[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 15]
[House]
[Pages 21242-21246]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



    WAIVING POINTS OF ORDER AGAINST CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 2647, 
              LEGISLATIVE BRANCH APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2002

  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I 
call up House Resolution 273 and ask for its immediate consideration.
  The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:

                              H. Res. 273

       Resolved, That upon adoption of this resolution it shall be 
     in order to consider the conference report to accompany the 
     bill (H.R. 2647) making appropriations for the Legislative 
     Branch for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2002, and for 
     other purposes. All points of order against the conference 
     report and against its consideration are waived. The 
     conference report shall be considered as read.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Texas (Mr. Sessions) is 
recognized for 1 hour.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, for purposes of debate only, I yield the 
customary 30 minutes to my friend, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Hall), 
pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, House Resolution 273 is a standard rule waiving all 
points of order against the conference report, and provides for 
consideration of the conference report to accompany H.R. 2647, the 
fiscal year 2002 legislative branch appropriations bill.
  The conference report provides yet another example of a carefully 
crafted bill from the Committee on Appropriations that balances fiscal 
discipline with the true needs of our first branch of government, the 
legislative branch. This legislation represents a responsible increase 
in overall spending of 4.6 percent.
  I would like to also commend the gentleman from North Carolina 
(Chairman Taylor), the ranking member, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. 
Moran), and other members of the Committee on Appropriations for their 
hard work on what is truly a noncontroversial conference report, and 
for maintaining the position established by the House in almost every 
instance.
  Mr. Speaker, the legislative branch appropriations conference report 
ensures that the diverse funding needs of this institution are met, 
from legislative work to security to tourism.
  Specifically, this bill funds congressional operations for the House 
of Representatives, including our staffs and employees. It addresses 
the needs of the United States Capitol Police, and

[[Page 21243]]

continues to support their efforts to modernize as they perform 
essential security functions for the protections of not just Members of 
Congress and our staffs, but for the millions of visitors who come to 
our seat of government every year.
  This bill includes important funding to hire additional new officers, 
and provides needed funds to bring their salaries in line with other 
Federal law enforcement agencies.
  I would like to take a minute to express my personal gratitude to the 
men and women of the United States Capitol Police for their tireless 
efforts during this time of war.
  Day after day, regardless of the hour, truly in rain and shine, these 
men and women faithfully carry out the duties which ensure the safety 
and security for all of us who live, work and visit our Nation's 
Capital. Their dedication, professionalism, and seemingly endless hours 
of service to ensure our security have not gone without notice and are 
most appreciated.
  Mr. Speaker, this conference report also provides for the needs of 
the Architect of the Capitol, including the various operations and 
maintenance activities under his jurisdiction for the Capitol, House 
office buildings and the surrounding grounds, and including an 
additional $70 million for needed House and Senate office space at the 
new Capitol Visitor's Center.
  In addition, it funds the needs of the invaluable but often behind-
the-scenes work performed by the Congressional Budget Office, the 
Government Printing Office, and the General Accounting Office.
  The conference agreement also provides funding for the Library of 
Congress and for the Congressional Research Service, including the 
employees who collectively help us and our staff make sense of the many 
complex issues we face every day.
  Mr. Speaker, this conference report maintains the House-passed 
measures aimed to help meet the needs of an ever-changing and dynamic 
workplace. It helps this institution keep pace as an employer, 
including a monthly transit benefit, and makes modest infrastructure 
changes to make cycling to work more appealing; that is, as in riding a 
bike cycling. These transit benefits will help reduce demand on the 
already-limited parking, and help reduce traffic congestion.
  In addition, the conference report calls for a study of options for a 
self-sustaining staff fitness center.
  Finally, the conference report recognizes our need to become more 
environmentally friendly and efficient in reusing and recycling our 
waste by directing a review of the current recycling program, 
identifying ways to improve the program, establishing criteria for 
measuring compliance, and setting reasonable milestones for increasing 
the amount of recycled material.
  Mr. Speaker, this is a good conference report and deserves our 
support. I urge all of my colleagues to support this straightforward 
rule, as well as the underlying noncontroversial legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, this rule allows for the consideration of the conference 
report on the legislative branch appropriations bill for fiscal year 
2002, and it waives all points of order.
  The bill appropriates money for the operations of the House and 
Senate and the maintenance of the Capitol complex. It also funds 
legislative branch agencies that support Congress, including the 
Library of Congress, the Congressional Budget Office, and the General 
Accounting Office.
  In the aftermath of September 11, the American people I think have 
found increased confidence in the Federal Government and Congress in 
particular, and I believe that the confidence is well-founded.
  The men and women who serve as Members of Congress, and I do not 
speak of myself, but I speak of my colleagues, are an extraordinary 
group of dedicated individuals. They are served by a corps of talented 
and hard-working staff, and I am very proud to serve with them.
  Representative democracy is never easy, and it is even more difficult 
in times of crisis, but I am proud to support this bill, which allows 
our vital work to continue. I urge the adoption of the rule and of the 
bill.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, as we have said here several times, this is a 
noncontroversial conference report that has been agreed to by the House 
and that has been agreed to by our conferees.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 11 minutes to the gentleman 
from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), the former chairman of the Committee on 
Appropriations and the ranking minority member on the Committee on 
Appropriations.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman for yielding 
time to me, and I would like to say that I think each and every person 
who serves in this body is a very fortunate human being.
  First of all, we have been blessed by having the express confidence 
of the people we represent. They have entrusted us to deal with matters 
that deal not only with our own districts but with the Nation as a 
whole.

