[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 65 (Thursday, April 30, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H5042-H5043]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. McCARTHY of California asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. McCARTHY of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield to my good friend 
and gentleman from Atlanta, Georgia, for the purpose of announcing next 
week's schedule.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend and 
colleague for yielding.
  I must tell my friend, the gentleman from California, that on Monday, 
the House will meet at 12:30 p.m. for morning-hour debate and 2 p.m. 
for legislative business; on Tuesday, the House will meet at 10:30 a.m. 
for morning-hour debate and noon 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. The 
complete list of suspension bills will be announced by close of 
business tomorrow.
  In addition, we will consider H.R. 1728, the Mortgage Reform and 
Anti-Predatory Lending Act, and the Fight Fraud Act of 2009.
  Mr. McCARTHY of California. Reclaiming my time, if I may ask my 
colleague, knowing that Congress is in session only for 3 more weeks 
before we break for Memorial Day and having just heard next week's 
schedule, I wondered if my colleague might elaborate on the last 2 
weeks in May what we would be expecting in the House.
  I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. I want to thank my friend for yielding.
  You know by now that we have had a very busy agenda during this break 
period, including the bills we have already completed: National Water 
Research and Development Initiative Act, credit card legislation, hate 
crimes legislation, the budget conference report; and next week, we 
expect to pass the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act and 
the Fight Fraud Act of 2009.
  I must tell you that in addition before the Memorial Day break, we 
will need to pass the supplemental appropriation for Iraq and 
Afghanistan. The President sent his request on April 10 for more than 
$83 billion. We expect the House and Senate to act on the request 
before the Memorial Day recess.
  Mr. McCARTHY of California. Reclaiming my time, if I may elaborate 
with the gentleman from Georgia.
  You said a war supplemental. I would wonder, would there be any 
benchmarks in this bill, and would there be any non-war-related 
spending in this bill as well?
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. I must tell my friend, again, that we have not 
discussed that with the majority leader, with others in leadership. But 
right now it is our intention to pass a bill that includes the two 
wars.
  Mr. McCARTHY of California. Reclaiming my time, if I may further ask, 
is it your intention to put any non-war spending in this supplemental 
bill?
  And I yield.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. The Chair of the Appropriations Committee has 
informed us that he expects to mark up the bill next week, and we will 
make that information available at that time.
  Mr. McCARTHY of California. So it is your intention, the majority's, 
not to have any non-war funding in the supplemental?
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. At this moment--things can change--but at this 
moment, we plan to have the two wars in the bill.
  Mr. McCARTHY of California. Reclaiming my time, if I could just 
clarify one last time, do you envision having benchmarks in this 
supplemental bill knowing in the past term the desire of the majority 
to have benchmarks?
  I yield.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Thank you for yielding again.
  We have not had any discussion about benchmarks in the bill. We will 
wait to hear from the Chair of the Appropriations Committee, Mr. Obey, 
and his members.
  Mr. McCARTHY of California. I thank the gentleman.
  Knowing the debate that we had a week ago with all of the hearings in 
Energy and Commerce and knowing what the schedule said that this week 
would be the markup of the cap-and-trade bill but this week being 
canceled in the markup, does the gentleman see Energy and Commerce 
bringing up cap-and-trade or that coming to the floor within the next 3 
weeks before we go on recess?
  I yield to the gentleman from Georgia.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Looking down the road, we will be working on 
energy and climate change. We would like to see these bills on the 
floor in the near future.
  Mr. McCARTHY of California. So in the next 3 weeks do you not see 
Energy and Commerce bringing up or bringing to the floor a cap-and-
trade bill?
  I yield.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. That is correct, my friend.
  Mr. McCARTHY of California. If I might just further ask another 
question of inquiry to my friend from Atlanta.
  The Card Check bill has been out there for quite some time. Knowing 
the number of cosponsors on the majority side, do you envision that 
coming up in the near future?
  And I yield.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. We do not expect to see it coming up anytime 
within the next few weeks.
