documents that we consider. And it appears from his announcement 
that there will be substantial time on Wednesday and substantial time 
on Thursday, I presume, for a full and fair debate on the underlying 
proposal that will be reported out of the committee, as well as such 
substitutes as may be made in order. Is that correct?
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. HOYER. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I really anticipate next week's process to 
resemble years past. I do not want to presuppose what the Committee on 
Rules would do, but I would think that we would likely have an extended 
general debate in the neighborhood of 4 or 5 hours.

                              {time}  1430

  In addition, the Committee on Rules could and will likely make in 
order

[[Page H1276]]

multiple substitutes, and assuming that they are legitimate budget 
resolutions, and we will have a very vigorous debate.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. I think that is very 
important for the House and for the American people, and we look 
forward to that discussion and the substitutes. As the gentleman knows, 
we will have the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Spratt), our 
ranking member, who will have a substitute. I expect the Black Caucus 
to have a substitute, and perhaps there will be some other substitutes 
as well. Certainly the Blue Dogs will have a substitute, all of which I 
think, in the gentleman's understanding of it, would be very 
substantive budget resolution proposals, and we anticipate them being 
made in order so we can debate each of those as well.
  Mr. Speaker, one of the other aspects, as the majority leader knows, 
there has been a lot of discussion about enforcement mechanisms. We 
believe on this side of the aisle that enforcement mechanisms are 
critically important if we are going to get to balance at some time in 
the future, which is our objective and I think the gentleman's 
objective as well.
  Can the gentleman tell me when and in what form enforcement 
mechanisms will be brought to the floor? I yield to the gentleman from 
Texas.
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. 
Obviously, the Committee on the Budget passed out a budget mechanism 
that will be considered by the Committee on Rules. I have no idea at 
this point in time when we could schedule such a thing. There are a lot 
of Members on our side and the gentleman's side that want to 
participate in this process that have a lot of good ideas. I think this 
issue needs to ripen a bit. The Committee on Rules claims some 
jurisdiction in this regard and they want to look at and mark up their 
own bill.
  This is a process that actually just got started yesterday by the 
Committee on the Budget marking up a bill and moving it out of their 
committee, so I really cannot say. I do not know when is the earliest. 
We have a pretty full schedule next week and the following week and 
then, as the gentleman knows, we break for the spring district work 
period. But it is vitally important, everybody wants to bring fiscal 
discipline to the budget process and show that this House can have 
fiscal responsibility, and we think that is an important bill and we 
will bring it to the floor as soon as it is ready.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the gentleman for 
his response. I would observe that, clearly, enforcement mechanisms we 
believe are critically important as we consider the budget in the mid-
2005 budget, but also the outyears as well, whether we use a 5-year or 
10-year budget analysis.
  Without enforcement mechanisms, obviously, we really do not know what 
we are doing. We can say we are doing something, but without 
enforcement mechanisms to make sure that, in fact, we are controlling 
spending, controlling revenues, controlling entitlements, we do not 
have really a budget that is meaningful and enforceable. So we are 
hopeful that that will come relatively soon.
  We would like to do it contemporaneously, but I understand what the 
gentleman is saying; the Committee on Rules wants to consider that. The 
Senate I think considered that contemporaneously and, of course, there 
are some in this country who have made it very clear that an 
enforcement mechanism that impacts on both spending and on revenues was 
the only kind of enforcement that would really be meaningful. I know 
there is a difference of opinion among people on that issue, but we 
think that needs to be debated fairly soon and fairly proximate to 
close the consideration of the budget.
  Mr. Leader, my last question would be, if the gentleman knows, and I 
notice we have a member of the Committee on Rules on the floor, when 
will substitutes need to be filed, if the gentleman knows; or can the 
gentleman inform us when substitutes will need to be filed?
  Mr. DeLAY. As soon as we can get back to the Terps game, I think the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Hastings) is going to stand up and 
announce when they should be filed.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, in a world of priorities, the gentleman just 
got mine.

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