                              {time}  1600

  And I know each and every one of us feel a profound sense of 
gratitude for being able to provide that service. We have also had a 
lot of pressures put upon each and every person who works in this 
place, not just Members but staff, and those who support this 
institution and provide for its security.
  I think that no one is the recipient of more gratitude than the 
Capitol Police who are funded in this bill. They have been working 
overtime since the unfortunate events of September 11 in order to try 
to provide security, not just for the physical buildings that make up 
Capitol Hill, but also for each and every human being who works on this 
Capitol Hill.
  We have also been served, I think, tremendously well by the Attending 
Physician, who has taken on duties that I am sure he never imagined he 
would have to deal with when he first signed on as the job of the 
Attending Physician for the Capitol. We have seen a lot of turmoil on 
the Hill; and, in my judgment, the bill that this rule brings to the 
floor will prove insufficient in terms of meeting all the expenses 
attendant in dealing with the new world that we now live in.
  I noticed this morning, I saw in one of the Capitol Hill newspapers a 
story about some of the extraordinary expenses that congressional 
employees have personally borne to try to make up for the fact that 
some of our Members at this point are not able to operate out of their 
own offices. You have had extraordinary arrangements that a number of 
Members and staff have had to make in order to get back to Washington 
after they were, in effect, trapped outside of Washington when all of 
the airlines were brought down, correctly, by Secretary Mineta in order 
to prevent further tragedies on September 11. And so we all know that 
there is a tremendous amount to be done to secure this Capitol and its 
surrounding environs.
  I congratulate the members of the subcommittee who have worked on 
this bill. I have no basic problems with this bill. But I think it is 
appropriate during consideration of this bill to recognize that no 
matter what security measures that are being taken are probably going 
to have to be, in fact, enhanced. And I have very little doubt that we 
will be facing a supplemental appropriations for this branch of 
government and for many other agencies of government as well. But I 
would like also to caution every Member because I think it is necessary 
to understand that, in addition to securing buildings like the ones 
that we work in, we also have an overriding obligation to increase the 
safety and security of each and every American that we represent.
  There are many other public servants also at work today in this 
country, and some of them have been brought under

