[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 168 (Friday, December 17, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H8761-H8762]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. HOYER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. HOYER. Ladies and gentlemen, the House as all of you know, as is 
too often the case, we are at a point in time in our schedule where, as 
I said, too often we find ourselves on the brink of a CR or some other 
document expiring which leaves the government without funds to 
continue. That will happen tomorrow at midnight.
  We have been in constant communication with the United States Senate, 
and we are not exactly sure what they are going to pass and, more 
importantly, when they are going to pass it. As a result, we are 
confronted with the challenge of ensuring that we have passed a 
document which will ensure that government does not shut down tomorrow 
night.
  Therefore, it is our intent at this point in time to recess to go to 
the Rules Committee to obtain a short-term CR, for 3 days, until 
Tuesday night.
  Now, there is a lot of grumbling on my side, and I appreciate your 
courtesy on your side. But having said that, I know there are at least 
434 of my colleagues who are not happy about anything right now, and I 
want you to know I will make that a unanimous judgment. I am not happy, 
either. But we are in the place where we have a responsibility and we 
have not yet completed it, for whatever reason. There is a lot of blame 
to go around, but the fact is we are not where we need to be.
  So when we come back from recess--it will take probably 1\1/2\, 2 
hours, let's say we come back at 3:30 or 4 o'clock to consider this 
short-term CR which will get us through whatever the Senate is

[[Page H8762]]

or is not going to do, I will then hope to be able to announce at that 
point in time the further schedule for tonight and/or tomorrow; and we 
would like to preclude the necessity to come back next week. I think 
that would be consistent--even my side would not grumble at that 
proposition.
  So that's what we are trying to do. I hope you will bear with me. You 
understand the problem that we are having. It is not a new problem; it 
exists all the time.
  So we are going to recess now. We will come back within a short 
period of time to do this short-term CR, which will be a simple CR 
simply extending us through Tuesday. Then at 4 o'clock, we will try to 
have some more information from the Senate. I will be in communication 
with Mr. Cantor and Mr. Boehner's office. I talked to Mr. Cantor's 
floor person about this and Mr. McCarthy about this, and we will have 
better information at 4 o'clock. I would urge all of you to stay here.
  I know that everybody wants to get home. I want to get home myself. I 
don't live far from here, about an hour; but I have not been by my 
house and haven't decorated a single--as all of you know, I live alone 
and, therefore, it's up to me and I haven't been there so it's not 
done. So I want to get home just like you do.
  So bear with us. This is our responsibility. We have two Houses; 
we've got to agree. So we will let you know at 4 o'clock as we begin 
the CR where we're going from there and try to have some final word.
  Thank you very much.

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