[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 108 (Friday, July 11, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H6122-H6124]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
{time} 1100
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM
(Mr. HOYER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute.)
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I rise for the purpose of inquiring of the
schedule for the week to come, and I am pleased to yield to Mr.
McCarthy, the majority leader-elect. I appreciate his stance. We had
the opportunity to have lunch. I am hopeful that we can have a very
productive relationship, as I am sure this House and the country is.
I am pleased to yield to my friend, Mr. McCarthy, the majority
leader-elect.
Mr. McCARTHY of California. I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I
look forward to a very strong working relationship with you.
Mr. Speaker, on Monday, the House will meet at noon for morning-hour
and 2 p.m. for legislative business. Votes will be postponed until 6:30
p.m. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the House will meet at 10 a.m. for
morning-hour and noon for legislative business. On Thursday, the House
will meet at 9 a.m. for legislative business. Last votes of the week
are expected no later than 3 p.m. On Friday, no votes are expected.
Mr. Speaker, the House will consider a few suspensions next week, a
complete list of which will be announced by close of business today.
In addition, the House will consider H.R. 5016, the fiscal year 2015
Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, sponsored
by Chairman Ander Crenshaw. Members are advised that debate on the bill
and amendments will begin Monday night after the 6:30 p.m. vote series.
Members are further advised that it is possible that we will have an
additional vote series Monday night on amendments to the Financial
Services Appropriations bill.
For the remainder of the week, the House will consider a package of
five tax bills from Ways and Means that will help foster charitable
giving. These five bills that will be included are H.R. 2807, the
Conservation Easement Incentive Act of 2014, authored by Representative
Jim Gerlach; H.R. 4619, making the rule allowing certain tax-free
distributions from Individual Retirement Accounts for charitable
purposes permanent, authored by Representative Aaron Schock; H.R. 4719,
which will permanently extend and expand the charitable deduction for
contributions of food inventory, authored by Representative Tom Reed;
H.R. 3134, the Charitable Giving Extension Act, authored by
Representative Mike Kelly; and H.R. 4691, modifying the tax rate for
excise tax on income investment for private foundations, authored by
Representative Erik Paulsen.
The House will also likely consider the highway extension bill to
ensure that the vital transportation projects continue during the busy
summer construction season.
Finally, Members are advised that the House may also consider an
extension of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act.
I thank the gentleman.
Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for his information.
We have now completed six appropriations bills. The gentleman has
announced we will have a seventh--Financial Services--on the floor next
week. Does the gentleman anticipate doing the balance of the five
remaining appropriations bills before the September 30 end of the
fiscal year?
I yield to my friend.
Mr. McCARTHY of California. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
As the gentleman noted, as of last night, the House has now acted on
six appropriations bills, which is halfway through, and, as I mentioned
in the schedule announcement for next week, the House will begin
consideration of the seventh bill with the Financial Services
Appropriations Act starting on Monday evening. That is as much as I see
for the next week, but as we move forward through the July calendar, I
will keep you notified as we continue through.
Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman.
I know he has this expectation also, but I hope that we would pass
the appropriations bills individually in the manner that we have
considered the previous bills on this floor.
I note that the Labor-Health bill has not been marked up in
subcommittee, and I would simply ask him, in light of the fact that has
not moved through subcommittee yet, if that would be one of the bills
that he would anticipate bringing to the floor before September 30.
I yield to my friend.
Mr. McCARTHY of California. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
I do not anticipate that bill coming up next week, but as we look
towards the remainder of the July schedule, we will certainly notify
the Members for the consideration of the House.
Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman.
That, of course, from our perspective--and I am sure his--is a very,
very important piece of legislation.
The highway bill that is coming to the floor, we know that that is
critically important. It passed out of committee I think on a voice
vote, although, as the gentleman knows, there was substantial
disagreement on the length, the term of that. We are disappointed that
we haven't either done a short-term or a long-term bill, giving
confidence to contractors and jurisdictions around the country. We find
ourselves in a situation now where more than 100,000 transportation
projects could be delayed.