[[Page 21244]]

attack. The postal workers of this country are the ones who first come 
to mind. I think it is necessary for this Congress to understand that 
there are so many security vulnerabilities in this very changed world 
after September 11 that we must think through in fundamental ways the 
way we approach every single security-related issue in the government.
  I think the private sector of our economy is going to have to think 
through the same things. And that means in my view we are going to have 
to face up to the fact that in addition to everything that we do in 
this bill today to deal with the problems of Capitol Hill, we are going 
to have to deal with a good many other problems around the country, and 
I would like to walk through what I think some others are that deserve 
equal attention.
  This morning we had Governor Ridge in the Democratic Caucus, and he 
comported himself very well. I think those who have served with him in 
the past in this institution understand that he is a first-rate 
individual who will be doing his very best to provide additional 
homeland security for the entire country. But when he was in our Caucus 
this morning, I urged him to recognize that just as we are facing in 
this bill the obligation to move forward with the number of projects to 
enhance the security of the people's House, so too must we provide him 
with additional authority in order to do the same thing for everyone in 
this Nation.
  Among the things I suggested to him was that, in my view, he needs to 
get control of the budget process because there are a whole range of 
security actions that need to be taken across the country that, in my 
view, are not being taken at the same time. And I do not think any of 
us want to be in the position where we are taking what we consider to 
be adequate security measures here on Capitol Hill, if we were not at 
the same time taking adequate measures to secure the life and safety of 
each and every American.
  Some of the items that need to be considered are as follows: We have 
laboratories all across the country that are generating dangerous 
biological and chemical agents. There is no central registry of such 
agents or the quantity that they are being produced in or the quantity 
in which they are held. CDC has requested $10 million simply to begin 
enforcing existing laws requiring the reporting of the transfer of such 
agents. So far that has not been funded in the administration request.
  We have been told by Secretary Thompson, my good friend, the former 
governor of Wisconsin, that he is going to be asking for 300 million 
doses of additional vaccines in order to strengthen our ability to 
respond to other challenges in the public health field. I applaud that, 
but it seems to me that we need to move far beyond that.
  We need to dramatically beef up the ability of the public health 
surveillance mechanisms in this country so that we can, in fact, tell 
if we are in an epidemic when an epidemic begins, not after we are 2 
weeks into it.
  While the Public Health Service has requested well over half a 
billion dollars in additional funding, they have so far only had $65 
million of that approved.
  We have had a $500 million request from Amtrak for security of the 
Rail Passenger Service. So far, on the part of OMB, only 1 percent of 
that funding has been approved.
  The Customs Service has asked for about $700 million for increasing 
border inspections, particularly on the Canadian border. To my 
knowledge, at this point, none of that has been approved by OMB.
  The FBI, they have asked for an additional $1.5 billion. They have 
huge overtime costs. They have huge additional responsibilities. They 
are devoting a huge percentage of their investigative forces to the 
problems of terrorism. Their requests so far have been cut by two-
thirds.
  So I would simply say that these and many other items I think 
indicate the fact that we have much work to do in the area of securing 
the homeland. No matter what we do, there will be vulnerabilities. We 
understand that, but this bill that will be before us either today or 
