[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 56 (Wednesday, April 28, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H2449-H2451]
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 purposes of 
inquiring of the majority leader the schedule for the following week.
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. HOYER. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished whip from Maryland 
for yielding to me.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to make all the Members aware that the 
House has completed voting for the day and the week.
  Regarding next week's schedule, 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 the Members' offices by the end of 
the 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 H.R. 4227, the Middle Class Alternative Minimum Tax Relief 
Act, which would increase the amount of income exempt from the 
individual AMT, thereby ensuring that hundreds of thousands of middle 
class taxpayers are not hit with a hidden tax increase next year.
  Finally, I would like to remind all Members that we do not plan to 
have any votes next Friday, May 7.
  I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I will be happy to answer any 
questions he may have.
  Mr. HOYER. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, I thank the majority 
leader.
  Mr. Leader, the transportation reauthorization, on a bipartisan basis 
today, as you know, we extended for 2 months. The surface 
transportation bill that would have been reauthorized last September 
was the final phase-out date, but we have extended that a number of 
times since then.
  It is my understanding that a meeting at the White House is scheduled 
tomorrow, to which no Democrat Member has been invited, to decide the

[[Page H2450]]

overall size of the new transportation bill.
  First of all, Mr. Leader, can I ask why are House and Senate 
Democrats not being included in the discussion about this job-creating 
legislation that is critical to our Nation, particularly in light of 
the fact that, as you well know, because you and I have been here for 
some period of time, historically, Mr. Shuster and his counterpart, in 
the latter years the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar), worked 
hand in hand on this legislation; the gentleman from Florida (Mr. 
Young) and the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar) have worked hand 
in hand on this legislation, as you know. We voted for it on an 
overwhelmingly bipartisan basis. But now we, apparently, are not 
continuing to have discussions with reference to the level of funding 
on this bill on a bipartisan basis.
  Can the majority leader inform me, and the gentleman from Minnesota 
(Mr. Oberstar) who was just on the floor, as to whether or not we might 
expect to be included in such meetings in the future, so that we could 
again go forward, as we have in the past on this particular bill, on a 
bipartisan basis?
  Mr. Speaker, I again yield to my friend, the majority leader.
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman for yielding, and 
I really cannot speak to any discussions the gentleman from Minnesota 
(Mr. Oberstar) or the chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young) have had, either amongst themselves 
or with their Senate counterparts.
  What I can tell the gentleman is that the Speaker, being Speaker of 
the House, is defending his prerogative to appoint conferees to 
represent the House. And before he takes that formal step, he would 
like to establish some general parameters, or understandings, with the 
President, getting some sense from the President of what kind of bill 
he will sign.
  The Speaker is not negotiating with the President. The Speaker is 
holding a meeting of high-level, not committee-level people, putting 
together and trying to understand, because there has been some 
confusion as to what the President will or will not accept, before the 
Speaker appoints conferees.
  Mr. HOYER. Reclaiming my time once again, Mr. Speaker, I thank the 
gentleman for that information.
  As the gentleman knows, I would hope the Speaker would go into these 
discussions with the President armed with the fact that well over two-
thirds of the House voted for this bill and, therefore, a very strong 
sentiment that this bill is the appropriate level of funding. And, in 
fact, I think the Senate level probably would have passed with a pretty 
healthy majority as well on this floor.
  In any event, I am hopeful that when the Speaker determines how he 
wants to proceed and appoints conferees, I would certainly hope that 
all of the conferees will be included in the meetings of the conference 
to discuss the resolution of the differences between the bodies and the 
shape and levels of the conference report that would be reported back 
to the House.
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to yield.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield to my friend, hopefully for 
assurances that that will happen.
  Mr. DeLAY. I thank the gentleman for yielding, Mr. Speaker, and I 
would just point out to the gentleman that the transportation bill has 
always been a very bipartisan bill. I would not expect anything 
different in the process of going through the conference committee and 
meetings of the conferees than has been in the past. Both sides of the 
aisle here and both sides of the rotunda are very interested in keeping 
that bipartisanship, so I would be very surprised and would oppose 
having meetings that did not include everybody that was appointed to 
the conference committee.
  Mr. HOYER. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, I thank the majority 
leader for that representation.
  As the majority leader knows, we have been very concerned about that 
in the past on some of the legislation, the Medicare prescription drug 
bill in particular. I believe the majority leader and I had a number of 
conversations on that, and I am pleased at the assurances the leader is 
giving us on this particular bill.
  Mr. Leader, tomorrow we had scheduled, as I understand it, the 
consideration of the budget resolution conference report. That, 
obviously, is not coming to the floor tomorrow if we are not going to 
be here tomorrow. Can the gentleman tell me where the negotiations 
stand on the proposal that some of us feel very strongly about, and 
obviously a majority of the Senate feels very strongly about, and that 
is the pay-as-you-go provision which affects both expenditures and 
revenues? Where are the negotiations on that issue at this point in 
time?