  Mr. McCARTHY of California. Does the gentleman believe that the Card 
Check bill would come to the House before it moves in the Senate?
  I yield.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Thank you, my friend, for raising the question.
  I must tell you that we cannot make any type of commitment on that. 
We're working on it, and we will continue to work on it, and we hope to 
work with you and others in a bipartisan fashion before we act.
  Mr. McCARTHY of California. I appreciate you bringing up 
bipartisanship.
  Yesterday was the hundredth day of our new President, and one of our 
big goals together was to work in a bipartisan way and forge that 
effort, and as everybody knows in this House, unfortunately that did 
not take place. And it is regrettable. But Republicans on this side 
want to make sure that we do forge in a bipartisan matter, and I would 
like to bring up a few items that we could work together on.
  I will tell you--and I was very proud at the very beginning of this 
session when we, the minority, the Republicans, invited the President 
to our conference, and we actually had a very good discussion about the 
stimulus bill. It was unfortunate that a bill was introduced while he 
was talking to us and was not able to be bipartisan in that nature. But 
I was wondering about a couple of items that we could work closely 
together.
  Recently, the President came forward and asked his Cabinet to find 
$100 million in waste and abuse and duplication, and this is a place 
that I know we can all work together. I know our leadership, Mr. 
Boehner and Mr. Cantor, personally talked to the President. The 
President asked us to produce a list.

                              {time}  1545

  I would ask our good friend from Georgia if the House Democrats would 
be willing to work with the Republicans to bring something to the floor 
before this May recess where we could eliminate waste, fraud and 
duplication and actually save the taxpayers and America. And I yield 
back.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. I want to thank my friend again for yielding.
  If you turn the pages of the past few days and the past few weeks, I 
think we have a record of bipartisanship. First, I am happy to remind 
my friend that we have passed a number of bills recently with 
bipartisan support, including the National Water Research and 
Development Initiative Act. The vote was 410-13. Today we passed credit 
card legislation, 357-70. And the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory 
Lending Act, which we expect on the floor next week, passed out of 
committee on a bipartisan vote of 49-21, with eight Republicans 
supporting it.

[[Page H5043]]

  So I say to my friend, I hope there are many more opportunities in 
the future to continue to build on our record of bipartisanship, and I 
look forward to working with you to find opportunities to do much more. 
We want to work with the President. We want to work with you to cut 
waste.
  Mr. McCARTHY of California. Reclaiming my time, I appreciate that. 
And when I look at bipartisanship, I look at the biggest bills that 
have transferred through this House in such a short amount of time. 
Just yesterday, on the 100-day anniversary, on the budget that would 
double the debt in less than 5 years and triple it in 10, the 
bipartisan vote, unfortunately, was a number of Democrats--17--joining 
with all the Republicans and saying there was a better way, and no.
  I think the American people would like to see another version, such 
as when you saw the stimulus bill. Unfortunately, the bipartisanship 
was a direction that we wanted to have another way to go. It is 
unfortunate that you would find only one party voting ``yes'' when you 
had both parties saying ``no.''
  So in areas that I think we can really come together, where the 
President has laid out that he wants to find ways that we can eliminate 
waste and duplication, we have our hand out, we want to work with you.
  And so I just ask you one more time, is there an opportunity--and I 
know you've talked about bipartisanship. We will provide a list to the 
President. We will provide a list to you as well. Could we bring that 
to the floor within the next 3 weeks before we go on the Memorial Day 
recess and show the American people that we are very serious about 
eliminating waste, fraud, and duplication?
  I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. I think our leadership and the Chairs of 
committees are prepared and ready to work with your side and to work 
with the President in finding a way to cut waste.
  I must say to you, my friend, while $100 million may be only a small 
fraction of the overall Federal budget, I remind you that it is $100 
million more than the previous administration cut in 8 years, with the 
help of the Republican-controlled Congress. In fact, with the 
Republicans, we went from a surplus of $5.6 trillion to a deficit of 
$4.5 trillion, a turnaround of almost $10 trillion.
