[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 10 (Thursday, January 17, 2019)]
[House]
[Page H701]
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 my friend, the minority whip.
  Mr. SCALISE. I appreciate the gentleman yielding, and I appreciate 
the fact that now there are a lot of Members who have left the Chamber.
  But, at the same time, the gentleman from Kentucky did stand and ask 
for a recorded vote. Whether or not it was heard or not, we will, 
obviously, have to watch the tape. But it is an important piece of 
legislation that Members, I am sure, from both parties would like to be 
recorded on, not just to have a voice vote, which we are opposed to 
because it didn't reopen the government with border security, and, 
obviously, we are in the middle of negotiations that we are trying to 
resolve on that.
  However, there would be a motion that, I believe, Mr. Speaker, would 
be in order that would resolve this for the time being while we make 
sure that everybody has got the opportunity to be back for the vote, 
and that would be to ask unanimous consent to vacate the previous vote 
and postpone reconsideration until we return next week.
  Mr. HOYER. This is a very critical vote. The government is shut down. 
We think the government should not be shut down.
  Mr. SCALISE. So do we.
  Mr. HOYER. And the gentleman says he doesn't think we should go home. 
Very frankly, there is nothing we can do, because the majority leader 
has said he will not do anything unless the President of the United 
States gives him leave to do so, and the President of the United States 
wants to keep the government shut down.
  This was not a small vote, and I will tell you, had it been on our 
side, you would have heard us demand a vote.
  Mr. SCALISE. If the gentleman will yield, we would have heard you and 
allowed the vote when we were in the majority, and we did, in fact, 
allow all of those votes.
  Mr. HOYER. We raised an objection at the proper time and we got a 
vote. I understand that.
  I will tell you--and you know that--you look around the room, all of 
your Members are not here. And, like my Members, they are back on the 
road going to a plane. I regret that we are in this position.
  Mr. SCALISE. Will the gentleman yield on that point?
  Mr. HOYER. I yield to my friend.
  Mr. SCALISE. Clearly, there are Members who have left. Clearly, there 
are Members who are here. We can compel Members to return if, in fact, 
it is agreed to, to have the vote now.
  But if it is not agreed to, to have the vote now, we do have, within 
our purview, within the rules, the ability to delay the vote until 
Members can come back that are not here. So for those of us who are 
here and want the vote, and for those who have left who would also like 
that vote, the majority does have it within their purview to work with 
us to agree by unanimous consent to vacate the previous vote and then 
bring it back for a vote on the House floor when everybody can come 
back.
  And I do want to bring up that the majority leader made reference to 
the minority leader in terms of what we have been working with the 
White House on. The President has made it clear that he wants to 
negotiate, and the President has also made it clear what he is willing 
to sign and not sign.
  Mr. HOYER. Reclaiming my time, we are going to have a colloquy in 
just a few minutes and we can go through that.

                              {time}  1315

  The problem is--and I say this honestly, and I think most Members 
know--if I thought you had asked for a vote and the Speaker had not 
recognized that vote--I was sitting right here. I was not distracted, 
and I was surprised that a vote was not asked for because I understand 
that most, if not all, of you were not for opening up the government.
  The fact of the matter is that a vote was not asked for. We have now 
gone through business, and we put ourselves in a very difficult 
position. But I cannot agree to a proposition where I have told 
Members: No, you can go catch your plane. Some had 1:30s, and they left 
right at the dot of 1. I don't know whether they are going to make it.
  And, you know, we are in a bad situation, but I cannot agree to a 
unanimous consent that is going to require our Members to come back 
from wherever they are. I don't know that they are on planes yet, but 
they are going to be on them shortly.
  And both sides have that problem. I think you probably have that 
problem anyway. And, very frankly, I am absolutely convinced the 
outcome would be no different.
  The problem is so many of your Members wanted to vote against the 
proposition--I understand that--and I would like to give them that 
opportunity. I am not in a position to do so, and I feel badly about 
that, but that is the position I made.
  Mr. SCALISE. I would ask the gentleman to yield. There would be an 
opportunity for you to do, in fact, that, and that would be a motion to 
vacate the previous vote and postpone reconsideration until next week 
so that Members could be here and actually cast that vote in the 
Chamber when everybody is back. That motion is in order. If the 
gentleman would not object to it, we could actually achieve that.
  Mr. HOYER. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, we are going to be in 
session next week. We are going to be back here. It was a recess week. 
The reason it is not a recess week is because the government of the 
American people is shut down. We have tried now nine times--this was 
the ninth time--to open up the government.
  Nobody was surprised. Everybody knew. It was debated on the floor. I 
spoke on it for, I think, 8 or 9 minutes myself, so there was no 
confusion, should not have been confusion on the floor. And I think a 
vote should have been demanded. It was not, and I am not in a position 
to agree to a unanimous consent. But I am in a position to tell you, 
there will be at least two or three votes next week on opening up the 
government.
  My presumption is those of you who have voted against such motions in 
the past will do so again. So it will not be as if you don't have an 
opportunity to vote on this same proposition. It was not a complicated 
proposition, and I regret, Mr. Speaker, that I am not in a position to 
try to cure the failure, in my view, because I didn't hear it, and I 
was, as I say, sitting here.
  And the Speaker obviously didn't hear it either. I am absolutely 
convinced that the judge would not have--if he had heard a request, he 
would have honored that request for a vote. So we are where we are.
  I would urge the Members--clearly, I will stipulate to the fact that 
almost all of you would have voted against the motion if a vote had 
been taken, and you can put that in the Record.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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