                              {time}  1715

  Mr. DeLAY. If the gentleman will yield, all I can inform the 
gentleman of as far as negotiations, of which I am not privy, they are 
fluid and ongoing and constant. There has been a lot of discussion, as 
the gentleman knows, particularly over the last few weeks and more 
specifically over the last few days. No resolution has been decided. No 
conclusion has been reached. Those negotiations will continue.
  This will likely sound redundant to the gentleman, but my answer is 
basically the same as I gave him last week. Our Budget Committee 
chairman advises me that there is a very good chance that we could have 
a conference report on the floor next week. I am hoping that will be 
the case.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman has listed the alternative 
minimum tax as a schedule for the floor. I want to ask him the question 
I asked him about today's bill. Will that go through the Committee on 
Ways and Means process or is it the expectation that it will come 
directly to the floor without consideration by the Committee on Ways 
and Means?
  Mr. DeLAY. I think we will probably proceed the same as we did on the 
bill today that just passed. The AMT bill has passed this House before. 
It has been marked up by the Committee on Ways and Means before. I do 
not know how many times. The Committee on Ways and Means feels that 
there is nothing new here and that the House should consider it as soon 
as possible, and that is why they want to bring it here, straight to 
the floor through the Committee on Rules. I would assume that is what 
the process will be.
  Mr. HOYER. Does the gentleman know whether or not this will be a 1-
year extension or 1-year effect on the AMT or will it be longer than 
that or permanent?
  Mr. DeLAY. I want to be very careful here because I have not seen the 
bill as introduced. In fact, I am not sure the bill has been introduced 
as of yet. I am very careful as to what I can say is in it because I 
have not seen it. All I know is that discussions that I have been privy 
to, the last I was advised is that the AMT bill is for 1 year.
  Mr. HOYER. The last question with reference to the particular bill 
that is scheduled for next week, is it the intention as far as the 
gentleman knows to treat the handling of that bill the same way the 
marriage penalty bill was treated with respect to us having a 
substitute obviously that is germane and in order under the rule?
  Mr. DeLAY. Of course I would defer any final decision to the 
Committee on Rules. I imagine as they did this week with the marriage 
penalty bill that they would be inclined to make in order a substitute 
amendment as a substitute.
  Mr. HOYER. In addition to the AMT, does the gentleman expect the 10 
percent bracket extension to be included as part of the agenda next 
week as well?
  Mr. DeLAY. I do not expect the 10 percent bill, the marginal rate 
bill, to be on the floor next week. We anticipate that bill being on 
the floor the following week, and then the $1,000 child tax credit on 
the floor the week after that.
  Mr. HOYER. I think I asked this last week, but let me ask him again 
because he will be disappointed if I did not ask this. Will the folks, 
$26,000 and under, that were included in the Senate bill but did not 
come out of the House here be included as far as he knows in the child 
tax credit?
  Mr. DeLAY. That is so far down the road, as the gentleman knows. It 
is 2 weeks away. I would wait to see what the final bill looks like as 
it is introduced.
  Mr. HOYER. I realize 14 days is a long time away, particularly when 
we

[[Page H2451]]

are working, people over here, we are working at least a day and a half 
a week. It is a pretty onerous schedule that the gentleman has got us 
on.
  Might I ask the leader, is he sure we are going to meet next 
Thursday?
  Mr. DeLAY. I am not sure of tomorrow.
  Mr. HOYER. That is going to make a lot of our Members nervous, I 
might say.
  Mr. DeLAY. I would just say to the gentleman that we have a full week 
of work lined up. Hopefully if things go the way that we anticipate 
them going, we would be here on Thursday, but not on Friday.

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