[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 105 (Thursday, July 15, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H5656-H5658]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1440
                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. CANTOR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. CANTOR. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Maryland, 
the majority leader, for the purpose of announcing next week's 
schedule.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the Republican whip for yielding.
  Madam Speaker, on Monday, the House will meet at 12:30 p.m. for 
morning-hour debate and 2 p.m. for legislative business, with votes 
postponed until 6 p.m. On Tuesday, Madam Speaker, the House will meet 
at 10:30 a.m. for morning-hour debate and 12 p.m. for legislative 
business. On Wednesday and Thursday, the House will meet at 10 a.m. for 
legislative business. On Friday, the House will meet at 9 a.m. for 
legislative business.
  We will consider several bills under suspension of the rules. A 
complete list of all suspension bills will be announced by the close of 
business tomorrow. In addition, we will consider Mr. Taylor's bill, 
H.R. 1264, the Multiple Peril Insurance Act of 2009. We're also 
expecting to consider several items from the Senate, including Senate 
amendments to H.R. 4213, the Restoration of Emergency Unemployment 
Compensation Act; and Senate amendments to H.R. 4899, the Supplemental 
Appropriations Act of 2010.
  Lastly, Madam Speaker, we expect to consider several bills addressing 
the oil spill in the gulf, including H.R. 2693, the Oil Pollution 
Research and Development Program Reauthorization Act; and H.R. 5716, 
the Safer Oil and Natural Gas Drilling Technology Research and 
Development Act.
  Mr. CANTOR. Madam Speaker, given the schedule the gentleman just 
announced, I would ask the majority leader whether he expects the House 
to be in session next Friday.
  Mr. HOYER. I say to the gentleman that will, again, depend on what 
our colleagues in the Senate send over to us and whether or not we can 
complete the business that we have before us that I've announced by 
Thursday. In the event that we don't have legislation coming back from 
the Senate that we needed to deal with on Friday, or our business that 
is scheduled does not take longer than Thursday, then it is possible 
that we would not be in session. But, again, I would caution Members 
that we have 2 weeks left to go and those days will be scheduled and 
will be utilized if needed.
  Mr. CANTOR. Madam Speaker, the gentleman just explained that we do 
only have 2 more weeks left in the month of July for legislative 
business. I would ask the gentleman if he could

[[Page H5657]]

expand upon the schedule for those 2 weeks and what we might expect for 
those following weeks.
  Mr. HOYER. In addition to the bills that we've already mentioned for 
next week, including the unemployment extension, the supplemental 
coming from the Senate, and the Science and Technology bills addressing 
the oil spill, we'll also likely consider a number of other bills 
addressing oil spill legislation. In addition, I expect we will 
consider several bills from the Appropriations Committee. I've talked 
to the chairman about which bills would be most likely for floor action 
before August, and he's looking at the Veterans and Military 
Construction and the Transportation-HUD bills.
  As the gentleman I'm sure knows, they have marked up now seven, I 
believe is the accurate number of appropriations bills--excuse me. I 
think it's nine because they marked up two today, or are in the process 
of marking them up today, and I expect by the end of the day there will 
have been nine appropriation bills marked up. They will proceed. But I 
think those two bills are probably the first ones that will come 
forward.
  Mr. CANTOR. Madam Speaker, I would ask if those appropriations bills 
coming to the floor will be brought up under an open rule.
  Mr. HOYER. Those bills, as you know, have not been reported out of 
committee yet and I've not discussed with the chairman his plans on how 
he would hope to bring those to the floor. I will be discussing it with 
him probably the latter part of next week, and perhaps we will have 
more information for you next week. Again, we expect the bills to come 
to the floor not next week, but the week after.
  Mr. CANTOR. Madam Speaker, the gentleman mentioned the troop funding 
in his schedule for next week. I know originally the goal was to fund 
our troops by Memorial Day. That didn't happen. Then it became the goal 
of July 4th, and that didn't happen. I know that the gentleman and I 
are both committed to getting this critical funding for our men and 
women in uniform, and I would just suggest to the gentleman it is 
probably the most direct route to getting our mutual goal accomplished 
of getting this bill across the floor, that perhaps he and the majority 
ought to consider taking up the Senate-passed legislation and send it 
right to the President.
  I can say, Madam Speaker, to the gentleman that the Senate bill does 
have 218 votes on this House floor, and would ask if the supplemental 
is coming to the House floor next week, whether that is his intention, 
to go ahead, take this route, expedite it, so our troops can get the 
money they need.
  I yield.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for his question and for his 
observation and for his assurances as well in terms of the number of 
votes we may have available for that alternative.
  I say to the gentleman that it is my intention that certainly by the 
time we leave here that we will have made sure that the troops have the 
resources they need to prosecute the mission that we have given them as 
a Congress and the administration. There's no doubt that we will have 
218-plus--a large plus, I think--of votes to accomplish that objective.
  As the gentleman knows, however, we have passed a supplemental which 
does fund the troops. It wasn't the Senate supplemental. The House 
obviously has its own view on policy, and I'm sure the gentleman would 
want the House to prosecute its policies and redeem the majority of the 
House's view and try to reach agreement with the Senate.
  The House acted on the supplemental before the break, including all 
of the President's request for troop funding, as the gentleman knows. 
It also included the administration's request for FEMA, Haiti, oil 
spill, and border security. In addition, as the gentleman knows, we 
added money to take care of almost 140,000 teachers and offset the 
additional money with spending cuts. So those were paid for. I'm 
hopeful that the Senate will not make significant changes to the bill 
that the House passed and will be able to pass that bill before the 
August work period begins. Again, however, I want to emphasize that I 
am fully committed and intend to ensure that the troops have the 
resources they need.
  With respect to the gentleman's observation, he is absolutely 
correct. I was hopeful we would do it before Memorial Day, and then I 
was hopeful we would do it before the July 4th break. Interestingly 
enough, however, as we kept going along and I kept in contact with the 
chairman of the Defense Appropriations Committee, Mr. Dicks, as to when 
the funding was needed, the date kept moving. And the date that we now 
have, as the gentleman probably knows as well as I do, is August 7. But 
certainly I want to see us pass the funding for the troops and for the 
prosecution of the effort that the Congress has supported and the 
administration has set forth for our troops prior to that time.

