Congressional Record, Volume 151 Issue 101 (Friday, July 22, 2005)

[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 101 (Friday, July 22, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H6368-H6369]
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 take this time for the purpose of inquiring
of the majority leader the schedule for the week to come.
I yield to my friend, the majority leader.
Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my friend yielding to me.
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 day. Any votes
called on these measures will be rolled until 6:30 p.m.
On Tuesday and the balance of the week, the House will consider
additional legislation under suspension of the rules, as well as
several measures under a rule: H.R. 525, the Small Business Health
Fairness Act of 2005; H.R. 5, the HEALTH Act of 2005; and H.R. 22, the
Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. In addition, we expect to
consider H.R. 3045, the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade
Agreement sometime later in the week.
Finally, I would like to note that we are expecting a very busy week
heading into the August recess. Members should expect to work some late
nights as we resolve these important pieces of legislation.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for that information.
Realizing that next week is a busy week and there are a number of very
important items on the agenda, how likely, Mr. Leader, do you think it
is that we will be in on Friday?
I yield to the distinguished gentleman.
Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding. There is
no way that we can tell what hour of the day on Friday that we might be
finished with our work. As the gentleman knows, next week is going to
be a typical pre-district work period week. We have several bills to
consider, as well as multiple potential conference reports. Because of
the unpredictability of conference reports, I would hesitate to even
make firm commitments for any of the week.
For now, I would note that our plan is to consider both postal reform
and small business health plans on Tuesday, and after that we will have
to see where various components are and how they come together.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, thank you for that
information, Mr. Leader.
Mr. Leader, obviously next week I suppose the most controversial and
most focused-upon piece of legislation will be the Central American
Free Trade Agreement. This week, of course, the PATRIOT Act, which we
thought was going to start Thursday and go through today, in fact was
accelerated and NASA was taken today, clearly to ensure full
consideration of the PATRIOT Act.
Might it be possible with some assurance to let the Members know when
the CAFTA bill will be on the floor, in effect adopting a similar
procedure?
I yield to the majority leader.
Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
As I said earlier, it is very difficult. Certainly we will consult
with the minority as to timing. For instance, right now we think we
will have a highway conference report. There may be an energy
conference report. There could be one to three appropriations
conference reports. It is very difficult today to fashion a schedule
that we could give to the Members.
I feel very confident by Monday we will have a better feel for what
the week should look like and, in consultation with the minority, we
would have a better idea when the Central American Free Trade Agreement
can be considered. But I say to the gentleman that it will be fully
discussed with an ample amount of time for debate, and we will just do
it when we can get to it.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the leader for that response. I
understand the problem of pinning down now exact times. Would it be
fair, however, Mr. Leader, to say that it would not be considered on
the last day we are here, on Friday, or not, so that we could make sure
that Members knew and had some degree of confidence, because it is such
an important piece of legislation, that it would not be considered on
the last day we are here?
I yield to my friend.
Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding.
I cannot say that. I really do not have any idea. I know it will be
after Tuesday, and that is about the best I can give the gentleman.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, the postal accountability
bill, you seem to indicate that that might be considered earlier in the
week rather than later. Is that accurate?
I yield to my friend.
Mr. DeLAY. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Yes, we plan to present the postal reform bill on Tuesday. We think
we can do both that and the small business health plan on Tuesday.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the leader.
Reclaiming my time, you mentioned appropriations bills. Are we likely
to have motions to go to conference on appropriations bills next week;
and if so, can you anticipate what bills that might be?
Mr. DeLAY. It is possible that Interior, Legislative Branch, and
Homeland Security conference reports could be presented by next week.
Mr. HOYER. Those conferences would be on the floor, is that what the
gentleman is saying, possibly?
Mr. DeLAY. We could bring them to the floor by next week.
Mr. HOYER. In terms of motions to go to conference, do you anticipate
motions to go to conference on any appropriations bills next week?
Mr. DeLAY. If the gentleman will continue to yield, we would have to
go to conference on those three bills for sure, and, depending on the
progress of the other body, we may be going to conference on others.
Mr. HOYER. I appreciate that. On the bill of the gentleman from
Arizona (Mr. Shadegg), I think it is H.R. 2355, dealing with the
insurance issues, there is a lot of interest on our side of the aisle.
Will that bill be considered? Did you list that as one of the health
bills that would be considered?
Mr. DeLAY. If the gentleman will continue to yield, no, we did not
list that bill as of yet. There are still discussions going on about
that bill, and until those discussions are concluded, we cannot predict
when it will come to the floor.
Mr. HOYER. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Leader, I take it that in light of
the fact you have not mentioned it, at this point in time it is not on
the schedule. But there is a lot of discussion on this side of the
aisle about that bill. Do you think it would be possible that it might
be added to the calendar?
I yield to my friend.
Mr. DeLAY. I appreciate the gentleman yielding. It is possible it
could be added to the calendar, but looking at how busy a week we have
next week and the controversial issues that we will be bringing to the
floor of the House, it is hard to say if we could put that bill on the
floor next week.