  We are going to work with you. We are prepared to do what we can to 
work in a bipartisan fashion to cut waste and to save the taxpayers' 
dollars.
  Mr. McCARTHY of California. Well, reclaiming my time, I thank the 
gentleman. And I will tell you, $100 million, when I look at the budget 
being passed, in a few short years I think of my children and America 
paying $1 billion in interest a day. I know the American people care as 
much about their children as I care about mine, and we do not want that 
to continue.
  So I take your hand being out to us in bipartisanship, and I look 
forward to working with you that we can eliminate waste. I look forward 
that we can come together with this President and bring it to the floor 
before Memorial Day. I think there is a way we can reach for greatness; 
there is a way that we can come together.
  Another area that I think we can work well together on is trade. 
House Republicans stand ready to work with this President. This 
President has signaled his desire to have a vote on the Panama trade 
agreement and to begin moving forward with the Colombia free trade. I 
even know the leadership on the majority side, Majority Leader Steny 
Hoyer, during the last recess he traveled to Panama, he traveled to 
Colombia.
  So my question to the House Democrats, would there be an opportunity 
to have a vote before the July 4 recess on the Panama trade agreement 
that the President asked to have? I yield.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. I thank my friend for yielding.
  I am so glad and pleased that you are raising the issue of trade 
agreements. It is an issue that Democrats and Republicans have a 
history--and a long and rich and gloried history--of working together, 
and we will work together.
  I know that the Majority Leader, Mr. Hoyer, is very focused on the 
issue of trade, Panama FTA, and that he is working with the 
administration and with Members on your side of the aisle--including 
Mr. Kirk and your leadership--to get this trade agreement done in a 
timely manner. I promise you that. And I know if Mr. Hoyer was standing 
here, he would make the same promise.
  Mr. McCARTHY of California. Reclaiming my time, I thank the 
gentleman. Because when I sit back and I think of the time of the 
President going to Peoria, going to Caterpillar, and I listened to 
those individuals that work there and I listened to their 
Representative, Congressman Aaron Schock, when he sat there and talked 
to them and they said the number of tractors they would sell, that the 
actual tariffs would be brought down automatically as soon as these 
trade agreements go forward.
  But when you think of America, where we continue to lose jobs and we 
are thinking about job creation and small business, these trade 
agreements are nothing but a benefit to America, we want to work with 
you. And I just ask the gentleman, I appreciate his willingness to work 
with us, but could we do this by July 4? The President has signaled 
that he would like that done. Does the gentleman believe we can have it 
done by July 4?
  I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I cannot 
assure you, I cannot guarantee you that we will have it done by July 4. 
But I will assure you that we are going to work together, as a member 
of the Ways and Means Committee, and I am sure the Chair of our 
subcommittee, Mr. Levin, is going to work with the ranking member and 
others, and the full committee Chair and the full ranking member, to 
get it done as soon as possible, but hopefully in a timely fashion.
  Mr. McCARTHY of California. Reclaiming my time, I was very hopeful in 
the last term that we could have gotten these done, knowing that the 
recession that we moved into and the number of jobs that are being laid 
off, even in my own State, knowing the double-digit unemployment, that 
anything we can do, especially when it has been sitting on the table, 
been negotiating, and it is a positive agreement for America, the job 
creation, that we should come together. The President has signaled. The 
Republicans are saying, we are there. We want to help him. We want to 
pass this. We are asking the majority party to join with us.
  I will yield for a final comment from the gentleman.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. We all must work together in a timely fashion 
to save the jobs, create more jobs, and put all of our people back to 
work.
  Mr. McCARTHY of California. Reclaiming my time, we just wrapped up 
100 days, and I think America is going to look to, what does America 
look like 100 days from now, 200 more days, 300 more days?
  Today we talked about numerous different bills, from trade agreements 
that create jobs, from eliminating waste, lowering the deficit. Those 
are areas that we stand ready to work with this President and work with 
this majority party. So I thank you for the time that you spent, and I 
thank you for your answers.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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