[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 20]
[House]
[Pages 29505-29507]
[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, I rise for the purposes of inquiring of the 
majority leader the schedule for the remainder of the week.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Michigan for 
taking this time, if the gentleman would yield.
  Mr. BONIOR. I yield.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, appropriators are working very hard to wrap 
up the final bills. It is obviously difficult to get a read on it and 
we are working very hard on that. I will try to inform the Members as 
we go along how that is going, but, Mr. Speaker, the likely scenario is 
that it is our hope that we may be able to finish this up today. That 
is something that is very delicate. We will try to take a read.
  I know Members want to not work tomorrow, as it is a very important 
day for so many of us, with Veterans Day. We will be in pro forma 
tomorrow, irrespective of how this works out, whether we can finish 
tonight or the early hours of tomorrow morning; or if, in fact, things 
do not go well with the paperwork or the negotiations, we might 
otherwise have to come back Friday and complete our work. We will try 
to get Members notice regarding the extent to which we will either stay 
late tonight or hold over until Friday at such a time that would make 
it possible for Members to make some arrangements for them to travel 
for Veterans Day tomorrow.
  The House will only be in pro forma tomorrow, in any event. If we 
find it necessary to go out for Veterans Day, we would expect to be 
back here noon on Friday to take up the final work, have the final 
votes and complete our work and complete the year on Friday.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, if I might, there 
obviously is a lot of concern over the schedule by Members, I think it 
is fair to say, on both sides of the aisle. We are being told 
indirectly that we may be here until 2 or 3 a.m. tonight and then be 
back, as you have just pointed out, if, in fact, we do not finish 
tonight, which does not seem remotely possible, given the problems that 
are still out there, that we would be back on Friday, and I gather 
possibly throughout the weekend if we do not finish on Friday.
  One of my concerns is the fact that Members who need to travel a 
great distance to be with their constituents on a day that honors our 
men and women who fought and died for our country will not be able to 
make that schedule if we are restrained to your schedule. In addition 
to that, of course, Members have events scheduled throughout this 
weekend.
  If we are not going to be at the point where we can finish this 
weekend, does it not make sense to let people continue to do their work 
and to come back early at the beginning of next week and try to resume 
this?

                              {time}  1200

  Mr. ARMEY. If the gentleman would yield further, and I do appreciate 
the point. Obviously, a great many of our Members appreciate the point 
just made by the gentleman from Michigan.
  However, as the gentleman knows, when we are working through these 
final points of the negotiations and we finally get to an agreement, it 
is always, I think, prudent to have ourselves in a position that when 
everybody says, okay, this is it, I agree, that we can get as quickly 
from that point of agreement to the floor of the House of 
Representatives.
  As things are left to lay over, we may find ourselves extending our 
work here, or having it extended on our behalf, beyond that time. What 
we are trying to do is to maintain the kind of options that will make 
it possible for all of our Members to seize that moment when everybody 
is in agreement, recognizing that these can be passing moments, but at 
that moment to seize that moment and move the work to the floor and get 
it completed. We believe it is prudent, and we believe in the larger 
interest of the Members necessary, to keep that option available to us 
and keep it at hand.
  We will keep you as much informed. The critical concern the Member 
has, I would think right now, is if the gentleman is not going to have 
the vote on the final package between midnight and 4 a.m. tomorrow, let 
me know as early in this day as possible, and I will try to do that.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, is the gentleman from Texas telling us also 
that if we do in fact come back on Friday, that we should expect to 
work through the weekend?
  Mr. ARMEY. It is my anticipation if we were to come back on Friday, 
we would be able to convene for votes around noon and probably complete 
that work Friday late afternoon or Friday evening, and complete our 
work for the year.
  Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. ARMEY. I yield to the gentleman from Missouri.
  Mr. SKELTON. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, this matter is more than a matter of convenience to the 
Members. This is a matter of whether we, as elected leaders of our 
country, have the opportunity to honor the veterans of this Nation.
  Airplanes leave this afternoon or this evening. We will not be in 
session tomorrow, as the gentleman from Texas said, but little good 
does it do us if there are no airplanes to take us to Missouri or Texas 
or California.
  I would like very, very much to be with my neighbors, my friends, and 
deliver what few remarks I may have to those veterans who have given so 
much. I think it is a matter of priority

[[Page 29506]]