We look forward to working to not only move this process forward in
the
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short term, but we would like to urge, notwithstanding the fact it
appears it is going to be a longer term--until May of next year--that
we continue to focus on a long-term, confidence-building, economy-
growing effort at a longer term reauthorization of the highway program.
The gentleman doesn't need to comment on that. I just wanted to make
that comment to him, unless he wanted to say something on that.
Mr. McCARTHY of California. I do want to thank the gentleman on the
other side of the aisle. As you did note, it did pass out of Ways and
Means on a voice vote unanimously. We are committed. We want to bring
the bill to the floor and fill the hole, but we are committed to
looking long term, as with many of the ideas that we have brought forth
in the past, and we look forward to working with you on the highway
bill.
Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman.
We passed, as the gentleman knows, the tax credit for investment in
equipment, or the depreciation allowance. We passed that today. That
was a $287 billion cost.
I would call to the gentleman's attention, as I have with Mr. Cantor,
that we are still concerned on this side of the aisle--and I know the
gentleman knows this--that the unemployment insurance bill that lapsed
in December of 2013 has still not been funded. There are some 3 million
people who have fallen off that.
As part of your new responsibilities, you will be focused on
scheduling legislation, and I would urge the majority leader to
consider very seriously bringing that unemployment bill to the floor
for a vote.
We believe that it does have the votes on this House floor. That is 3
million--and it is growing by thousands per month--who have run out of
unemployment insurance, which is slowing our economy, but it is also,
from their perspective, giving them no support to support themselves
and to help support their families.
So I would urge the gentleman to look again at the unemployment
insurance status originally proposed to be done retroactively. Even if
we look prospectively, we would hope the majority leader would look at
moving forward on the House floor.
I yield to my friend.
Mr. McCARTHY of California. I thank the gentleman for yielding, I
thank him for his input. As I said earlier, in next week's schedule I
do not anticipate that coming up, but as we look towards the rest of
July, I will keep all Members posted.
Mr. HOYER. I appreciate you not only keeping us posted, but focusing
on that to see whether we might do that.
The gentleman has announced that TRIA is going to be under
consideration. We believe this is a very important piece of
legislation. However, it passed out of committee on a party-line vote,
as the gentleman knows, and there are still concerns that need to be
addressed. I would hope that we could work on those before it comes to
the floor.
Does the gentleman know whether that will come under a rule and
whether or not that rule will provide for an open amendatory process?
I yield to my friend.
Mr. McCARTHY of California. I thank you for yielding and for bringing
up this issue.
As I mentioned the schedule announcement for next week, Members
should be prepared for possible consideration of the Terrorism Risk
Insurance Act. Once the timing is finalized, the Rules Committee will
announce a hearing on the measure to determine the process by which the
bill will be brought before the floor.
Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman.
As the gentleman knows, we only have 12 days remaining of legislative
days that we will be in session before the August break and only 22
days before the end of the scheduled session prior to the election. The
scheduled date is October 2 for us to adjourn.
We believe this legislation is critical--again, for the economy and
for confidence in the marketplace--to be passed. And so we would hope
that to facilitate that we could pass it through this body in a
bipartisan way, which would make it easier for the Senate to facilitate
passage and to get that bill to the President because we think it is
very important.
So I look forward to working with the gentleman to see whether or not
we might overcome the partisan vote that came out and replace that with
a bipartisan vote and make some accommodations on both sides to
accomplish that objective. I appreciate his being willing to work on
that.
{time} 1115
Next to last, the Export-Import Bank. I know there is work being done
on the Export-Import Bank. I know the gentleman indicated that he
thought that this was not ready, at least for passage, but we know that
this expires at the end of the year. We are very concerned about the
adverse impact it will have.
Will the gentleman give me any information on where he thinks the
consideration of that bill may be at this point in time.
