[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 140 (Thursday, September 20, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H10687-H10690]
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, I yield to my friend from Maryland, the 
majority leader, to update us on the schedule for next week.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  On Monday, the House will meet at 12:30 p.m. for morning-hour 
business, 2 p.m. for legislative business, with votes rolled until 6:30 
that night. We will consider several bills under suspension of the 
rules. A list of those bills will be announced by the close of business 
tomorrow.
  On Tuesday, the House will meet at 9 a.m. for morning-hour business, 
and 10 a.m. for legislative business. On Wednesday and Thursday, the 
House will meet at 10 a.m. for legislative business; and on Friday, the 
House will meet at 9 a.m. for legislative business. We expect to 
consider a fiscal year 2008 Continuing Resolution, legislation dealing 
with the State Children's Health Insurance Program, the Popcorn Workers 
Lung Disease Prevention Act, and the flood insurance bill.
  Mr. BLUNT. I thank the gentleman for that information.
  On the State Child Health Insurance Program, what bill would we be 
considering at that point?
  Mr. HOYER. As you know, the House and Senate have been meeting. The

[[Page H10688]]

Senate has not gone to conference on this bill. But we all know that on 
September 30 the authorization for SCHIP expires, so we are hoping to 
have a bill on the floor early next week. That bill will incorporate 
what we believe to be, what we hope to be, what we are working to be a 
consensus which can pass the House and the Senate. I can't give you all 
the specifics of that because I don't have all the specifics of that.
  Mr. BLUNT. Are there any specifics to a bill yet? I mean, I know what 
the House passed. I roughly know what the Senate passed, but I have 
absolutely no idea how we're working out the combination of those two 
things. There's no conferences, as I understand it.
  Mr. HOYER. The Senate has not gone to conference yet.
  Mr. BLUNT. So there's no conference. This is a multi-billion dollar 
bill, and I believe your indications are we'd be dealing with this 
currently non-existing bill early next week?
  Mr. HOYER. That's my representation. There will be nothing, I think, 
in the bill that was not in the House or Senate bills so, to that 
extent, it will be like a conference.
  We haven't gone to conference. We are having great difficulty, I'll 
tell my friend, in getting the minority party in the Senate to vote to 
go to conference. I regret that, but that's the fact of life; and we 
can either stop doing business until they agree to do so, or we can try 
to move forward and try to reach some agreement.
  I will tell my friend that there were Republican Senators involved in 
the discussions, as he may know, and he is correct that there will 
probably be a new bill on the floor, but I tell my friend that that 
bill will incorporate items that were either in the Senate or House 
bill and will be items that we believe and hope, as I said, are now 
agreed between what we hope to be a majority of the House and a 
majority of the Senate. To that extent, it will be like a conference 
report because the expectation is it would not be amended in the Senate 
because, of course, we're facing the September 30 deadline.
  I thank my friend for yielding.
  Mr. BLUNT. I thank my friend for that information. Of course that is, 
as he would know, frustrating for us. I'm familiar with the process 
where the minority in the Senate won't go to conference.
  Mr. HOYER. I'm sure you are.
  Mr. BLUNT. And, in fact, late in the last Congress we had that; and 
as I recall, we brought a tax bill to the floor and gave our friends on 
your side, the minority at that time, an opportunity to have a 
recommital or some kind of motion that would change or improve that 
bill. I wonder if, at the very least, we could expect that same kind of 
treatment when a conference is not decided to be possible by the 
majority.
  Mr. HOYER. Because we don't, under the rules, and you didn't either, 
have to provide that. Sometimes you did; sometimes you didn't. But in 
any event, as I said, we will be treating this much like a conference 
report. We regret that we're not in conference; and therefore it will 
be treated more like a conference report than it will be a new piece of 
legislation because I would reiterate to my friend, it is, essentially, 
not a new piece of legislation. It is a compromise that we have tried 
to reach with bipartisan participation in the Senate side. 
Unfortunately, notwithstanding invitations, not on the House side.
  The bill will, hopefully, be a bill, as I have said to my friend, 
that can be agreed upon and sent to the President so that we can 
provide for the Children's Health Insurance Program to continue and, 
obviously, to expand, as we hope it will.

