[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 15 (Monday, January 22, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H621-H622]
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), my friend and the majority leader.
  (Mr. McCARTHY asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  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, the House will meet at 10 a.m. for morning hour and noon for 
legislative business. The House will recess no later than 5 p.m. and 
reconvene at approximately 8:35 p.m. for a joint session of Congress to 
receive the President's State of the Union Address. Members are 
requested to be on the floor and seated no later than 8:20 p.m. On 
Wednesday, votes are no longer expected in the House.
  Mr. Speaker, the House will consider a number of suspensions next 
week, a complete list of which will be announced by close of business 
this Friday.
  In addition, the House will, once again, take up legislation to fund 
the Department of Defense for its fiscal year. This bill will be fully 
consistent with the National Defense Authorization Act, which passed 
the House and Senate last year on a bipartisan basis and was signed 
into law by President Trump.
  Mr. Speaker, this House has shown that we stand ready to rebuild 
America's military and give our men and women in uniform the resources 
they need.
  I will now encourage our Senate colleagues to do the same.

                              {time}  1815

  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for that information.
  Today, both Chambers have passed the CR that takes us to February 8. 
That leaves 17 calendar days. I was going to say it did 6\1/2\ 
legislative days, but the gentleman has now given up probably half a 
day, as I understand it, which is Wednesday of the retreat. So, 
essentially, Mr. Speaker, we have 6 days between now and February 8 in 
which we will be in session. That makes it incumbent upon us that we 
come together, cooperate with one another, compromise, and send 
legislation from here to the Senate that the Senate can agree to.
  I want to say, I did not know the gentleman was going to mention 
that, but I want to see the Defense Department fully funded. But I also 
want to see fully funded departments that take care of the health of 
our people, the education of our children, domestic law enforcement, 
and relations between ourselves and the rest of the world in the State 
Department, and so many other agencies of government that are in the 
nondefense part of the budget.
  Mr. Speaker, I would tell my friend that I would hope we would come 
to an agreement very, very shortly on the overall spending levels so 
that we can pass both defense and nondefense priority issues. And I 
would say to my friend, all we are asking for in that context, as the 
gentleman knows, is what we have done over the last 4 years as a result 
of agreements between Speaker Ryan and Senator Murray, so I would hope 
that we can proceed on that.
  Secondly, and there is so much to bring up, but the second thing I 
want to mention is, clearly, one of the issues that we have been so 
concerned about has been how we are going to treat the DREAMers in our 
country. As the gentleman knows my view, based upon polls that I have 
read, 85 percent of Americans essentially agree that we ought not send 
those young people, for the most part, out of the country away from 
their home to places they do not know, particularly when they are 
making such a positive contribution to our country.
  Now, while I said there were some 5\1/2\ days left between now and 
the 8th, there are 10\1/2\ days--actually, I guess, now, 9\1/2\ days in 
which to deal with the issue of the DREAMers.
  The gentleman and I, Senator Cornyn, and Senator Durbin have been 
working. I look forward to working on that, and I hope that we work on 
it every calendar day that we have available--we won't be in session, 
but we will work on that--so we can, in fact, come to an agreement so 
that those young people who the American people think ought to stay 
here and continue to be productive citizens, contributing individuals 
to our country, would be allowed to stay here, given a path to 
citizenship. I would hope that we could work toward that end.
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  I can't agree with him more. This body has passed all 12 
appropriation bills. We do need a budget agreement. And we make 
progress; once we get that budget agreement, I firmly believe we can 
fund the rest of this year and

[[Page H622]]

next year going forward in what we actually need to get our jobs done.
  The gentleman is correct, we have met numerous times. I thought they 
have been very productive meetings dealing with DACA. We have narrowed 
the scope to four areas.
  I am excited to have the government back open. It also means we can 
be back at the table to solve this problem. I know we have a short time 
period. We have got a week left after the CR that we just passed, but I 
believe, working together, we can get this done.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for that information.
  I am hopeful that we can agree on the underlying issue which led to 
the necessity for a CR and the temporary closing of government. That is 
the underlying agreement on what budget numbers will be, what our caps 
will be, how much discretionary funding we will have to spend both on 
defense and nondefense. That is at the core. When you fail to do that, 
you fail to pass appropriation bills, and you, therefore, have to 
repair to CRs, which everybody on this floor agrees is bad fiscal 
policy and should not be the way we do business.
  Secondly, I appreciate the majority leader's leadership and 
engagement on the issue of solving the problem, or the challenge and 
the opportunity, I should say--not so much a problem, but an 
opportunity--of DREAMers. It is what the President, Mr. Speaker, asked 
us to do. Hopefully, we can, in fact, working in good faith with one 
another, get that done.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________