[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 2 (Friday, January 5, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H86-H88]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM
(Mr. BLUNT asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute.)
Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, first I want to congratulate our new Member
for getting a bill passed in the first week. That is an incredible
thing to get done.
Then I would like to inquire of my good friend and new majority
leader, Mr. Hoyer, about the schedule for next week.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Maryland.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
First of all, I want to say, Mr. Whip, we congratulate you on your
reelection as the whip. I have an affection for whips, as you know, the
position, and I am personally advantaged by our close working
relationship and respect for one another. And I think the American
public hopefully will be advantaged by that. I think this House will be
advantaged by that, and I look forward to working with my good friend,
Roy Blunt.
In addition, all of us on our side appreciated the very gracious
remarks of your leader, Mr. Boehner, when introducing Speaker Pelosi
and passing the gavel to her. We know that is a difficult role. It was
a difficult role for Mr. Gephardt when in 1995 he had that
responsibility, and it was a difficult role for Ms. Pelosi on the two
occasions she had to do it. Your leader was extraordinarily gracious
and positive in that role, and we appreciate that and we want you to
know that.
On Tuesday, the House will meet at 10:30 a.m. for morning hour and at
noon for legislative business. Under the suspension calendar, we will
consider a resolution mourning the passing of President Gerald Ford.
That resolution, I would tell the Members, the principal sponsor of
which is Mr. Vern Ehlers, our colleague on your side of the aisle, who
represents the district which was so ably and effectively represented
by President Ford for such a long period of time, a quarter of a
century.
Mr. Speaker, we will also consider H.R. 1, a bill to implement the 9/
11 Commission recommendations, and a resolution to establish a select
intelligence oversight panel.
I will tell Mr. Blunt we expect votes to be not before 3 to 4 p.m. We
had originally, as you know, thought we might come in Monday. There was
a schedule conflict and we wanted to accommodate that. We are glad we
did. We will try to hold votes until 3 or 4, but west coast Members
will have a difficult time getting back so they ought to plan on being
here on Monday unless they have an important engagement they have to
attend.
On Wednesday, the House will meet at 10 a.m. We will consider H.R. 2,
a bill to increase the minimum wage.
On Thursday, the House will meet at 10 a.m. We will consider H.R. 3,
a bill regarding stem cell research.
And on Friday, the House will meet at 10 a.m. We will consider H.R.
4, a bill regarding the Medicare prescription drug program. We expect
the last votes to be hopefully no later than 2 p.m.
The practice, as you know, will be that we will come in at 6:30 on
Mondays and adjourn no later than 2 p.m. on the day of adjournment.
Many times that will be Friday, sometimes it will be Thursday. We
understand the need for Members to get out. If it is on Thursday, the
expectation is we may go a little later than that, but that will be
generally the practice we will try to pursue.
Mr. BLUNT. I thank my colleague for responding. As he mentioned, we
have had a great working relationship as the whips of the two parties
and look forward to working with him in his new job as the leader of
the majority.
I, too, thought yesterday was an historic day for the House, and a
day that our Members all appreciated the historic nature of the day.
Particularly on this side of the aisle, we appreciated the Speaker's
comments about moving towards partnership as opposed to partisanship;
and we, of course, are eager to see a little more of that partnership
again.
We paid close attention during the election and after the election to
the commitments to the new majority to have bills available in an
earlier way and to have committee and subcommittee markup. I assume the
work next week is work the majority decided will not be able to go
through the subcommittee process or the committee process, and I yield
to my friend to respond to that.
Mr. HOYER. The gentleman's assumption is correct. Pursuant to the
rule that was adopted today, we will be moving the six items that we
obviously
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campaigned on, told the American public that we would move on within
the first 100 hours.
We believe almost all of those items have been broadly discussed,
considered, not only in the election process of approximately 6 months
in duration or longer, but also, for instance, the 9/11 Commission
report which we will consider in the first order of business next week,
vetted by the bipartisan commission, the 9/11 Commission, chaired by
Governor Kean and co-chaired by Mr. Hamilton, so that the gentleman's
assumption is correct.
But that does not mean, I want to make it very clear, that does not
mean that when we get through those items which essentially were the
items focused on during the course of the election, that we will not
hew to what we believe to be a positive step forward in including both
sides in deliberations, in conference reports, in committees and on the
floor.
Mr. BLUNT. As you know, most of our Members voted against the rule
which brings these issues to the floor without the chance to offer an
alternative. We believe there is a desire to create more opportunities
for alternatives, but the sooner that can happen, I think the more
effectively we will show to the American people that we are finding
ways to work together.
We had a pledge also of at least 24 hours of notice on the specifics
of legislation. It doesn't seem to me that is quite as onerous a pledge
to meet in the context of what my friend just said as going through a
subcommittee, going through a committee. We didn't feel like we had
that 24-hour access to information this week. We would hope next week
to have the specifics of the legislation as early as possible. If in
fact this is legislation that doesn't need to go through the committees
because it has been so widely discussed and vetted, it would not seem
to be unreasonable for everybody in the body, every Member to have a
chance to see it even as early as Monday.
Mr. HOYER. I think the gentleman is correct and I am glad the
gentleman said ``as early as Monday.'' It is my understanding those
bills will be available to you this afternoon, and properly so. We want
you to have the opportunity and the American public to have an
opportunity to read and see those bills.