  Mr. CANTOR. I know the gentleman is in receipt of the same 
information that I am about the urgency now being communicated to us 
for the need for that money to be delivered. I would say, Madam 
Speaker, I probably have a little different view as to the intentions 
of the Senate to try and deliver on stripping out the House amendments 
that were attached to the supplemental bill, and would say, again, to 
the gentleman, House Republicans stand ready to vote in an expeditious 
way on the Senate-passed bill in its original form, and I look forward 
to being able to deliver that.
  I yield.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank you for that effort. We will look forward to 
working with you to make sure that our troops are fully funded.
  Mr. CANTOR. Madam Speaker, as we're discussing the schedule for next 
week, I believe it's important to announce the eighth YouCut vote that 
will take place on the House floor next week. Over 1.3 million votes 
have been cast on YouCut to date at the RepublicanWhip.House.Gov/YouCut 
Web Site. We will vote sometime mid-week on one of five proposals 
selected by the people of America. The first would be to eliminate 
mandatory GPO bill printing, which is a $35 million savings. Another 
would be to eliminate Senator Dodd's health care clinic earmark in the 
Obama Care health care bill, estimated to save another $100 million. 
Next would be, Madam Speaker, an effort to prohibit subsidies for long-
distance ``first class'' sleeper train tickets, estimated at a cost 
savings of $1.2 billion. Another, Madam Speaker, could be to reform the 
Energy Star program effort, which requires companies to pay for the 
cost of the program, saving the taxpayers $655 million.

                              {time}  1450

  Another could be, depending on the vote and the will of the American 
people, an effort to prevent LIHEAP payments to fraudulent claims, an 
estimated savings of hundreds of millions of dollars to the taxpayer.
  Madam Speaker, I would say the gentleman's party has been extolling 
the virtues of cutting $7 billion from the President's $1.12 trillion 
FY11 budget, $7 billion. And I would say to the gentleman--I know we've 
had a lot of discussion about YouCut and the amount of money that we 
are attempting to cut from the Federal deficit through our program, 
and, in fact, at this point that total is now reaching $130 billion. I 
know that many in his party have been dismissive of this program, 
saying that that's not real money in Washington. And I will just point 
out to the gentleman, if individuals on his side of the aisle think 
that $7 billion reaches a significant milestone, I would say as well, 
$130 billion of proposed cuts would do just as well, if not better.
  So, Madam Speaker, I would like to, at this point, take a quick 
moment to congratulate someone who works together with our staff 
tirelessly behind the scenes, someone on the staff of the majority 
leader, Austin Burnes, who got a moment to get away from the floor 
prior to the recess to attend his own wedding. We wish the gentleman 
great success and best wishes in his nuptials.
  Mr. HOYER. Will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. CANTOR. I yield.
  Mr. HOYER. We have a very strict leave policy in my office, but we 
were convinced that getting off for his wedding was an appropriate use 
of that leave. Austin is a wonderful member of the staff. I am very 
pleased that you mentioned it. He has a wonderful new bride. His 
demeanor has changed markedly. He is much happier, and we're all 
happier to work with him. So Austin, congratulations to you.

[[Page H5658]]

  Mr. CANTOR. Well, I am told and hopeful as well there will be many 
more nuptials on your staff, I would say to the gentleman.

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