tomorrow takes some minimal steps to add to the security of Capitol 
Hill. We have many much larger steps that must be taken across the 
country to attend to the security of the entire Nation, and I hope that 
this body will be receptive to such efforts in the remaining weeks of 
this congressional session.
  I thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Hall) for the time.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve my time.
  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman 
from Texas (Mr. Edwards).
  Mr. EDWARDS. Mr. Speaker, I want to commend Members on both sides of 
the aisle for having put together this legislation, and I will not 
object and will, in fact, support this rule and the legislation. I 
think it is at this particular time in our Nation's history important 
that we spend our resources protecting the symbol of our democracy, our 
Capitol and all of the Senate and House office buildings associated 
with it.
  In fact, in light of recent revelations, we find that perhaps this 
capital, if not our entire country, could be the targeted attacks of 
weapons of mass destruction at the hands of terrorists, and it is that 
issue which I think is appropriate to discuss during both this debate 
as well as the debate in a few moments on the Energy and Water 
appropriations bill.
  In particular, I would like to bring to the attention, Mr. Speaker, 
of Members of this House an article from today's Reuters News Service 
from its Washington Bureau, and I quote from that article:
  The September 11 attacks have increased concerns that extremists 
would use weapons of mass destruction, including possibly nuclear 
weapons, against the United States, Undersecretary of State John Bolton 
said on Wednesday. Answering questions at a breakfast with defense 
writers, Bolton predicted that if extremists possessed weapons of mass 
destruction, a term that encompasses nuclear, biological and chemical 
arms, they will use them.
  The article then quotes Secretary Bolton, I am concerned about 
weapons of mass destruction everywhere, and my concern about weapons of 
mass destruction everywhere has gone up since, end of quote, the U.S.-
led anti-terrorism war began, he said.
  The article then says, Bolton, the State Department's top official 
dealing with arms control and international security affairs, said he 
was worried, and this is his quote, there will be the use of a weapon 
of mass destruction. The term encompasses nuclear, chemical and 
biological arms.
  Mr. Speaker, and my colleagues, I think this article and Mr. Bolton's 
comments point out the obvious. Those who would use airplanes as a 
tool, as a weapon against the United States and our citizens and all we 
care about and our values, and certainly they would not stop, in fact, 
would be encouraged to use weapons of mass destruction, be they 
biological, chemical or nuclear.
  While I think it is important in this Legislative Branch bill we do 
try prudent efforts and steps to protect this Capitol, the symbol of 
our democracy, I think in further debate today, we are going to find 
that some of us are deeply disappointed that while we are protecting 
the Capitol, as we should in this bill, we are not doing what we must 
do and have responsibility to do in other legislation to protect 
American citizens from the threat of nuclear terrorism.
  While there will be more discussion on that in a few moments, let me 
quote Mr. Bolton when he says, basically, that one consequence of the 
U.S. attacks was a heightened awareness of the interrelationship 
between nonproliferation and terrorists and that as a result efforts to 
halt the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological arms will receive 
more attention in coming months.
  Mr. Bolton's comments are correct in regard to biological and 
chemical weapons. We are already taking action. Yet in other 
legislation we will debate on this floor today we are actually reducing 
funding for perhaps the single most effective program designed to keep 
nuclear weapons and materiels out of the hands of terrorists.