that we do that, and that we make that decision now.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. BONIOR. I yield to the gentleman from Missouri.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  I would simply say to the distinguished majority leader, I have been 
in every single one of the meetings that are taking place on the 
budget. I think I have a pretty good idea of how far along those 
meetings are. I think each individual Member has a right to know how 
far we have yet to go in order to reach agreement.
  On foreign operations, we still have at least one major outstanding 
issue which is tying up that bill. Even if we get that resolved, there 
are at least three separate Senators who have placed holds on that 
bill. I expect that problem to last a considerable amount of time.
  In addition, with Commerce-Justice, we have made some fair progress 
there on dollar items. In fact, most of the dollar items, I think all 
of them, are resolved. There is perhaps one item which has people 
confused on both sides.
  There are a number of language items which are very far apart, and as 
Members know, the United Nations funding issue is a very major 
impediment, and no agreement is in sight on that.
  In addition, on Interior, while we thought we were making good 
progress on those riders, we discovered that a new rider had been added 
in one of the offers that was made to the White House, so that has 
caused a significant dust-up. In addition, we also have the West 
Virginia mountaintop mining issue, which is going to tie up one of 
those bills for a long time unless it is resolved.
  Then we have the Labor-Health-Education conference, which I just 
left. In that, the House this morning and the White House expected to 
get a compromise offer. Instead, we were given a non-negotiable demand 
on the President's major priorities, and we are still significantly 
apart on dollar items. We had a major dust-up on that this morning, and 
we have a huge, huge problem on child care.
  There is not a chance of a snowball in you know where that we are 
going to be able to resolve those issues by the end of the day. It does 
no individual Member of this House any great service to tie them up 
when they need to be going home to deal with their Veterans Day 
celebrations.
  In fact, sessions like this impede our ability to get our work done 
because every time there is a roll call in the Senate or the House, we 
have to interrupt. Yesterday we were interrupted for two roll calls, 
and that wound up delaying the conference over 3\1/2\ hours because of 
other problems that developed after those roll calls.
  I would urge the gentleman to recognize that a realist would 
understand that there is no prayer of wrapping this up today. We all 
would like to get it wrapped up. I intend to be here right through 
Veterans Day and right through the weekend. I will negotiate until the 
cows come home. I hope we can get it done.
  But the best thing we can do to Members is to let them go home. When 
the bill is drafted, every Member of this House on both sides of the 
aisle has a right to have 24 hours to know what is in it. That just 
does not go for us, it goes for the gentleman, it goes for everybody.
  So it seems to me the best thing to do is to let the negotiators work 
over the weekend, recognize that even if we were to reach agreement 
tomorrow or Friday, it takes an immense amount of time to do the walk-
through and the read-out.
  Last year, for instance, there was one item that we refused to put in 
the conference, and yet five different times it surfaced in the draft 
before we finally kept it out. So these are problems that are going to 
take a considerable amount of time.
  It is a waste of individual Member's time to tell them that they may 
be finished tonight or tomorrow. There is not a prayer of that 
happening, if someone is inside the room where the negotiating is going 
on. In fact, we were told in negotiations this morning that they may 
yet run another separate bill at us because they did not like the way 
the negotiations were going.
  So if any Member believes we have a chance to finish this tonight, I 
pray for them.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, may I just ask one other question?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman has far exceeded his moment of 
unanimous consent, but he may proceed. The gentleman may proceed.
  Mr. BONIOR. The question I want to ask the distinguished majority 
leader, Mr. Speaker, is, and it alludes to what the gentleman from 
Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) just referred to, is the rumor that the remainder 
of the appropriations bills may be actually brought to us in one 
package, leaving out some of the items that have been negotiated with 
the White House.
  Is there any fact to that rumor?
  Mr. ARMEY. Again, if the gentleman will yield, I want to thank the 
gentleman for his inquiry.
  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the remarks of the gentleman from Missouri 
(Mr. Skelton). I believe the body would agree with me that there is no 
one person in this body for whom we would be more proud to speak so 
eloquently on behalf of our affection for the veterans as the gentleman 
from Missouri (Mr. Skelton). We are aware of and very concerned about 
this.
  In addition, of course, the body is brought to a sobering realization 
of how difficult times are by the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), 
with his reliable optimism. Mr. Speaker, I would just say to the 
gentleman from Wisconsin, Mr. Obey, I do not want any more cheese, I 
just want out of the trap.
  Mr. Speaker, again, I understand, in these times of these 
negotiations we all know from past experience year in and year out that 
when things look very difficult and perhaps even impossible, in every 
year there is that magic moment when everybody says, we can agree. That 
moment is at hand. We do not want to deny our Members the opportunity 
to seize that moment.
  We believe, and I think with good reason through our discussions with 
Members of both bodies of Congress and the White House, that that 
moment is at hand. It can happen, and we need to be here and be 
prepared for it, while respecting, as the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. 
Skelton) so eloquently put it, the Members' efforts to pay their 
respects to our veterans.
  I can say to the gentleman from Michigan, neither side of the aisle, 
I think neither side of the building, wants to put these last five 
items and some of the attendant items together in a singular package. 
That will not happen. We are making every effort for it not to happen, 
but in at least two packages related to the final spending bills and 
then attendant things, such as the tax extenders and a few of the other 
items we are looking at.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. BONIOR. I yield to the gentleman from Florida.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to confirm what the majority leader has said. We 
have battled all year long to get these bills on an individual basis 
through the House, through the Senate, and to the White House. We have 
been fairly successful. In the House we have basically finished our 
part of that job before the August recess.
  Then we had a lot of time spent in negotiations with the other body, 
and we have resolved those, but still, every step of the way we have 
tried to keep that commitment, that we send each bill individually.
  Now we are at the point, as the majority leader said, that all of the 
hard problems have now begun to focus. The easy ones are gone. The easy 
ones are out of the way. Now the hard ones are here. But we are at the 
point where I think we can quickly come together and not necessarily 
package everything on a vehicle, but have a package of agreements 
whereby if we do this on this bill, we do something else on that bill, 
and we have to have a little give and take, both here in the Congress 
and at the White House.

