Congressional Record, Volume 151 Issue 157 (Thursday, December 8, 2005)

[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 157 (Thursday, December 8, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H11266-H11268]
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 Missouri (Mr.
Blunt), the acting majority leader, for the purpose of inquiring about
the schedule for the week to come.
Mr. BLUNT. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
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 the week. Any
votes called on these measures will be rolled until 6:30 p.m.
For Wednesday and the balance of the week, the House will consider
additional legislation under suspension of the rules, as well as H.R.
4437, the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration
Control Act of 2005, under a rule. We also anticipate the House will
consider additional conference reports, including the USA PATRIOT Act;
the Labor, Health and Human Services and Department of Defense
appropriations bills; and possibly the deficit reduction and tax relief
packages.
Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for that information.
As you know, a lot of work remains to be done which is supposed to
be, as I understand it, may be, I suppose, our last week. Many hope it
will be our last week, at least for the month, including the completion
of the conference report, as you have said, on Labor-Health and DOD
appropriation, the DOD authorization, TRIA, PATRIOT Act.
So for Members' planning purposes, can you tell me when you expect to
finish work for the year?
Mr. BLUNT. Once we return on Tuesday, the Members should expect the
House to be in session and voting every day until we adjourn. That
could happen as early as next Thursday, but certainly by next Saturday
or possibly Sunday, and we would not anticipate returning until we
return after the first of the year.
Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for that information.
If we do not pass, for whatever reasons, the DOD appropriation bill
and the Labor-Health appropriation bill, presumably we will need a CR.
Could the leader tell me how long you would anticipate that CR being?
Mr. BLUNT. We have not contemplated that because we do expect to pass
both of those bills next week before we leave. I think we are
absolutely committed to do that and expect to see both of those on the
floor individually, and we will then have brought all of our
appropriations work to the floor individually, though certainly one of
those bills, probably the Department of Defense bill, will include
whatever additional appropriations have to be handled before we leave
this year. But we would expect to handle those under regular order and
would only contemplate a CR if that became the absolute only resort
left to us. I would not anticipate that.
Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for that information.
Focusing on the DOD bills, the authorization and the appropriation
bill, technically, as I understand it, we have not gone to conference
on either one of those at this point in time. One of the reasons is, I
presume, that there will be a motion to instruct on the McCain
amendment on one of those bills. Can the gentleman tell me when we
might have a motion to go to conference? I know you have talked about
them coming on the floor as conference reports, but in light of the
fact we have not gone to conference yet, could the gentleman inform me
as to when we might have a motion to go to conference?
I yield to my friend.
Mr. BLUNT. I thank my friend for yielding and would say that we
expect those motions early in the week. I thought even today we might
get one of those motions today as the work is done to try to work
through some of the things that appear to be problems in the conference
that need to be worked out, and I would expect to see that happen early
in the week in both instances.
Mr. HOYER. Reclaiming my time, this is not a question, but let me
tell you the difficult position this puts us in, which I hope we ought
to really preclude in the future in fairness.
The purpose of a motion to instruct conferees is obviously to convey
to them the opinion of the House as it relates to the product of the
conference. Clearly, if that motion is not made until essentially after
the conference work is done, the motion essentially is of little, if
any, value. I understand the

[[Page H11267]]

problem that the majority has been dealing with and the differences
between the administration and at least the Senate. But it does place
us in a position where essentially whatever the House might want to do
on a motion to instruct would be essentially a meaningless act.
That is certainly not, I think, the intent of the rule for a motion
to instruct, nor is it the spirit, I think, of the rule. The gentleman
does not have to comment on it. If he wanted to make a comment on it, I
would be glad to hear it; but I think you understand our consternation
for those of us who particularly feel very strongly on the importance
and the appropriateness of the McCain amendment as passed by the Senate
being in the final bill. Again, the gentleman does not have to comment
on that. If he would like to, I will certainly yield.
Mr. BLUNT. I would only say that I understand the point. I also
understand, as the gentleman does, in this particular case, the White
House was highly involved in the discussion in the Senate; and it does
seem to me that this is an issue of unusual sensitivity and important
to try to work through as much as we could before we put our conferees
in place, but I clearly understand the position that the whip has on
that and appreciate it.
Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman.
On the budget reconciliation conference, when do you expect that to
hit the floor?
Mr. BLUNT. We are hopeful that both of these reconciliation
conferences can proceed. Both the tax conference and the deficit
reduction conference are very complicated. It is our hope we can work
through these, get these in place and work through them next week; but
there is a tremendous amount of work that needs to be done because of
the differences in the bills. We are hopeful that we go to conference
next week on one or both of those issues, and then could even get one
or both of them back to the floor to vote on the conference product
next week, if that is at all possible.
Mr. HOYER. I understand that knowing a specific day on which that
could be done would be practically impossible. I appreciate the
gentleman's observation.
On the border security and immigration bill, which you note will be
on the calendar next week, can you tell us whether or not we can
anticipate that being on, presumably, either Wednesday or Thursday? We
are coming back Tuesday night. You indicated it is possible we could
get out Thursday. So I presume that bill, which is ready for the floor,
will be on either Wednesday or Thursday. Can you tell us specifically
when you might anticipate that bill being on the floor?
Mr. BLUNT. As I said, we intend to have that bill on the floor next
week. I think it is probably more likely to be on Thursday, but that
decision will be a lot easier to make once we get a greater sense of
how all of the work next week will present itself. Certainly we hope to
have these two appropriations measures on the floor; and as we have
discussed before in the last few minutes, the importance of getting
them done next week. The PATRIOT Act also will be on the floor next
week, we anticipate.

