[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 61 (Thursday, April 17, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H2468-H2469]
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. Madam Speaker, before I yield to my friend from Maryland, 
I would like to join him in his comments regarding Lou Costantino, who 
served us well and ably for a long time.
  Lou Costantino was always proud of his job, he was proud of his 
family and proud of our country. To his wife, Doris; his daughter, 
Edie; and to his son, Louis, Jr., who we got relatively regular reports 
on, I am sure that the sympathy of the House goes out to them.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to my friend from Maryland, the majority 
leader, for information about next week's schedule.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank him for 
his words about Lou Costantino. All of us will miss Lou. He was a 
wonderful, good, human being who loved this institution and showed 
great affection to all of our Members.
  On Monday, the House is not in session. On Tuesday, the House will 
meet at 12:30 p.m. for morning hour and 2 p.m. for legislative 
business. On Wednesday and Thursday, the House will meet at 10 a.m. for 
legislative business. On Friday, no votes are expected in the House.
  We will consider several bills under suspension of the rules, 
including an important bill from the Oversight and Government Reform 
Committee, H.R. 5712, Close the Contractor Fraud Loophole Act. A final 
list of suspension bills will be announced by the close of business 
tomorrow.
  In addition, Mr. Whip, we will consider H.R. 5819, a bill to improve 
the Small Business Innovation Research Program and the Small Business 
Technology Transfer Program, and H.R. 2830, the Coast Guard 
authorization bill.
  Mr. BLUNT. I thank the gentleman for that.
  I have a couple of inquiries about other legislation. The 1974 Budget 
Act set a budget deadline of April 15. I am well aware that the 
Congress has seldom met that deadline, I think maybe four times. The 
latest three were in 1999, 2001 and 2003. But with that deadline in 
mind, I wonder if the gentleman has any sense when a budget might be on 
the floor.
  I would yield.

                              {time}  1415

  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  My hope is sooner rather than later. However, as the gentleman knows, 
we are having, as is so often the case, difficulty reaching agreement 
with the Senate, mainly because the chairman of the Senate Budget 
Committee has a very close vote structure there, as you know, and so he 
is trying to figure out the votes in the Senate on a budget.
  As is too often the case, one of the issues is whether we pay for 
things that we are doing. The House feels strongly about that issue, 
and I think the chairman of the Budget Committee in the Senate feels 
strongly about that issue, but he is not sure that he can get the 
votes. That is the discussion. There is some discrepancy, not much, 
between the figures, and we are hopeful that we can get a budget 
conference committee done. As soon as a conference committee is done, 
we will report it to the floor. If that is next week, it will be on the 
floor next week.
  I am in regular communication with Mr. Spratt, the chairman of the 
Budget Committee, and he is working at it.
  Mr. BLUNT. I thank the gentleman for that information. Of course it 
is a challenge, but it is a challenge that we need to meet in some way 
usually before we can move with the appropriations process. But on 
appropriations on the supplemental, there were conflicting reports this 
week that there might be a supplemental for Afghanistan and another 
supplemental for Iraq, and then there were reports that no, the 
committee would report out one supplemental bill. I am wondering if the 
gentleman knows whether there will be one or two bills, and are we 
still anticipating a markup of that bill next week and then floor 
action following next week?
  I yield.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  I still anticipate that. With reference to the gentleman's question 
regarding the number of bills, based upon the comments of Mr. Murtha, I 
have not talked to him personally but that have been reported, it is my 
understanding that he is thinking of one bill, not both an Afghanistan 
and an Iraq.
  The problem is while there is, I think, pretty universal support for 
the effort in Afghanistan as being critical to our fight on terrorism, 
there is more disagreement on the Iraq component and what we ought to 
be doing there. But the way the budget is structured, it would be very 
difficult to consider them discretely, Afghanistan and Iraq. So it is 
my understanding that Mr. Murtha has recommended and intends to pursue 
it as one bill.
  Mr. BLUNT. I thank the gentleman for that. That bill needs to be out 
of the way, along with the budget, before we can get on with the other 
appropriating process. And thinking about that appropriations calendar, 
I know that the majority leader was quoted last week as saying that it 
is likely we won't have a lame duck session, a post-election session 
this year. I wonder if you can comment on that a little more. I know 
privately we have discussed this, but I saw you in print suggesting 
that we might not be back after the election. I am wondering what your 
thoughts are on that.