                              {time}  1430

  Mr. BLUNT. Well, I would suggest on this topic that the way that the 
children's health care program is likely to continue at the end of this 
month will be a continuation of the current program.
  A bill that has not been debated, a bill that's treated like a 
conference bill, with the exception of not having the conference on 
this big a topic, is a bill that's not likely to become law between now 
and September 30, I would think.
  Mr. HOYER. Will my friend yield?
  Mr. BLUNT. I would.
  Mr. HOYER. I understand your angst because we shared that angst. We 
had a lot of angst, as you recall, and I asked the majority leader on a 
number of occasions when they were going to have conferences that were 
called, that had conferees, to which our conferees were never invited, 
some the most senior Members of this Congress, namely Mr. Dingell and 
Mr. Rangel, who were not invited to conferences. So I understand the 
gentleman's angst. I really do.
  But having said that, I think it is unfair to say a bill that has not 
been seen. I would again reiterate to my friend that, as I understand 
it, there will be nothing in the bill that we will hope to consider 
early next week that was not included in either the Senate bill or the 
House bill, both of which passed respective bodies. But we haven't been 
able to get to conference. Meetings have obviously been held. We hope 
agreements have been reached which would be acceptable to both bodies 
so that we can move those bills as if a conference had been held. But 
because a conference hasn't been held, this is the alternative 
available to us.
  Mr. BLUNT. Reclaiming my time on that, Mr. Speaker, I would just say 
that I'm sure when my good friend was frustrated that conferences 
weren't always scheduled in in a way that was timely that the 
alternative that would have been presented would not have been, well, 
the way to solve this was just not to have conferences.
  And the two bills, the Senate and House bill, were different from 
each other by tens of billions of dollars; so there is plenty of 
debatable space between a known Senate bill and a known House bill that 
apparently we will have no opportunity to issue an alternative on.
  I believe there was not an instance, and I don't know when I was 
unsuccessful, but I always argued in that rare case when this happened 
that the minority should have an opportunity. In fact, I very well 
remember having a significant disagreement with our chairman of the 
Ways and Means Committee in the last Congress on insisting that the 
minority be given that opportunity. And on something this big, I really 
think the process is at great fault here. But we'll have time to talk 
about this next week.
  On appropriations will we have a continuing resolution on the floor 
next week or at what point?
  Mr. HOYER. My expectation is we will have a continuing resolution on 
the floor next week. We don't intend to shut down government. I know 
that a number of Members on your side have indicated it's not their 
intention to shut down government. We, therefore, need to provide for 
an alternative which will provide for government to continue because, 
again, we are experiencing the same frustration you had, as you know, 
that while we have passed all 12 appropriation bills, that has not been 
the case in the Senate. The Senate has passed four of their 
appropriations bills. We haven't conferenced them yet, so that we are 
going to need a CR to continue government in operations, and I expect 
to have that on the floor next week.
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I would ask if my friend has a sense of the 
time of that. Are we looking at what time frame that that CR would last 
for?
  Mr. HOYER. I don't want to commit myself to a time frame, but I can 
tell you, in discussions with the chairman of the Appropriations 
Committee, he wants a longer term than a shorter term. In other words, 
I don't think he is looking for a week-to-week. It will be a longer 
term than that. I don't think I want to prejudge his decision which he 
may not yet have made, but my expectation is, I tell my friend, that it 
will be a longer term than shorter term, and by that I mean more than a 
couple of weeks.
  Mr. BLUNT. I appreciate that information.
  On Iraq legislation, would we have any reason to anticipate that 
legislation next week or, in your opinion, in the following week?
  Mr. HOYER. I think you ought to anticipate some Iraq legislation 
coming to the floor, not necessarily next week, although that is a 
possibility. But, certainly, within the next couple of weeks or 3 
weeks, I would think we will have various components coming forward.
  Mr. BLUNT. And also I would ask as a final question of the majority 
leader, it appears we are now going to miss the anticipated deadline, 
and I know we almost always do. But could you give us

[[Page H10689]]

any more information about the fall schedule, dates that you have 
already determined we will likely now be working in that period of time 
but maybe dates where Members could plan to do things in their 
districts?
  And I yield for a response.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his question. I 
know it's a very important one for his Members and ours.
  We had hoped, as you know, when I inherited or succeeded, however one 
looks at it, to the scheduling authority from Mr. Boehner, Mr. Boehner 
had scheduled October 3, I believe, it may have been the 6th, October 3 
or 6 as the ending date. I would have hoped Mr. Boehner was accurate in 
that assessment, but I thought it was not realistic at that point in 
time. So I was more pessimistic but apparently not pessimistic enough.
  I scheduled October 26 as our target date for adjournment. It seems 
that we are not going to make that. I am very hopeful, and I'm not 
going to bet on it, but I'm going to plan on November 16 being our last 
day.
  Senator Reid, the leader of the Senate, has indicated that they will 
be out the last 2 weeks of November. From my experience serving here, 
it doesn't get better just because you get into December, that we would 
be able to adjourn sine die until the second session of the Congress, 
probably to begin the 3rd week in January, although the Speaker and I 
need to discuss that, and I want to discuss it also with you and Mr. 
Boehner. But my thought would be that we would come back the 3rd week 
in January.
  In addition to that, because we are not going to adjourn sine die on 
the 26th of October, which I had hoped but which is not realistic at 
this point in time, I had scheduled the four Fridays of October to 
meet. I want all the Members to know, and I discussed this with the 
whip earlier in the week, that we will not be meeting on the 5th of 
October, that Friday, nor will we be meeting on the 19th so that, 
because of Columbus Day, the Members will have from Thursday late 
afternoon, and I don't commit to any particular time on Thursday, the 
4th, until Tuesday the 9th at 6:30 p.m. before we come back.
  Mr. BLUNT. Are we scheduled to work on the 12th or not?
  Mr. HOYER. October 12?
  Mr. BLUNT. Yes.
  Mr. HOYER. That Friday is currently scheduled. We are obviously in a 
position where we are not going to hold Members here for Friday simply 
to be here on Friday. It has been made clear to me that most Members on 
both sides of the aisle don't think that's a sensible policy. I agree 
with that. As a matter of fact, I think my friend has made that 
observation to me as well.

