[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 140 (Thursday, September 15, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H5512-H5513]
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), the majority leader, for giving us the schedule.
  (Mr. McCARTHY asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, on Monday, no votes are expected in the House.
  On Tuesday, the House will meet at noon for morning hour and 2 p.m. 
for legislative business. Votes will be postponed until 6:30.
  On Wednesday and Thursday, the House will meet at 10 a.m. for morning 
hour and noon for legislative business.
  On Friday, 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 
tomorrow.
  The House will also consider H.R. 3438, the REVIEW Act, sponsored by 
Representative Tom Marino, which ensures that new agency rules that 
place $1 billion or more in costs on the economy will not take effect 
until after any litigation over the rule is resolved.
  Additionally, the House will consider H.R. 5719, the Empowering 
Employees through Stock Ownership Act, sponsored by Representative Erik 
Paulsen. This critical bill, which is part of the Innovation 
Initiative, gives startups the opportunity to attract the talent 
necessary to advance innovation and grow the economy.
  The House will also consider two important bills related to Iran. The 
first is H.R. 5461, the Iranian Leadership Asset Transparency Act, 
sponsored by Representative Bruce Poliquin. It requires the Treasury 
Department to report on the total assets of senior Iranian and 
political and military leaders and make that information public on 
their Web site.
  The second, H.R. 5931, the Prohibiting Future Ransom Payments to Iran 
Act, sponsored by Representative Ed Royce, will prohibit all cash 
payments, including dead-of-night ransom payments, and ensure 
transparency in congressional review of any future settlements with 
Iran.
  Now, finally, Mr. Speaker, as we approach the end of September, 
Members are advised that additional items are possible, including 
legislation to fund the government.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for his comments.
  Mr. Speaker, the legislation we will be considering next week, I am 
sure, has support in a number of quarters. The majority leader 
mentioned, in the last line, that we will be considering efforts to 
fund the government, the so-called continuing resolution.
  Mr. Speaker, as the Speaker knows and the House knows, we have not 
passed any appropriation bills through the Congress and sent them to 
the President, nor have we adopted a budget. In the absence of both of 
those, certainly in the former, we need to have a funding of government 
passed by September 30th.
  I ask the majority leader, therefore, Mr. Speaker, if the majority 
leader has any knowledge of the status of the CR, either in this House 
moving forward or in the other body.
  I yield to the gentleman from California.
  Mr. McCARTHY. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Yes, we are continuing discussions on the appropriation process and 
how to ensure the government is funded after September 30th. As soon as 
it is finished, Members will be advised when floor action is scheduled.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the majority leader for that.
  Let me say that I would hope, given the fact that we have a maximum 
of eight or nine legislative days left before the end of the fiscal 
year, end of the September 30 fiscal year, that the CR hopefully will 
be a document on which we have consensus on all its parts.
  The majority leader, I am sure, Mr. Speaker, has heard the same kinds 
of rumors I have heard, which is not unusual, that the Senate may pass 
a CR and then decide their work, at least prior to the election, is 
done.
  If that is the case, or, in any event, whether it is the case or not, 
and we initiate a bill, it will be critically important that that bill 
be a bill that can be supported by both sides.
  So I look forward to working with the majority leader to ensure that 
when a CR is brought to the floor, either a Senate bill--which will be 
a House bill amended by the Senate, I presume--or a House bill, that we 
have agreement, Mr. Majority Leader, on the component parts of that 
continuing resolution so we do not put at risk the shutting down of the 
government of the United States. I don't know whether the gentleman 
wants to respond at all.
  I yield to the gentleman from California.

                              {time}  1045

  Mr. McCARTHY. I look forward to working with the gentleman.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman.
  In addition to the CR, which is necessary to fund government, we have 
a crisis in America, a health crisis. We spent a lot of time talking 
about it last time. We won't spend a long time, but Zika continues to 
be a real challenge. We have continuing incidents. The moral and fiscal 
costs of not addressing this issue are of great magnitude, great 
seriousness.
  Can the gentleman tell me whether he believes that sufficient 
resources to respond to the Zika crisis will be included in the CR or 
whether it may be a freestanding bill that we could reach consensus on 
and send to the President?
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. McCARTHY. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  The gentleman is correct that this is a crisis before us. The 
gentleman and I have worked on this issue when it first arose, putting 
individuals into committee and looking at what we needed to accomplish. 
This House actually acted and acted early.
  Your question is: Would it be combined with the continuing 
resolution? I believe that is what we would see, along with the 
continuing resolution to solve this challenge with Zika. Unfortunately, 
it has been stuck in the Senate. In the conversations I have been 
having with the other house, I am very hopeful that that will get done.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the majority leader, Mr. Speaker.
  I would reiterate, Mr. Speaker, the observation that I made last 
week, that the Senate has, in fact, passed a Zika response with 68 
votes. And if the Senate fails to move legislation, the majority 
leader--and I share his view--hopes it will be included in a continuing 
resolution. In the event that does not occur, I would urge the majority 
leader, Mr. Speaker, to consider putting a House bill in which reflects 
the Senate compromise supported by more than two-thirds of the Senate 
and a bill which I represented to the majority leader last week--but I 
want to represent again--I can't say unanimously

