[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 2290-2291]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. BONIOR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire of the distinguished majority 
leader the schedule for today, the remainder of the week, and when next 
we meet?
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. BONIOR. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Michigan for 
yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to announce that we have concluded 
legislative business for the week.
  Tomorrow the House will meet at 10:00 a.m. for a pro forma session. 
As today's Whip Call indicated, there will be no legislative business 
and no votes tomorrow.
  Next week, the House will stand adjourned for the President's Day 
district work period.
  The House will return from the work period on Tuesday, February 23, 
at 12:30 p.m. for morning hour and at 2:00 p.m. for legislative 
business. Votes are expected after 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 23.
  Mr. Speaker, a Whip notice outlining legislative business for the 
week of February 23 will be distributed to Members' offices next week. 
But we do expect to conclude legislative business

[[Page 2291]]

that week by 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 25. Mr. Speaker, there 
will be no votes on Friday, February 26.
  I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, if I could inquire from 
my friend, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Armey), about the schedule for 
tomorrow.
  I thank my colleague for letting us know that there is no session 
tomorrow. I would just say that, as we know, tomorrow was going to be a 
legislative voting day on an uncontroversial bill and we had announced 
to our colleagues on this side of the aisle that it was going to be a 
voting day. In fact, at our whip meeting this morning I made that same 
announcement. And then later in the morning, less than 24 hours in 
advance, we received notice that it had been canceled.
  Now, I appreciate the gentleman doing that, and I understand that 
sometimes it is difficult to get a gauge on whether or not we are going 
to go forward with the rest of the week. But I would hope that, in the 
spirit of bipartisanship, that we could get a commitment to these 
changing schedules at least a day in advance so that we could notify 
our colleagues about their travel plans.
  And so I understand it is a common problem, and we had the same 
problem when we were in the majority, but to the extent that you can 
help accommodate us with respect to more advance on this, we would 
indeed appreciate it.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would further yield, let me 
thank the gentleman from Michigan for that observation.
  Mr. Speaker, as we know, the Members do have a very difficult time 
making arrangements, especially in the face for example of a temporary 
strike by one of the major carriers, and so forth. We did find out this 
morning that the markup that we were so dependent upon in one of our 
committees went well and so expeditiously that we could change plans 
for tomorrow.
  I join the gentleman from Michigan in hoping that we can get that 
kind of information earlier; and I assure him that as soon as I know 
that we can change any portion of the printed schedule, I will inform 
him.
  That is why I am so delighted to be able to tell him, as I learned 
just yesterday, that we will be able to afford every individual an 
opportunity to know now that we will conclude business on the 25th at 
6:00 and there will be no votes as previously announced on that Friday 
the 26th.
  If the gentleman and I can work together and with our committees and 
with the cooperation of key people within the committees, perhaps we 
can expedite this information and flow it to our Members more quickly, 
and I certainly look forward to that opportunity.

                              {time}  1515

  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, and one other point: 
Does the gentleman expect that the week of February 23, those days that 
we are in any late-evening sessions?
  Mr. ARMEY. I thank the gentleman for the inquiry. No, I do not 
believe so. We do, of course, have a lot of committee work that will be 
getting done during that week, and we have a good deal of important 
legislation we will schedule for, but I do not anticipate any late 
evenings.
  Mr. BONIOR. I thank the gentleman from Texas.

                          ____________________