[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 110 (Wednesday, September 15, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H7211-H7213]
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 and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I rise for the purpose of inquiring of the 
distinguished minority whip the schedule for the week to come.
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. HOYER. I yield to the gentleman from Missouri.
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, next week the House will convene on Tuesday 
at 12:30 for morning hour debates and 2 p.m. for legislative business. 
We will consider several matters under the suspension of the rules. A 
final list of those bills will be sent to Members' offices by the end 
of this week. Any votes we have on Tuesday will be after 6:30 p.m. We 
also expect to complete consideration of H.R. 5025, the Transportation-
Treasury appropriations bill, on Tuesday afternoon.
  In addition, next week we expect to consider H.R. 2028, the Pledge 
Protection Act; and finally, as we approach

[[Page H7212]]

the end of this Congress, it is important to take note that we have a 
number of conference reports that we are working through. Members 
should expect votes on those at any time.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for those comments.
  Apparently we are going to do some suspension bills on Tuesday, and 
then we will go back to the Transportation-Treasury appropriation bill?
  Mr. BLUNT. Yes, that is the schedule at this time.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, my question is in light of the fact that 
general debate and most of the bill has been objected to or much it has 
been objected to, there are still pending amendments. At what time do 
we need to advise Members who have amendments that are pending that 
they must be here? Obviously we are starting at 2. There are suspension 
bills, but can we give them some perhaps target time that they should 
be here to protect themselves in the offering of those amendments?
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman's question, and I 
would say while we do have some suspension bills scheduled, sometimes 
they can go quicker than at other times. I know Members with amendments 
would not want to see an opportunity to offer those amendments pass by. 
If I had an amendment, I would be here not much after 2. I know at one 
time today the chairman had to ask Members to come to the floor because 
the bill had moved much quicker than expected.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I will so advise Members.
  Mr. Whip, you indicated some of the legislation we are going to 
consider, and you did not specifically mention Friday. Can the 
gentleman advise us at this time what the intention is for Friday of 
next week?
  Mr. BLUNT. At this point we are still scheduled to work on Friday 
because of the number of conference committee reports that are out 
there that we hope to see come to some conclusion, maybe some next 
week, and we would be working Friday. If that does not appear to be the 
case, we will try to give as much notice as possible and Friday would 
be a day that will be dependent on some of the conference committees 
coming to a conclusion.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, assuming on Tuesday or Wednesday we pass the 
Transportation-Treasury bill, that will leave only the VA-HUD bill 
pending from the Committee on Appropriations from the House 
perspective. Can the gentleman advise us whether or not the VA-HUD bill 
may be coming to the floor next week? It was not mentioned for next 
week, but the week following?
  Mr. BLUNT. We are still working through that and at this point the 
leader has not scheduled that bill for the floor.
  Mr. HOYER. Are you pretty confident it will not be on the floor next 
week?
  Mr. BLUNT. I think it is unlikely that bill would be ready for the 
floor by next week, but we are still working on it, and hope to get it 
and the rest of the appropriations work done.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Whip, we are approximately 15 days from the end of the 
fiscal year. The only appropriation bill signed by the President is the 
defense bill, leaving 12 appropriation bills still pending. Presumably 
we are either going to do something that would be extraordinary, 
passing those bills within the time frame left to us, which I guess is 
6 or 7 legislative days at most, or passing some type of CR or omnibus. 
Can the gentleman advise the House as to what the leadership's current 
thinking is on how we are going to proceed as we approach the end of 
the fiscal year on September 30?
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I would say at this point we do not expect to 
consider a CR next week. We would very much like to get our work done 
during the time between now and the time we take a break. Before we go 
to a CR, which we obviously have to deal with some time in that 15-day 
period, we would like to have a clearer picture of exactly where the 
process is. We are continuing to do everything we can to encourage that 
process to reach conclusion in every possible area and perhaps even in 
all possible areas, but we would like a little clearer picture than 
what we will have next week before we deal with a CR.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire of the gentleman, if a CR is 
needed and the appropriation bill does not move forward or some omnibus 
does not move forward, can the leadership inform us as to how long a 
period of time they may be contemplating a CR would cover?
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, again, I think we need to wait and see where 
the process is, how close it is to completion before we decide what 
period of time to recommend that CR would go. We are working hard to 
complete the entire process in the shortest possible time.