[[Page H6369]]

Mr. HOYER. Because there is so much interest in that bill on our
side, Mr. Leader, would it be fair to say that that decision would be
made prior to the close of business on Monday so that we would have
some notice of that in time to fairly consider it?
I yield to my friend.
Mr. DeLAY. I appreciate the gentleman yielding. We will try our best,
in consultation with you, to give you some idea of when we could
possibly bring that bill, and if it is going to be considered next week
and we can fit into the schedule, then certainly we would let you know
by probably the end of business Monday.

{time} 1230

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, we would appreciate that.
The other bills that I would like to talk about, the highway bill
conference report the gentleman indicated as a possibility, can the
gentleman inform us of the status of that conference and where we are
on this bill?
I yield to my friend.
Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my friend yielding. I am very
encouraged. I serve on the conference committee, so I am very
encouraged by the accomplishments and progress that has been made over
the course of this week.
I believe there is really only one major issue left to be resolved by
the conferees, and that relates to transit funding. Hopefully, that can
be resolved prior to the Wednesday night expiration of the current
short-term funding measure, and then, as normal, there are a lot of
smaller issues that can be resolved by then. I am very hopeful that we
can pass that conference report before we leave here next week.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I presume, am I correct,
that the gentleman's effort would be to try to pass it prior to the
expiration of the last temporary extension, or would the gentleman
anticipate another, which I guess would be the tenth or the eleventh
extension; or does the gentleman think he can perhaps get it through
prior to Wednesday night?
I yield to my friend.
Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding. Everyone
is working as hard as they can. As the gentleman knows, this bill has
taken a long time to work out the differences between the House and the
Senate. We get very close every time we reach the deadline of an
expiration date.
The expiration date is set on Wednesday. Everybody is going to be
working over the weekend, and we are working as hard as we can with the
goal to bring that conference report to the floor before the expiration
of the short-term funding measure.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the leader for
his comments and observations. We are certainly hopeful on our side,
and I know the gentleman is on his side, that we get this bill through.
It is probably as significant a jobs creation bill as we will pass in
this Congress, and it has been delayed for a very long period of time.
I know the gentleman has been frustrated by it, and we have been
frustrated by it, and hopefully, we can get that done by next week.
The energy bill conference report, can the gentleman tell us where
that stands? I yield to my friend.
Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding. We are
working on it. We hope to get it done by the end of next week. It is a
very ambitious goal, I must say, to take a bill of this magnitude and,
in a matter of 2 weeks, get all the differences worked out between the
House and the Senate and bring it to the floor.
This is another item that the House and Senate are working on through
the weekend, and at least encouragement has been brought to my
attention by the chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce that,
with a lot of hard work, it is very possible that we could get this
energy conference report to the Members for a vote by the end of next
week.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, in light of the fact, Mr.
Leader, I will simply observe that if we get all of those things moving
we are going to have a lot of work to do next week, and I presume our
Members ought to be prepared for long days and, clearly, if we get all
of that done, it will be Friday late before we get out of here.
In light of the fact we will not have a colloquy next week because we
will be going on recess for the summer work period, can the gentleman
tell us what he anticipates might be on the agenda when we come back on
September 6, what might be on the agenda early in the September weeks?
Clearly, appropriations bills conference reports, to the extent they
are done, will be on the calendar, but other than that, can the
gentleman enlighten us as to what your thoughts are? I yield to the
leader.
Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding. We have
not made any decisions yet, but obviously the gentleman knows and
Members understand that the appropriations process did end with us
passing our bills before the July 4 break. The Senate is working on
appropriations bills, and we will be doing those conferences as they
present themselves.
Also, we do know that at least the first week back, we could be
looking at the Coast Guard authorization bill and possibly a research
bill from the Committee on Science. That is the first week back. Other
bills will be considered during the August district work period, and we
will be able to make a more firm announcement to the Members as to what
we anticipate having the first week back and, in addition to that, the
second week also.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the gentleman for
that information.
Lastly, there are two pieces of legislation, major pieces of
legislation that the gentleman did not mention but have been talked
about, and that is, of course, the Social Security legislation and the
campaign finance legislation, one or the other bill, or both.
Can the gentleman give me his thoughts on where they stand and when
they might come on the agenda if, in fact, they will be coming on the
agenda?
I yield to my friend.
Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding. The
campaign finance committees are still working on those issues. It is
quite possible that we could address those issues in September. The way
that I am watching the schedule of the other body, we will probably be
here at least a week or two after October 1, and we would be working on
those issues.
I have every expectation that the Committee on Ways and Means will
put out a retirement security bill for us to consider in September or
the first of October. And, I am sure the gentleman remembers, we have a
reconciliation process that is ongoing. We could have a reconciliation
bill in that time period.
So those are some of the major issues that we will be facing in
September and October.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the leader for all of the
information.

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