[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 17]
[House]
[Pages 25236-25237]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. ARMEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I ask for this time for the purpose of 
advising Members of the schedule. Members should be advised that we 
have had our last vote for the day. The House will reconvene tomorrow 
morning at 9 a.m. for the purpose of passing a 1-day CR. It is our 
expectation that we will be able to move the Members through that 
process and complete our day's business very soon after we convene at 9 
a.m. That should then be the last vote of the day tomorrow morning.
  On Sunday, we should reconvene the House at 6 o'clock p.m. for the 
purpose of passing a 1-day CR. We would expect to complete that work.
  In the event that it is necessary to do so on Monday morning, we 
would reconvene the House at 10 a.m. for the purpose of passing a 1-day 
CR. Should it continue to be necessary to do so, we would reconvene the 
House at 6 o'clock p.m. on Tuesday for the purpose of passing a 1-day 
CR.
  Members should be advised, of course, throughout all of this time 
frame the appropriators will continue to work on the last remaining 
appropriations bill, the Labor, Health and Human Services bill. Our 
appropriators will work on that over the weekend and, if necessary, 
will continue their work into the week.
  On Monday, the House, of course, awaits the successful completion of 
that work and negotiation between the House the other body and the 
White House. And at whatever time that work is completed, with proper 
notice, we will advise our Members and reconvene the House to complete 
the work on that final bill of the year.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Frost).
  Mr. FROST. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman stood up, of course, without 
much notice and so not everyone was on the floor and was able to hear. 
Could the gentleman repeat the schedule day by day just so everyone is 
clear? And then I do have a question or two.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I do appreciate the 
gentleman asking; and I know there are a great many people, 
particularly on the gentleman's side of the aisle, who are concerned 
about being home for their campaign activities back home. If we would 
have a brave heart, we could get through all of this.
  To reiterate, we believe this to be the last vote of the day. We will 
reconvene in the morning at 9 a.m. to vote a 1-day CR. We would expect 
that to be a completion of our day's work. We would then reconvene 
Sunday at 6 p.m. for the purpose of a 1-day CR. Again, we would expect 
that to be the completion of our work. On Monday, we would reconvene at 
10 a.m. for a 1-day CR. And then, if necessary, do the same at 6 
o'clock p.m. on Tuesday.
  I again would remind all the Members that the appropriators are 
working bicamerally in negotiations with the White House on the attempt 
to complete the last remaining bill of the year, the Labor, Health and 
Human Services spending bill. That work will continue throughout the 
weekend; and with appropriate notice of time, when that work is 
completed and we are prepared to bring that bill to the floor, Members 
will be notified. Of course, the availability of that work for the 
completion of the year's work by the body would be preemptive of any 
announcement that I make between now and Tuesday evening.
  Mr. FROST. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would continue to yield, may 
I ask the gentleman, if I understood him correctly, he was saying that 
it was his opinion that there would only be one vote tomorrow when the 
House convenes at 9 a.m. Is the gentleman aware that there are 
possibilities of additional procedural votes that could occur tomorrow?
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, again reclaiming my time, I thank the 
gentleman. I know of no work that is scheduled for the House. And I 
would again advise our Members that in terms of work that is scheduled, 
this is the schedule we have to advise. I understand the Members from 
the other body have noticed a couple of matters and we will, of course, 
pay dutiful attention to them on the floor.
  Mr. FROST. If I could continue, and then I believe the gentleman from 
Michigan (Mr. Bonior), the Democratic whip, has a question. Is the 
gentleman from Texas aware that it is possible to bring up motions to 
instruct conferees tomorrow? That those would be in order?
  Mr. ARMEY. Certainly, I am aware of that; but we have not received 
any official notices of that possibility. We do recognize that should 
that appropriate notice be given and that event present itself, that we 
will deal with that within the context of the rules of the House.
  Mr. FROST. I believe that the Democratic whip has some information on 
that specific subject.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. 
Bonior).
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding me this 
time. I want to inform the distinguished majority leader that we have, 
in fact, filed at this point two motions to instruct tomorrow, one on 
LIHEAP and the other on an educational issue. And so we do expect that 
there will be business tomorrow, and business on Sunday as well, on 
issues that we think are very important to get done before we adjourn 
this Congress.
  Mr. ARMEY. I thank the gentleman for that notification.
  Mr. FROST. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would continue to yield, 
could I ask an additional question to my distinguished colleague from 
Texas?
  Mr. ARMEY. If the gentleman from Texas seeks time for an additional 
question, I am happy to yield.
  Mr. FROST. Mr. Speaker, does the majority have any plans to schedule 
any veto overrides for consideration of the House? Does the majority 
have any plans to schedule any veto override votes within the next few 
days?
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, again reclaiming my time, I appreciate the 
inquiry. I do not believe that there are any vetoes that are there; and 
there are no, therefore, override votes that would be pending.
  Mr. FROST. Should any vetoes occur within the next few days, would 
the majority schedule a veto override vote?
  Mr. ARMEY. I do not anticipate that event. If that event presents 
itself, we will deal with it at that time.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, would the gentleman yield?
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I believe the gentleman from Florida (Mr. 
Young) was on his feet, and I yield to the gentleman from Florida.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas 
for yielding. I suspect maybe the gentleman might explain to our 
colleagues why it is that we have to do a 1-day CR today, and another 
1-day CR Saturday, and another 1-day CR Sunday, and another 1-day CR 
Monday. And I am happy to hear the response from the other side, 
because as the majority