Mr. McCARTHY of California. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. HOYER. I yield to the gentleman.
Mr. McCARTHY of California. As I noticed earlier in next week's
schedule, I do not anticipate that coming up next week, but as we look
toward the remainder of the July schedule, we will certainly notify the
Members if that will be considered in the House.
Mr. HOYER. Again, I do understand that it is not coming up next week,
but the reason I mention time is we have so few legislative days left,
that we are going to need to plan to address some of these issues that,
I think, are going to be very important to our economic growth.
I know the gentleman is very concerned about that. We are very
concerned about it on our side, and his Members are very concerned
about that. We believe that the Export-Import Bank is an economic
growth and an economic confidence-building measure, and we would hope
we could address that.
There are also, as the gentleman knows, 41 House Republicans who have
signed a letter urging that that be passed and indicating their support
of it. We believe every Democrat on this side will vote for that. That
is almost 200 people, and with the 41, it clearly makes a majority of
this House.
We think it could be passed on this floor, and we think it would have
a very positive effect on the economy, so we would urge the gentleman
to consider very carefully with his colleagues whether or not we could
move forward on that.
Lastly, I would say to the gentleman that we are very concerned about
the children who are coming to the border. We are concerned about the
process of making sure that this humanitarian crisis is dealt with in a
constructive, positive way for the children, but also in a way that
gives clear notice that America cannot have borders which are simply
open, but must be able to authorize people to come into this country
and not have them come in, in an unauthorized fashion.
In that respect, I don't know whether the gentleman had an
opportunity to see The Wall Street Journal editorial today, but they
made it very clear that one of the problems is that, because the system
is broken and because we have not passed comprehensive immigration
reform--and the gentleman, of course, based upon where he lives,
obviously will probably be one of our more knowledgeable Members on
this issue--that people cannot come across the border and then return
in a fashion which will provide for work here by them and also for
their not only coming here, but then leaving without an expectation
they will ever be able to visit or work again--either family members or
for the purposes of work.
We continue to believe that the passage of comprehensive immigration
reform would be a solution and ameliorate the present crisis that we
see at our borders, and we continue to hope that comprehensive
immigration reform will also be an item on the agenda.
Although we have 22 days left between now and our October 2 projected
adjournment, the expectation, I think, of all of ours is that we will
come back in a postelection session--a so-called lame duck session.
Either before that, in the next 22 days or in the session after the
election, we believe it is critically important to address the
immigration issue.
The gentleman and I have had some opportunity to discuss this over
the
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last number of months, and I know he is very knowledgeable about this
issue and sensitive to this issue, and I would hope that we could work
together to see whether or not we could put a bipartisan bill on the
floor sooner, rather than later.
I yield to my friend.
Mr. McCARTHY of California. I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I
appreciate the gentleman's bringing up the crisis at the border.
Many of the Members in this House, on both sides, have been down to
the border personally to see the crisis, and I think that is very
important for all elected officials to go see.
We have a task force working on this right now. I know the President
has put forth a supplemental--and the Appropriations Committee is
currently reviewing the President's request for a supplemental, but I
do not anticipate that coming up next week. As we look toward the
remainder of July, we will keep you posted--and others--and I look
forward to working with the gentleman further on other issues.
Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for that response, and I would hope
that the supplemental--because it deals with a humanitarian crisis--
would not be a partisan issue. We obviously need to deal with the
immediate problem.
I was talking, of course, about the longer-term problem, but I
appreciate the gentleman's observation with reference to the
supplemental. I am a supporter of that supplemental.
Obviously, the Appropriations Committee needs to review it with
respect to the proper levels of funding, but there is no doubt that we,
right now, have inadequate resources to deal with the humanitarian
crisis that confronts us immediately, and those funds are necessary.
I am pleased that the gentleman brought it up, and I look forward to
working with him on it.
Unless the gentleman wants to make further comment, I yield back the
balance of my time.
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