[[Page 21245]]

  This is a good bill, designed to continue forward our democracy and 
the symbols of our democracy and the operating offices of our 
democracy, but we must not stop here with this bill. We have an 
obligation and a moral responsibility to protect the American people 
from what I think is a serious threat; that is, the threat of nuclear 
materiels getting into the hands of terrorists who would gladly kill 
millions of American citizens.

                              {time}  1615

  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my 
time.
  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 7 minutes to the gentleman 
from Virginia (Mr. Moran).
  Mr. MORAN of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished 
gentleman from Ohio of the Committee on Rules for yielding me this 
time, as well as the gentleman from Texas, for bringing up this rule.
  Mr. Speaker, this is a good conference agreement. I want to express 
my appreciation to the chairman of the committee, the gentleman from 
North Carolina (Mr. Taylor), the members of the Subcommittee on 
Legislative, who worked closely to craft a good bill and a good final 
conference agreement. It largely reflects the same legislative branch 
appropriations bill that got 380 votes in the House earlier this year.
  Our objectives have always been to provide the legislative branch 
with the resources and the guidance that it requires to carry out its 
mission, even in these most trying of circumstances. The legislative 
body is the Federal essence of our democratic process, and all of the 
components of the legislative branch are well treated in this 
conference agreement.
  It prioritizes our capital improvement program, confronting, not 
deferring, personnel issues, such as an aging work force and retention 
challenges, and I do not mean the Members, I am referring to many of 
the staff up here on the Hill, and funding several new technology 
projects that will allow us to perform our work more efficiently, to 
make this work more readily available to the public and to preserve it 
for posterity.
  The Library of Congress, the General Accounting Office, the 
Government Printing Office, and the Congressional Budget Office will 
largely receive what they requested. Joint committees and leadership 
accounts will receive what they will need.
  In addition, this bill includes provisions that will help us respond 
and be better prepared for the new terrorist threat.
  Let me stress that security and the need to preserve the ability of 
this institution to continue to function have been our paramount 
concerns. This agreement provides the funds to hire an additional 79 
police officers, bringing the Capitol Police force to 1,481 full-time 
equivalents and to fund their benefit increases. Between this agreement 
and the funding set aside in the fundamentals, this institution should 
be receiving all the resources it needs to address our security needs.
  The bill also includes provisions that address several long-standing 
problems that should now be resolved.
  I want to recognize the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) and 
express my appreciation for the successful effort that he led to end 
the long-standing practice by the Architect of the Capitol of using 
temporary workers for long-term projects to get around providing them 
health and pension benefits. These temporary workers have been employed 
by the Architect on an average of 4\1/2\ years.
  Recognition should also be given to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. 
Kaptur) for her efforts to help contract cafeteria employees who have 
been without pay since the closure of the Ford and the Longworth 
cafeterias, so that they can be compensated for their lost wages.
  I am also pleased to see the conference agreement set aside 
sufficient funds to enable all offices, be it a Member's office, a 
committee, or the Congressional Budget Office or the Government 
Printing Office, to provide their employees with a $65-per-month 
employee transit benefit which should increase to $100 tax free by next 
year. In light of the terrorist attacks on September 11, this benefit 
and the effort to reduce the number of parking spaces and cars around 
the Capitol have taken on even greater importance.
  On a related issue, I am pleased the House Administrative Officer 
will be working on a plan to help more Members, staff, committees, and 
legislative branch agencies access their computer systems from a remote 
location. In times of peace, this initiative would have been called 
teleworking. In times of war, and our experience with the closure of 
House offices, providing Members access from a remote location, be it 
from the General Accounting Office or their home computer, has become 
an essential requirement to preserve the operations of this 
institution.
  I want to be certain we are doing all we can to ensure that we can 
function effectively no matter what the context, and certainly we have 
learned from our experience when the House office buildings were shut 
down.
  Over the long term, I believe that the transit benefit, assistance on 
student loan repayments, and greater teleworking opportunities are good 
personnel policies that will also help us attract and retain employees 
and professional staff in all legislative branch agencies.
  I do want to say a word about the student loan program. It will apply 
to the Senate, the CBO, the GAO, but not the House of Representatives; 
and this inequity is unfortunate and should not have occurred. It is 
largely due to inaction on the part of the Committee on House 
Administration and will give the Senate and other legislative branch 
agencies yet another edge on the House in recruiting qualified 
employees. The lack of this student loan incentive gives an advantage 
to the Senate that the House does not have in recruiting qualified 
employees.
  I would hope that the Committee on House Administration will move 
quickly to recommend criteria and guidelines so that we can set up such 
a program as soon as possible. I have spoken to the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) about this, and I know that he is ready, and has 
been ready, to work with Chairman Ney to develop the kinds of 
guidelines that we need to make this student loan repayment program 
work and provide another incentive to get top-notch staff working for 
us here on the House side. Unfortunately, we could not do it in time 
for this conference, but I trust it will be done.
  Similarly, the House administration needs to authorize the full 
transit benefit permitted under current law. With enactment of this 
agreement, money should no longer be an issue, though. This 
appropriation provides the money. We still do need authority from the 
Committee on House Administration. If my colleagues at the Federal 
executive branch, State and local governments, and the private sector 
can find the resources to provide their employees transit benefits, 
assistance repaying student loans, and teleworking options, so can we.
  In all, I think we have a good agreement that will go a long way 
toward addressing the needs and operations of the legislative branch 
for the balance of this fiscal year, and I urge my colleagues to not 
only approve the rule but to approve the conference report on the 
legislative branch appropriations bill.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman 
from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey).
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I think House Members would be interested in 
what I consider to be an egregious anomaly in this bill.
  Today, administrative assistants in the other body are paid, on 
average, $118,000. In this institution they are paid approximately 
$22,000 less per person. A legislative director in the other body is 
paid about $85,000, on average. That is about $25,000 more than we pay 
for similar responsibilities in the House. For a legislative assistant, 
the gap is about $15,000 between the pay afforded to a House staffer 
versus a Senate staffer.