{time} 1600

And depending on how that work becomes available to us will determine
the scheduling of the border security provisions. I do not think it is
likely that that will be on the floor on Wednesday, but it is not
impossible. I think it is more likely that that bill will be on the
floor on Thursday, or maybe even later if other measures present
themselves quicker than we think.
Mr. HOYER. Thank you. Reclaiming my time, as I understand it, the
border security and immigration, one comes out of Homeland Security and
one comes out of Judiciary. Mr. Leader, do you anticipate that they
will be joined for purposes of consideration on the floor, or is it
your anticipation that we will consider each one of them individually?
I yield to my friend.
Mr. BLUNT. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Those bills were
combined into one bill in the Judiciary Committee markup today, so I
would expect to see that as one bill. And amendments could be submitted
to the Rules Committee on that bill and the Rules Committee, I am sure,
will allow some amendments on the floor as well.
Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman.
Something that is not on the notice, but there has been significant
discussion of and great interest in on our side as well as your side,
is the pension bill. I notice it is not on the announcement, but do you
anticipate that that might be on the calendar; or has that been decided
to go over? I yield to my friend.
Mr. BLUNT. I thank my friend for yielding. This is an important topic
for us to deal with. Pension security is incredibly important to
Americans and their future.
We believe we have a good bill from the Ways and Means Committee and
the Education and Workforce Committee that has been put together. But I
also understand that because both bodies have to be involved, it is
highly unlikely that whatever we do would find its way to the
President's desk this year.
At the same time, circumstances might allow us to move that bill next
week. But I would not put that on the list of things that we are almost
certain to do, but certainly it is on the list of things we are looking
at to see if there is a way we can go ahead and advance a House
position so that our friends on the other side of the Capitol can move
on this issue as well, and early next year, we could come to conclusion
on an issue that is so critically important to so many Americans and
their families.
Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman. As he observes and I have observed,
there is great interest. We know this is an important piece of
legislation. Both sides and I think all interest groups want to address
his issue as soon as we can. Hopefully, we can work together to effect
a piece of legislation that can enjoy bipartisan support, can pass, and
go into effect to assist so many millions of Americans who are
concerned about the security that they have in their pensions. I know
that is your desire, our desire, and hopefully we can proceed on that.
Mr. Leader, Mr. Taylor from Mississippi is on the floor and Mr.
Melancon from Louisiana was also on the floor. Both of them had
inquired of me, appropriately, the status of the Katrina relief
legislation. We are very interested in that being brought to the floor
next week. It is my understanding that it probably will be, but it
might be brought to the floor attached to another bill.
That is a critical piece of legislation. I think all of us want to
make sure that we have the resources necessary and some of the
legislative authorizations and law necessary to facilitate
rehabilitation of the gulf area. Can you tell me when that might come
to the floor and on what vehicle it might come to the floor, either as
a freestanding bill or attached to another?
I yield to my friend.
Mr. BLUNT. I thank my friend for yielding, and I would like to remind
my friend, as I am sure I do not need to, but the tax portion of this,
also significant in terms of redeveloping the gulf coast, we did pass
that bill this week as a stand-alone measure, so that no matter what
happens this year in reconciliation we have an opportunity to move
forward with Katrina tax relief.
We also need to move forward with other kinds of relief. As you
mentioned, Mr. Taylor and Mr. Melancon and other Members, our Members
from Mississippi, Louisiana, east Texas, and Alabama have all been very
interested in moving forward on relief for the families that are
affected. I believe there is a broad understanding that we need to do
this before the end of the year.
I do think, Mr. Whip, it is likely that that relief package will be
part of one of these last two appropriation measures to move across the
floor. I believe that works best for ensuring that this happens on both
sides of the Capitol, both this body and the other body. And I would
expect to see that Katrina relief package, with significant elements of
items that the gentleman mentioned and others are interested in, will
be in either the Department of Defense appropriations bill, as part of
that debate, discussion, and vote, or in the Labor-HHS vote at another
time in the week.
Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for those remarks. Clearly, that is
critical not only, as I said, to the people

[[Page H11268]]

that you mentioned from the areas affected, but to all of us who want
to ensure assistance gets to the people there. And while the tax
provisions may well be important, they are longer-term impacts, and in
some respects shorter-term impacts, that we would otherwise provide.
Lastly, Mr. Leader, if I can, can you perhaps give us a preview of
the schedule for next year? It is our understanding on this side that
the probability is we will not be returning until the 31st of January.
Has that been decided? Can you confirm that and maybe give us a brief
preview of what our schedule next month and the months thereafter in
the year to come might be?
I yield to my friend.
Mr. BLUNT. I thank the gentleman for yielding, and before I go to
that, I would like to say, and I would hope he would share my view of
this, that while the Katrina supplemental is important and needs to be
done before the end of the year, that also anything in the tax
structure that encourages rebuilding, making a decision to get your
business back in the affected area rather than stay somewhere else you
may have moved to is also important.
I would not want our colleagues on the other side of the building to
think that somehow the tax portion of this can wait until next year.
They both need to be done this year, and we are going to work hard to
see that both of those things get done this year.
We have worked this year well beyond our schedule to work in
Washington. Members had every reason to believe before the August work
period that they would be home now and would have been home for several
weeks talking about what we have done and what we hope to do. But when
we do go home at the end of the next working series of days we will be
working, we would anticipate that the Members would not come back until
the 31st of January, and the first votes for the second session would
occur on and after that date.
Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for that information.

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