It is my understanding that all of those bills will be introduced by
the close of business today so they will be available to be read over
the weekend and before Monday, and certainly before we come back on
Tuesday.
Mr. BLUNT. I thank my friend for the response. Seeing the legislation
is obviously helpful. We are really regretful we don't have a chance to
offer an alternative in the real-time. We will look at the legislation.
We will see if we can find a suggestion that will help meet the goals
that we agree with in a more effective way. That 24-hour notice from
now on we would hope would be a pledge that the majority will be able
to retain.
My good friend Mr. Hoyer mentioned the 9/11 Commission report. One of
the recommendations of that commission was a realignment of committees.
We didn't make that realignment of committees in the rules package. I
wonder if there is any plan for that kind of realignment, and I would
yield to the leader for that response.
Mr. HOYER. I thank the whip for that observation. That was one of the
important recommendations that the commission made. Those
recommendations were made, of course, over a year ago, I think. I am
not sure of the exact date, but over a year ago. Your side did not
implement that particular recommendation.
The gentleman is correct, we have not implemented the recommendation
as recommended. What Speaker Pelosi has done, she has discussed with
Leader Boehner what I would refer to as a hybrid of that, not perfect
from I think the Commission standpoint, but meeting in spirit what the
Commission wanted to do. What the Commission wanted to do was empower
the Intelligence Committee with a participation in the appropriations
process, which the Commission perceived would give them a greater
relevance and greater influence.
We agree with that; so as you know, we have suggested and are
implementing a hybrid where the members of the Intelligence Committee
and members of the Defense Appropriations Committee will meet and work
together to accomplish that objective. We hope that will move towards
effecting what the Commission wanted to achieve, while, at the same
time, maintaining the jurisdictional issues which, as you know, in this
body can become very, very acutely debated.
Mr. BLUNT. I thank my friend for the response.
You may very well have said and I may not have heard, in terms of us
seeing the bills for next week, would you expect that to happen by what
time today?
Mr. HOYER. They are being introduced today and very frankly, Mr.
Whip, I can't give you a time because I don't know. If I knew, I would
give it to you.
Mr. BLUNT. Do you expect them to be introduced all at once, or will
some be available earlier than others?
Mr. HOYER. I am told H.R. 3 was just introduced, is already in the
hopper, and obviously others will come. It is my belief, it has been
represented to me that all of the bills that will be considered next
week will be introduced as of close of business today so that you will
have the balance of today, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and most of
Tuesday to review those bills.
Mr. BLUNT. Certainly seeing the legislation is a step in the right
direction. We believe another step in the right direction will be to be
able to offer the amendments and go through the process that the
majority assured us in the recent campaign will be part of their
procedure.
On the Tuesday schedule, I have had one Member come up to me during
our discussion and wanted me to ask if there is any possibility that 3
to 4 votes could slip closer to 5 just because of a number of travel
concerns that Members have, particularly west coast members.
Mr. HOYER. We could try. But let me say in all fairness, our original
intent was to meet and have votes at 6:30 on Monday. There is a very
important event happening Monday night, particularly for those who live
in Ohio and Florida.
In the spirit of comity, and I know if Maryland were playing, I would
want to be accommodated and I want to accommodate my friend, Mr.
Boehner. So we have done that; but it has put us in a position where we
thought we would have come back Monday. That is not the case. We will
have votes as late as possible, but we cannot guarantee. That leaves us
a shorter period of time to do the work we have scheduled. So I cannot
guarantee, but we are going to try to keep it for your Members' sake,
for our Members' sake, and we understand the west coast travel issue,
as late as we can in the day, but cannot guarantee later than 3:30 or 4
o'clock.
{time} 1345
Mr. BLUNT. Well, I would suggest to my good friend, having tried to
put these schedules together for a while, that particularly for our
west coast Members, if they get here on Monday to be here for a 3:30
vote on Tuesday and then find that that Tuesday vote doesn't occur
until 5:30 or 6 o'clock, there is always real anxiety about the day
that costs their families, and I know my good friend is going to try
his very best to give us the best schedule. My only suggestion would be
if you do see that it might slip into that later time that that will be
helpful to Members who, frankly, are having to decide when to leave
their districts and to come a day early just to be here for that 3:30
vote as opposed to a 5:30 vote or 5 o'clock vote that might have
allowed them to leave that day.
And with that, does my friend have any response to that?
Mr. HOYER. The good news is I know that I will get great empathy from
you and Mr. Boehner on this challenge. The second response would be I
want you to know, and you know this from our personal relationship, we
will work very closely with you and Mr. Boehner to try to accommodate
our Members. If we are going to be a civil body, if we are going to
have civility, that means that we are going to have an understanding of
the challenges facing each and every one of our Members irrespective of
party and we intend to do that. I personally intend to do that, and we
will work towards that. Obviously, there are times when Members are
inconvenienced because we have 435, and
[[Page H88]]
it is just tough to accommodate everybody's interests; but to the
extent we can do so, it is our absolute intent to do so. And I thank
the gentleman.
Mr. BLUNT. I thank the gentleman for his response. I would say that
there clearly will be days in this Congress when we just simply don't
agree with the goal that we are trying to achieve on the two sides of
the aisle, but I think we can find many more days when we do agree. We
are optimistic about the concept of partnership as opposed to
partisanship and look forward to having the bills today for next week
and an extended debate in the future beyond the debate that we feel we
will be allowed to have next week.
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