                              {time}  1300

  Mr. HOYER. Reclaiming my time, we are all enthusiastic about that 
objective. We are now 9\1/2\ months into pursuing that objective and it 
has not happened yet, but perhaps it will.
  But let me ask the gentleman more pointedly, I suppose, as it relates 
to the length of the CR, it is my understanding that there was some 
expression from the highest junctures of leadership in his party that a 
lame duck session was not particularly favored by the leadership but we 
hear rumors about possibly having a lame duck, that possibly being 
sometime in mid-November when his organization and probably ours will 
be scheduled. Can the gentleman shed any light on his current thinking, 
in light of the fact we have 15 days left to go in the fiscal year and 
about, I suppose, another 20 or 25 days left before we presumably will 
recess or adjourn prior to the elections, as to whether or not there is 
a substantial probability or possibility of a lame duck session?
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I think it would be fair to say that in our 
discussions we are doing everything we can to get our work done before 
we take the break for the elections. It is certainly possible we might 
have to come back, and I believe the time the gentleman suggested for 
our reorganization is the time that we are intending to schedule that. 
If there is anything that has to be done, it would clearly be the best 
thing to do if we are in agreement on the time to come back, to do all 
those things or start all those things at least at one time. But we 
have been very focused across the board this week in trying to get to 
that goal of having this year's work done by the time we leave here 
sometime in October.
  Mr. HOYER. A couple of other questions, if I might, Mr. Speaker.
  The transportation bill is one of those conferences that the 
gentleman referred to that is pending that possibly will come back. If 
it does not come back next week, does the gentleman contemplate having 
an additional extension? The present extension, as the gentleman knows, 
expires very shortly in terms of the continuation of the previous 
authorization of the highway bill. Does the gentleman contemplate 
having another extension? And, if so, has there been discussion about 
how long a period of time that might be for?
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, we are again hopeful and working hard to get 
the transportation bill completed. We think it is better to work toward 
that completion right now than to extend the deadline. The pressure of 
the deadline may help in that process. It certainly does not work 
against the process of getting the bill. I believe both our chairman on 
this side of the building and the ranking member are working hard, 
working together, as others are, and we will not be addressing the 
question of extension until we move a little further along and 
hopefully are able to bring not an extension to the floor but an 
agreed-to transportation bill.
  Mr. HOYER. Reclaiming my time, I appreciate that objective and I want 
to tell the whip, as I have, I think privately, that this side of the 
aisle will be very supportive of, I think, any figure that the majority 
can agree among itself, the White House, the Senate and the House, 
between the House-passed bill which passed overwhelmingly in a 
bipartisan fashion and in fact, of course, as the gentleman knows, 
Democrats, Chairman Young and all of the Republican members and 
Democratic members of the Committee on Transportation and 
Infrastructure believe we ought to have a substantially higher number 
to meet the needs of the Nation than was passed here or passed in the 
Senate. My representation to the

[[Page H7213]]

gentleman from Missouri would be that I think that the votes will be 
there on our side for, I hear a figure of very close to $300 billion 
being mentioned. I think on this side of the aisle in talking to the 
gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar), we will be obviously 
substantially influenced by what the gentleman from Minnesota 
recommends as our ranking member but we would be very, I think, 
supportive and we could forge a significant majority to send that bill 
down to the President and have the President consider it.
  As the gentleman knows, every $1 billion that we have in that bill 
creates 42,000 jobs here in America. We believe that bill is very 
important. We would have hoped it would have passed last year, but I 
want to tell my friend that he and I have the similar responsibilities 
of trying to count votes and I think we will have the overwhelming 
majority of our people for a bill. If we just split the difference 
between the Senate and the House, which is essentially what is being 
talked about, I think we would support it on this side of the aisle. I 
hope the gentleman's Members would support it on his side of the aisle, 
we send it to the President and obviously the executive, a coequal but 
separate branch of government, would have to make its determination as 
to what it wanted to do. I do not know if that is a possibility but I 
think we could work together in a bipartisan fashion to get that done.
  I yield to my friend if he wants to make a comment.
  Mr. BLUNT. I thank my friend for yielding, and I share the 
gentleman's sense that an overwhelming number of Members of the House 
would like to get this work done, get this bill done this year. Of 
course this would not be the place for the gentleman and I to try to 
negotiate a number, but I think the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. 
Oberstar) and the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young) are both working 
hard to achieve a result that gets that work going and allows the 
States and others affected by this to begin the contracting process and 
even begin some of the work. I am very hopeful at this point that we 
will get that number agreed to, get our friends on the other side of 
this building moving forward with us and get agreement from the White 
House as they need to ultimately sign whatever bill we pass.
  Mr. HOYER. Reclaiming my time, I think the gentleman has put his 
finger on the impasse, and that is the White House. I think frankly the 
Congress can reach agreement on this and I think we ought to. I urge 
the majority reaching consensus in the Congress and, as a separate and 
coequal branch of government, sending our judgment down to the White 
House. Obviously the White House then has its full prerogatives to 
exercise its judgment. But we have waited far too long on that, I 
believe.
  The last question or the last inquiry I would make of the whip is 
there has been a lot of talk, of course, about the middle-class tax 
cuts. I think both sides of the aisle feel very strongly that we want 
to make sure the middle-class tax cuts continue. In particular, we have 
focused on the child tax credit, as the gentleman knows. There has been 
a lot of discussion back and forth. That has been held up for a very 
long period of time, particularly extension to those families making up 
to $26,000. There are some 200,000 service families, as the gentleman 
knows, that are not qualifying for the child tax credit at this point 
in time.
  Can the gentleman tell us whether or not he has any optimism about 
that conference report coming back to us anytime soon?
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I would say in response to that previous 
comment that I am not sure that our friends on the other side of this 
building are as united yet as perhaps our Members are who represent the 
House side on the transportation number. We want to move forward there.
  Chairman Thomas tells me that he sees good work happening on the 
family tax package that the gentleman mentioned, the marriage penalty 
relief, the $1,000 child credit, the 10 percent tax bracket, that new 
tax bracket we put in place. We think it is very likely that we could 
have that extension on the floor next week.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for that information.

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