  Mr. BLUNT. I do agree with that.
  Mr. HOYER. But we have to find out the workload. As you well know, as 
you get down towards the end, if we are going to have any shot at 
adjourning on the 16th of November, when the Senate is scheduled to 
leave for the last 2 weeks, if we have any shot of doing that, it will 
be because we complete that work which we think must be done, should be 
done prior to that. And, therefore, I am reserving those Fridays, and 
if we have work, we will be working. And the logical follow-on is that 
if we don't have work, although we won't give the kind of notice we are 
giving for the 5th and 19th, we will try not to have Members here 
simply watching the other body.
  Mr. BLUNT. So on the 5th and 19th Members can definitely schedule 
things in their districts?
  Mr. HOYER. We are notifying Members now that they will not be in 
session on those days, voting sessions.
  Mr. BLUNT. In discussing the Senate calendar now, which also 
anticipates the November 16 date, I think the Senate leaders said if 
they do work beyond November 16, they won't be working in Washington 
the week of Thanksgiving or the following week.
  I'm wondering how quickly the leader thinks he may be able to give 
our Members some direction on that issue on the basis that the Senate 
has already given that specific direction.
  Mr. HOYER. Will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. BLUNT. I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  I don't want to be specific on that because I don't want to 
anticipate where the Senate might be at that point in time. The leader 
in the Senate, although he had represented that they perhaps might be 
there in December, he has indicated now that his hope and plan is that 
they will not be there in December so that hopefully he is focused as 
well and the Senate is focused as well on the 16th of November as the 
adjournment date. If that is not and we have not done what we need to 
do by that time, hopefully we will be able to accommodate that 
certainly by late October and letting the Members know what we are 
going to do.
  We will not be here, clearly, the week of Thanksgiving. That is a 
guarantee. I would not want at this juncture, because there is still a 
lot to happen over the next 6 weeks, to be definitive about what other 
weeks we would not be here.
  Mr. BLUNT. Except you would be definitive about the week of 
Christmas, I'm sure, if it comes to that?
  Mr. HOYER. As someone who has served here a long time and who has, 
unfortunately, been here on the 23rd and 24th, I believe, at least 1 
year, I hesitate to say that. But my Members will be very unhappy with 
me if we are here Christmas week. I will tell you we have 233 Members, 
and if we meet on Christmas, I will guarantee you there are 233 Members 
on this side who will be very unhappy with me, and I will be in that 
rank.
  Mr. BLUNT. I would assure my friend that our Members would be even 
more dissatisfied with you if we are here on Christmas.
  I said that was the last question, but I was just handed a note and 
I'll bring up one more topic.
  The Senate just passed a resolution condemning Moveon.Org's ad in the 
New York Times that suggested that General Petraeus might be General 
``Betray Us.''
  Since that has now passed the Senate, when could we expect to see a 
resolution like that on the House floor?
  Mr. HOYER. That information is new to me. I am pleased to hear the 
Senate can pass something.
  Mr. BLUNT. Maybe we should encourage them by passing this as well.
  Mr. HOYER. I'm not sure I want to encourage the Senate except to do 
the work that we have sent over to them. They have a lot of work on 
their table. But I haven't looked at that resolution.
  I will say to my friend, he has seen me quoted as being not in 
agreement with and disappointed with the particular ad that appeared. 
But having said that, I don't have any intent, at this point in time, 
to bring up that resolution. I haven't seen it, so I have no intention 
of scheduling that resolution at this point in time.
  Mr. BLUNT. I thank my friend for that. I would encourage you to look 
at it and would hope that we could see a similar action taken on the 
House floor.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. BLUNT. Yes.
  Mr. HOYER. I want to say, on behalf of myself and, I believe, the 
overwhelming majority of my caucus, perhaps every Member of my caucus, 
we have great respect for General Petraeus. It does not help, in my 
opinion, the debate to impugn the integrity of those who are serving 
our country in uniform in harm's way.
  I believe that General Petraeus is an honorable man of great 
integrity who has served our country well. I may disagree with him; he 
may disagree with me on issues. But that does not in any way, any more 
than you and I might disagree and we are good friends, undermine our 
respect for each other's opinion.
  And as I say, I want to articulate, because you bring up the issue, 
that I believe that that impugning of his integrity and of his 
patriotism and of his commitment to this country was inappropriate.
  Mr. BLUNT. I appreciate that. And, in fact, while you may not want to 
articulate it, I thought you did very well. If you want to take that 
out of the just-entered-into Congressional Record of our proceedings, 
I'm sure I could cosponsor exactly the comments you just made and would 
like to see us have a chance to do that.
  I thank my friend for the information.
  Mr. HOYER. If the gentleman would yield, the good news for you is my 
presumption is they are going to be in the Record.

[[Page H10690]]

  I thank the gentleman.
  Mr. BLUNT. I thank the gentleman.

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