[[Page 25237]]

leader has said, the appropriators will be meeting through the weekend, 
as we have been for nearly a month, on this last remaining bill with 
the White House, and we are going around in circles. If they cannot 
have it their way, they do not want it any way.
  But I have a friendly question for both sides. Since the majority 
leader and the House and I confirm we will be working through the 
weekend, is it okay, based on some of the debate that we have heard so 
far in the last couple of weeks, is it okay if we work in the dark of 
night? Because it is going to take more than the daylight hours to get 
this done. And if it does, my Democrat colleagues should not criticize 
us next week for having made decisions in the dark of night.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I would like to thank the 
gentleman from Florida for his genteel observations. Let me just say, 
Mr. Speaker, the President has agreed to 1-day CRs until we complete 
this work.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask our body to just take a moment and 
appreciate the appropriators for their continuous work in negotiation. 
They are, in fact, continuing to work.
  Mr. Speaker, I would appreciate continuing with this so that I could 
yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey).
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman from 
Texas, the majority leader, for yielding me this time. I would just 
note that I welcome the comments of the gentleman from Florida, 
although I would say they are at some variance with the fact that we 
were just told at about 11:30 by one of the key conferees that he did 
not intend to meet either Saturday or Sunday. I am hoping that that 
comment was made in a momentary expression of frustration.
  But, nonetheless, I would like for purposes of clarification to 
follow up on a question asked by, I think, the gentleman from Texas. We 
are trying in the conference, we are trying to determine what is going 
to happen with the Commerce, Justice, State and Judiciary bill and what 
is going to happen with the tax bill, because that impacts the final 
negotiations on the Labor- HHS bill.

                              {time}  1330

  I would like to ask the distinguished majority leader if he could 
explain to us his understanding of whether and when the Senate is 
intending to send either of those bills to the White House. Because 
there are interesting implications for the Labor-HHS bill if the tax 
bill, for instance, does not go to the White House.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Wisconsin 
(Mr. Obey), and there are many aspects to his observations.
  On the question of the difficulty we have in scheduling the 
continuing negotiations, I know it was frustrating for a lot of our 
members on the Committee on Appropriations in both bodies who were here 
working last night to see that both the President and his chief of 
staff, his principle negotiator, were there at the World Series.
  Incidentally, Mr. Speaker, congratulations to the Yankees for their 
victory last night. Certainly that made it difficult to work last 
night.
  I understand that the President is traveling to California. Whether 
or not his chief of staff and chief negotiator goes with him to 
California or not, I do not know. But we will continue to encourage 
everybody to be at the table.
  In the meantime, the Senate, the other body, Mr. Speaker, continues 
to have its frustrations within the context of their rules. The 
minority is, as my colleagues know, are quite empowered to prevent 
things from happening in both of the bills that the gentleman referred 
to, are being held up in the other body by the minority in their effort 
to do whatever it is they are doing. They are frustrated in their 
inability to get those two bills to the floor for a vote. We will 
obviously encourage them to proceed as much as possible.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield further, 
recognizing that we have no idea of what will happen to those other 
bills, I would say we need to have some clarification of that before we 
know what matters have to be included in the Labor-HHS bill, especially 
with respect to school construction.
  The other thing I would simply say in response to the comments of the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Armey) about Mr. Lew. Mr. Lew has been in 
this city. He has been in this building, prepared to negotiate 
virtually every day since Labor Day. He has been working 12, 14, 16 
hours a day.
  My colleagues can laugh. My colleagues on the other side can laugh if 
they want, but he has been here a lot more than any of them have.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, let me just respond to the gentleman from 
Wisconsin (Mr. Obey). Again, let me remind him, insofar as it is 
possible, Mr. Speaker, I do control the time. I want to acknowledge the 
point just made by the gentleman from Wisconsin. We are all working 
hard. We do want to appreciate one another. In that regard, even I 
myself was just so pleased that I managed to get back to my office at 
least to watch the last inning of last night's game. So I know how 
important that is to Mr. Lew.
  I just want to say we do want to encourage everybody. My purpose here 
is that, understand this is important work we are talking about. The 
differences between ourselves on education are important business that 
is before the American people. They are going to take time because our 
differences are so heartfelt. I will not take the time to outline those 
right now.
  What I am saying is let us take a moment to appreciate one another. 
We are committed to this hard work. We are as committed to our purposes 
as the White House and the minority are to theirs. This will take some 
time. So I am sure we will all enjoy each other as we continue to 
encourage the appropriators.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I really think for the purpose to which I 
asked for this time, I have really completed what I need to do. I am 
happy to yield back my time.

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