[[Page H2469]]

  Mr. HOYER. Those are my thoughts; my thoughts and my hope. I think 
that lame duck sessions, in my experience, have not been particularly 
productive, particularly when you are going to have a change of 
administration. Whether it is Senator McCain, Senator Clinton or 
Senator Obama, we are going to have a change of administration. I 
expressed it as a hope, and we are going to work toward not having a 
lame duck session.
  Let me go back and answer your question. I think we had a week delay 
on the supplemental, and I think the week of May 5 is the week we are 
looking at for the supplemental. As you know, I said the last week in 
April, the first week in May. That is the first full week in May, so I 
guess I am still accurate. We are on for that week hopefully on the 
supplemental, which will be timely in accomplishing the objective of 
getting dollars in time before the depletion of the funds that have 
already been appropriated.
  With respect to the appropriations process, obviously I will be 
discussing with Mr. Obey and with Mr. Spratt, if we fail to pass a 
budget, we have to give the Appropriations Committee a figure to mark 
to. My thought would be that we will do as we have done in years past, 
deem that the House budget will be the numbers to which they will mark. 
But we have not made that decision at this point in time.
  Mr. BLUNT. I thank the gentleman for that.
  On the idea on a congressional year that will end before the 
election, I know last week we voted in an unusual way to put off the 
vote on the Colombia trade agreement, and I suppose that could mean to 
put it off indefinitely. Without a lame duck session, and that is one 
of the times when it was thought that we might get back to those trade 
bills. I'm not aware of any real discussion that has gone on this week 
on this Colombia agreement. I hope we are continuing to look for a way 
to get that important bill done.
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  The Speaker has focused on, as I think she has been quoted in the 
press as saying, we are still looking at TAA and discussing that with 
the administration. TAA, trade adjustment assistance, we think that is 
very important. There have been some positive discussions and 
indications from the administration. In addition, I know the Speaker 
has been discussing additional items with the leadership in the House 
and with Mr. Reid, and I think as well with the White House. So I think 
discussions are ongoing. The Speaker has made it very clear that the 
action taken from her perception, certainly from my perception, was not 
the death knell of Colombia. I know that some have interpreted it that 
way, but I don't think that the Speaker or I interpreted it that way.
  Mr. BLUNT. I hope we are continuing that.
  Also, we are now entering the third month since the expiration of the 
Protect America Act. I know you and I were in a meeting a week or 10 
days ago on this, and I still don't see any scheduled discussion of 
legislation on the floor that brings us back to that whole issue of 
foreign intelligence surveillance, and I hope we are moving toward a 
conclusion of that important issue.
  I would yield.
  Mr. HOYER. As you know because we have had an opportunity to discuss 
it, I have essentially been coordinating this issue on our side with 
Mr. Reyes and Mr. Conyers, and also working with Mr. Rockefeller. And 
you and I had a meeting with Senator Bond, the ranking member on the 
Republican side.
  I am hopeful that we can have a proposition passed through the House 
and hopefully by the Senate by the Memorial Day break. That is my time 
frame. I am working toward that. I have meetings tomorrow with respect 
to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. I am going to have 
meetings this afternoon, and I had meetings yesterday. I am giving it a 
lot of attention, with others as well. As you know, we met briefly. I 
would reiterate to you that when I have some better fix on where I 
think the Senate is willing to go or where we are willing to go and 
where we can reach agreement, I want to discuss it with you because I 
am hopeful that we can work together to try to make that happen.
  Mr. BLUNT. I thank the gentleman. I think every day matters in this 
regard, and certainly going home for another work period at home 
without a conclusion here would be the wrong thing for us to do. I hope 
we can meet your goal and hopefully meet it earlier than the last day 
or two that we are here before the Memorial Day break.
  Mr. HOYER. If the gentleman would yield, I share that hope. Again, I 
share the conviction, which I have expressed on numerous occasions, 
that the law that currently exists to my understanding, and when I say 
currently exists, and the authorizations that were given under the 
Protect America Act, are in place and in fact are continuing to provide 
opportunities to intercept those communications that the administration 
and the intelligence community feel are necessary to focus on. Having 
said that, we are trying, I'm trying to move ahead as quickly as we can 
come to agreement.
  Mr. BLUNT. I want to say in response that I am not quite as 
confident, and maybe you're not confident either, that law doesn't meet 
all of the circumstances that occur. And even if it does, that law 
reaches an anniversary of those particular orders August 1. Again, 
coming back after Memorial Day, we are suddenly under a situation where 
even those things that we currently believe are covered, we will begin 
to have a problem in them expiring. And certainly the things that are 
not covered, there is no easy way in my view, which may be different 
than yours, there is no easy way to begin to listen to a new set of 
conversations that we just determined need to be listened to. That is 
what that whole debate is about. We don't need to have that debate 
here. But I have pledged to do everything that I can to bring this to a 
conclusion.
  Mr. HOYER. If the gentleman would yield, I want to thank the 
gentleman because I believe he is absolutely sincere in that effort. He 
and I have had an opportunity to have discussions. We are going to 
continue those over the coming days, and hopefully we can get this done 
sooner rather than later. The chairman of the Judiciary Committee and 
the chairman of the Intelligence Committee have both expressed that 
objective.
  Mr. BLUNT. I thank the gentleman.

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