[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 180 (Friday, December 11, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H9298-H9299]
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. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. 
McCarthy) for the purpose of inquiring of the majority leader the 
schedule for the week to come.
  Mr. McCARTHY. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, before we get started, I would like to discuss a matter 
of deep importance to the gentleman and myself, of a dear friend, John 
Stipicevic. He is a trusted aide for many years on this floor, and he 
will be departing us. He wants to spend more time with his wife, 
Kristin, and their new baby, Lucy Grace. I would like to thank him for 
his service to this country and his service to this conference. I know 
he is a good friend, also, to the gentleman across the aisle.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, as we all know, the public's perception--
because that is what is covered most--is the confrontation that occurs 
between the parties, the differences that we have. But one thing that 
is a reality that the public ought to feel good about is they have 
extraordinarily good staffers, staffers who are committed to their 
country, to the House, and to the American people, who do wonderful 
work.
  Stip is a wonderful, wonderful positive participant, who made this 
House a better place in which to work, who made the substance of what 
we did more understandable for Members. He facilitated cooperation. He 
did not create confrontation. And we will miss it.
  We wish him the best, of course, as he leaves the House of 
Representatives, like so many of our staffers do, who go on to do 
better than most of us are doing, at least from a certain perspective. 
I want to wish him the very, very best. I want to thank him on behalf 
of not only myself, because he is a good friend, but also on behalf of 
my staff with whom he has worked very closely over the years. I know 
all of them appreciated the relationship they had, and have, with him. 
So I want to congratulate him and wish him good luck and great success.
  I yield, again, to my friend, the majority leader.
  Mr. McCARTHY. I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his kind 
words about Stip.
  Let me get to the schedule.
  (Mr. McCARTHY asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, no votes are expected in the House on 
Monday.
  On Tuesday, the House will meet at noon for morning hour and 2 p.m. 
for legislative business. Members are advised that first votes of the 
week are expected at 6:30 p.m.
  On Wednesday, Thursday, and the remainder of the week, the House will 
meet at 9 a.m. for legislative business.
  Mr. Speaker, the House will consider a number of suspensions next 
week, a complete list of which will be announced by close of business 
today.
  Mr. Speaker, the House may also consider a bill to extend certain 
provisions of the Tax Code.
  Additionally, I expect the House to consider an omnibus 
appropriations bill.
  Mr. HOYER. Just to repeat--of course, the majority leader announced 
it yesterday, and again today--we will not be having votes on Monday.
  Has the gentleman decided whether there will be a pro forma session 
yet on Monday?
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. McCARTHY. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  We are still looking at that, and I will let the gentleman know as 
soon as possible.

                              {time}  1315

  Mr. HOYER. I thank the leader for that information.
  In any event, Mr. Speaker, the Members, as the majority leader has 
indicated, will not be having votes until, at the earliest, 6:30 on 
Tuesday.
  I believe that the balance of the week--or such time as may be 
necessary in order to complete the work of this session of the 
Congress--will dictate the length of time that we go on the schedule. 
Is that accurate?
  I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. McCARTHY. Yes. It is my intention that we will stay until we get 
our work done, but when we get our work done, we will depart for the 
holiday season.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman.
  To further clarify, I know there has been some talk about a CR that 
may be sufficient to get us into next year. As I understand what the 
majority leader is saying, it is our intention not to do that, but to, 
in fact, complete the appropriations process and the funding of 
government for the balance of the year until September 30 of next year. 
Is that accurate, sir?
  I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. McCARTHY. I thank the gentleman for yielding again.
  Yes. As the gentleman knows, we just passed a CR moving into next 
Wednesday. It is our intention to have our work done and to not need to 
pass any further CRs.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for that information.
  I would say to him that--and I think he knows and I know--although I 
don't think either of us is directly involved in the hour-to-hour 
negotiations that are going on--but, nevertheless, negotiations still 
go on, Mr. Speaker--I am hopeful that, on both sides, we can see that 
which is unacceptable to the other side and put that aside for a later 
day.
  The appropriations process, of course, is about funding government. 
The appropriations process is about keeping government open. The 
appropriations process is about how do we best serve the American 
people.
  I am hopeful that that will not get mired down or prevent our success 
in coming to an agreement on the omnibus because of issues on which, 
clearly, there are significant policy differences and which can be 
argued on another day and in another bill, but will not undermine the 
completion of the appropriations process.
  I presume the majority leader hopes that as well. Hopefully, over the 
next few hours and, really, over the next couple of days, we will work 
on that because, if we don't, we are going to be here on the 17th, the 
18th, the 19th, or the 20th, according to what the majority leader 
said, in order to get our work done.
  Is that accurate, Mr. Leader?
  I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. McCARTHY. I thank the gentleman for yielding again.
  It is our intention to get an omnibus done in a bipartisan manner. 
Those are the negotiations that are going on now. I'm hopeful that we 
can get that done and finished by next week.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for that comment.
  The only thing I would add, Mr. Speaker, is there is also a tax 
extender bill that is being discussed. The tax extenders are some of 
the items that Members on both sides of the aisle believe are 
appropriate and necessary to help grow our economy and create jobs, 
which has support on both sides of the aisle.
  But it is clear that the extender bill, as I understand it, is a bill 
that can be very, very large--as large as $800 billion in unpaid tax 
cuts--which, from our perspective on our side in the House of 
Representatives, will substantially exacerbate our deficit, and that 
will undermine the viability of getting tax reform done in the next 
session or in the years to come.
  We think, therefore, that it would be far preferable to have pending 
getting tax reform done--hopefully, next year if we can do so in a 
bipartisan fashion--and to have a shorter term. The Senate passed a 2-
year bill, which is really a 1-year lookback to 2015 and a year forward 
to 2016. We need to certainly do that. I think we could get a 
bipartisan vote for that. I don't know where the negotiations are on 
that bill.

[[Page H9299]]

  I would like to inform the majority leader, as he probably knows 
privately, that we have great concerns on this side of the aisle about 
a bill of the magnitude that is being discussed and the impact it will 
have on our deficit, on discretionary spending, and on our opportunity 
to pass major needed--and a bipartisan expectation of doing--tax reform 
so our tax system is simpler, fairer, is producing the revenue that we 
need, but it is also making sure the American people understand and can 
be provided a much simpler system for them to have to respond to.
  If the majority leader wants to make any remarks on that, I yield to 
the gentleman. Otherwise, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my 
time.

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