[[Page 21246]]

  We have another provision in this bill which is going to make it even 
more difficult for House Members to retain our staff, because it will 
be much easier for the Senate to entice staffers to come to work for 
them, all because of a provision in this bill. There is a provision in 
this bill that enables the employees of the other body and CBO to begin 
a student loan repayment program.
  Now, I have nothing against that, but the problem is that that will 
not happen in the House of Representatives because we have not had the 
proper authorizations approved by the committee of jurisdiction in this 
House. That means that there will be yet another recruiting tool that 
will enable the Senate to entice our staffers away to work in the 
Senate. We cannot function as effectively as the People's House ought 
to function if we are essentially advised by people who have very short 
tenure in their jobs before they either move over to the Senate to get 
much better pay or before they go downtown to get much better pay than 
they can get working in either the Senate or the House.
  I would urge everyone with the appropriate responsibilities in this 
House to recognize that this provision in this bill today will add to 
our difficulties in retaining quality staff and attracting quality 
staff in competition with the other body, and I would urge them to take 
the appropriate action so that we will be able to compete with the 
other body on an even footing. I think we owe that to the people we 
represent and to the people who work for us.
  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, 
and I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, we have had an opportunity to hear several speakers who 
have talked about some very important aspects of what this legislative 
appropriations bill does. We have also heard some of the perhaps 
downsides or fallacies.
  I, like the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), wish to express 
confidence in the men and women who come to Washington, D.C., who work 
for the legislative branch. They work tirelessly. They are people who 
are up till late at night. They are people who care deeply about not 
only the success of the House of Representatives and the people who 
work here but also the institution. It is my hope that in the coming 
years we will be able to further work on issues related to employment, 
issues related to pay, issues related to student loans.
  But I would add an overriding remark, and that is that I believe that 
this institution and body is well served by the men and women who are 
here. And we have not only respect for them, but we also give them our 
gratitude and our thanks; and that goes for all the people who are 
living through some very difficult times now, when we have some offices 
closed, when we have some uncertain times that we are dealing with. And 
I think that they should hear, just as the gentleman from Wisconsin 
(Mr. Obey) and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Hall) have stated, that we 
are proud of the men and women who work here, the police who protect 
us, and the people who day-to-day come into contact with us, including 
those people who serve in our cafeterias and other avenues to support 
this institution.
  Mr. Speaker, this is a good conference report which we have been 
discussing. It is one which responds to the critical needs of the first 
branch of our government, which is the legislative branch. Adopting 
this rule will allow us to consider this important conference report 
and send it quickly to the President for his signature. I urge a 
``yes'' vote on the rule and adoption of this must-do piece of 
legislation.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the rule for 
the Legislative Branch Conference Report. I commend the conferees for 
their work in preparing this report. The report includes important 
provisions that have a beneficial impact on the entire Washington, D.C. 
region and improve the quality of life for the thousands of men and 
women working on Capitol Hill.
  I came to Congress to promote more livable communities with the 
Federal Government being a better partner to make our families safe, 
healthy and economically secure. An important part of making those 
communities livable is ensuring that people have choices about where 
they live, work, and how they travel.
  During these troubled times that have fallen upon us since September 
11, it is easy to lose sight of the essential daily items that improve 
quality of life. I commend my colleagues for moving forward on key 
provisions that will strengthen communities and give employees improved 
choices on how they live and work.
  These livability provisions include the full funding of an increase 
in the allowable amount to $65 for Legislative Branch employees 
participating in the transit benefit program. In addition to this 
important provision, language is also included to update bike 
facilities here on the Hill including providing new, more secure bike 
lockers for those Representatives and staff who bike to work, and to 
study alternatives for a staff fitness center.
  These types of provisions that improve quality of life for employees 
and the livability of the communities in which they live is an 
important step in making America stronger and more resilient no matter 
the disconcerting circumstances at hand.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I 
move the previous question on the resolution.
  The previous question was ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaTourette). The question is on the 
resolution.
  The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that 
the ayes appeared to have it.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a 
quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not 
present.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further 
proceedings on this question are postponed.
  The point of no quorum is considered withdrawn.

                          ____________________
                              {time}  1630