[[Page 29507]]

  I will be honest with my colleagues in the House, the White House has 
not been all that negotiating. The White House has been pretty tough in 
saying, here is our line, we are not going to cross it. That is all 
well and good, and I would like to thank the minority party for 
applauding the majority party's efforts here, and I knew that was a 
facetious applause. However, it is our intention to bring these issues 
together now.
  The Speaker has spoken to the President personally this morning, and 
I agree with the majority leader, we are about at that point where 
things are going to fall into place.
  Now, can they be done by Friday? I do not know. I know our staff on 
the Committee on Appropriations have been telling me for the last 
couple of days, boy, I will tell you, I do not think we can do it. My 
instructions this morning were, do not come back to me and tell me we 
cannot do it. You come back to me and tell me we can do it, and here is 
how we are going to do it, and then we will get out of here.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, on that rousing note, I would ask the 
Speaker's indulgence for one other comment.
  Mr. EDWARDS. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. BONIOR. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
  Mr. EDWARDS. Mr. Speaker, if I could make two points to the 
distinguished majority leader, let me say first that I hope that 
passage of a multi-billion dollar appropriation bill or bills is not 
contingent upon Members not having the ability to read it. I hope that 
would cause great concern on both sides of the aisle, if the argument 
is the only way we can finally solve this appropriation conflict of 
ours is if we bring together a package and do not let Members have time 
to read it and think about it.
  Secondly, tomorrow is not only Veterans Day, it is the last Veterans 
Day of the 20th century. It is a century that has seen our veterans 
fight in two world wars, and through all parts of this globe.
  I know I speak for Republicans and Democrats alike when I say that 
inconveniencing a Member of Congress should be of no consequence, but 
showing a lack of respect to the veterans who have fought those two 
world wars, many of whom will not be around to see the next Veterans 
Day, is totally a different thing.
  I would plead with the majority leader, obviously, and Democrats and 
Republicans, to say, it is worth it to show respect to our veterans on 
the last Veterans Day of this century to let the House Members know 
within the next several hours whether they can catch planes back home 
tonight so they can make speeches tomorrow morning and tomorrow 
afternoon.
  Give not us that privilege, Mr. Majority leader, but give that 
privilege to our veterans. Let us go home and say thank you to our 
veterans for the sacrifices they have given on behalf of our Nation.
  Mr. ABERCROMBIE. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. BONIOR. I yield to the gentleman from Hawaii.
  Mr. ABERCROMBIE. Mr. Speaker, I understand only too well the 
necessities of strategy and tactics, and I respect that. I respect the 
majority leader's position and difficulties associated with trying to 
pass legislation.

                              {time}  1215

  I also understand the politics that is involved. But every Member 
here, I would say to the majority leader, is entitled to be treated 
with equal respect. There are simply logistical difficulties. 
Obviously, I have one. But I feel I am as entitled as any Member here 
to be able to participate fully. And if that involves having to alter 
the logistics of when the bills hit the floor, then I think that has to 
be respected.
  It should not take any reminding of the body that perhaps the most 
important event that took place in this century, as least as far as 
this country is concerned, took place on December 7, 1941, and I intend 
to be on the Battleship Missouri for that commemoration tomorrow night. 
Not because of any particular regard I have for myself being there, but 
I took my oath of office in the well of this House along with every 
other Member here and I am a representative, for good or for ill as far 
as this country is concerned, from the First District and I intend to 
be at this commemoration representing this body.
  Mr. Speaker, this is the workplace of democracy. There is no reason 
whatsoever, and no reason to believe whatsoever that I can determine, 
that we are going to be prepared to move this legislation on Friday. I 
do not doubt for a moment that the majority leader and his negotiators 
will be doing their level best to conclude their business on this. But 
let us face the facts of life. We cannot logistically do this and give 
every Member an opportunity to pay his or her respects as they are 
supposed to as representatives of this greatest democracy on the face 
of the Earth. We cannot be here before next Monday, and I ask the 
majority leader to simply acknowledge that and let us move on with our 
business.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will again yield, I want to 
express my own personal appreciation for the fine expressions of 
sentiment and commitment I have heard from the Members on this 
important matter of Veterans' Day. And I can tell my colleagues that I 
am only touched by what I have heard.
  I have talked to the Members of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs. 
They too, of course, have focused on this with a great deal of interest 
and commitment and they have encouraged me to remind Members that for 
those of us who may have difficulties in getting back to our own 
districts, that we will have ceremonies at Arlington Cemetery where, of 
course, some of our Nation's greatest heroes are interred, and we will 
make every resource available to assist Members in getting to those 
very important ceremonies.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague and would say in 
conclusion that I would hope the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Armey) could 
be more definitive in terms of a time within the next couple of hours 
so people could plan accordingly for not only this evening, but for the 
weekend if that is, in fact, what the majority desires, and I thank the 
gentleman.

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