[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

[[Page H87]]

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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