[[Page H5513]]

but overwhelmingly, with well over 180 votes, in my view, we would 
support.
  I give that information, Mr. Speaker, to the majority leader so that 
he will know that in the event we have not responded in the CR that I 
believe the Senate-passed legislation incorporated into a House bill 
and brought to the floor can pass on suspension and may well even be 
able to pass on unanimous consent. I don't know that that is the case, 
but it certainly could pass on suspension. I would urge him to consider 
that as an alternative available to us to respond so that we do not 
have the situation which we had in July of leaving town for 7 weeks 
without having addressed this crisis that confronts the health of our 
people.
  Mr. Speaker, let me indicate that we have a number of other pieces of 
legislation that I would last like to ask the majority leader about. 
There are rumors that our schedule is going to be over in the next few 
weeks. I don't know. The Senate was planning on going presumably to the 
first week of October. I don't know that they are going to do that. We 
are planning to go to the end of September.
  There are a number of other pieces of legislation which I think need 
to be addressed. We continue to be very concerned about our failure to 
respond to the Flint crisis. The mayor of Flint was in my office 
yesterday. They are still drinking bottled water because the water in 
their pipes that is being delivered to their homes is still unfit for 
human consumption unless a filter is in place and unless that filter is 
working efficiently and effectively. We really need to, I think, help 
on that.
  With respect to opioids, we passed a piece of legislation that was, 
Mr. Speaker, a bipartisan piece of legislation. We continue to believe, 
however, the resources to carry out the policies included in the 
authorizing bill need to be addressed.
  Lastly, Mr. Speaker--I mentioned this before--we continue to urge 
that in light of the scourge of gun violence in America that we take up 
two bills sponsored by the former chairman, Republican chairman of the 
Committee on Homeland Security. They are not Democratic bills, although 
Democrats support the bills and are cosponsors of the bill, but they 
are Peter King's bills to provide greater safety.
  First of all, Mr. Speaker, we have adopted the premise that 
background checks are a good thing. We require background checks. The 
problem is, we don't require background checks in every instance of a 
transfer of a weapon from seller to buyer. The problem with that, of 
course, is if you want to buy a gun for a nefarious purpose, one would 
assume you are not going to go and have your background checked. You 
will find some other way to purchase that gun. We would hope that bill 
would be brought to the floor.
  The second bill that Mr. King has, of course, seems to us to be a 
very reasonable piece of legislation, which simply says, if you are 
judged too dangerous to fly on our airplanes, you ought to be too 
dangerous as well to buy weapons to injure people in our country; we 
think you are too dangerous to go on an airplane and that you might 
injure people in that fashion.
  I would urge, Mr. Majority Leader, Mr. Speaker, before we leave 
before the election, two things, that we bring those to the floor and 
we carry out--and I want to repeat again because I think it is 
important. Speaker Paul Ryan said on October 29, 2015, just a year ago: 
``We will not duck the tough issues; we will take them head on . . . we 
should not hide our disagreements. We should embrace them. We have 
nothing to fear from honest disagreements honestly stated.''
  Mr. Speaker, I share that view. I think the bills that I have 
mentioned--Flint, opioids, gun violence, and certainly Zika, and, yes, 
there are others--ought to be brought to this floor, and the House 
ought to work its will. I would hope that in the next few days that are 
available to us that the majority leader, Mr. Speaker, gives careful 
consideration to bringing those pieces of legislation to the floor.
  In the gun violence case, the polls reflect that over 85 percent--and 
in one case over 90 percent--of Americans support those pieces of 
legislation. They would pass, Mr. Speaker, overwhelmingly. The only 
reason they haven't passed--the only reason they haven't passed--
contrary to the statement that we will not duck the tough issues, said 
by Speaker Ryan just about a year ago, the only reason they haven't 
passed is because they have not been brought to the floor. I would 
urge, Mr. Speaker, the majority leader consider that.
  Mr. McCARTHY. I thank the gentleman for his advice.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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