[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 13108-13109]
[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 and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, I rise to inquire of the gentleman from 
Missouri the schedule for the remainder of the week and for next week.
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. BONIOR. I yield to the gentleman from Missouri.
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, the gentleman from 
Michigan, for yielding.
  We have now finished the legislative business for this week. We will 
have a pro forma session on Monday. On Tuesday, the House meets at 10 
a.m. We have votes scheduled beginning as early as noon.
  The flag-burning constitutional amendment will be on Tuesday; 
Commerce-State-Justice appropriations on Tuesday; then the Iran-Libya 
Sanctions Act.
  Then the balance of the week we will finish Commerce-State-Justice; 
Foreign Operations appropriations; charitable choice; and hope to have 
a patients' bill of rights on the floor the balance of the week next 
week.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, if I may inquire further of the gentleman, 
it is a pretty heavy schedule, the Patients' Bill of Rights, charitable 
choice, as I understand it.
  May I ask the gentleman from Missouri when he expects that the 
campaign finance bill will come back to the floor? We have a majority, 
a bipartisan majority in this body who wanted a more fair rule. We hope 
that the Republican majority will bring another rule that is more 
equitable, more fair, that recollects the vote that we just had.
  I would like to inquire when that might happen.

                              {time}  1745

  Mr. BLUNT. If the gentleman will continue to yield, we expected, of 
course, to have the campaign finance bill on the floor tonight. That 
bill will not be on the floor because of the defeat of the rule, and I 
think we will just have to look further at the vote today and the 
structure of that rule and see when and if that bill can come back to 
the floor.
  Mr. BONIOR. So is the gentleman telling us that it may not come back 
to the floor of the House?
  Mr. BLUNT. I am not saying that. I have not had time to calculate 
this. We really thought we were going to win this rule and vote on this 
tonight. We thought it was a fair rule, an equitable rule that clearly 
gave all options. Apparently, the majority did not think that, and I 
have no further information.
  Mr. BONIOR. Let me ask the gentleman when he expects to bring the 
Patient's Bill of Rights to the floor; at what point next week?
  Mr. BLUNT. We do not know yet, but we are hopeful that that bill 
could be on the floor next week. We think it would be mid to late in 
the week, if we get it to the floor, but we are hoping that that is one 
of the things that will come to the floor next week. It is an important 
issue; needs to be debated and moved forward. We hope we can start and 
maybe complete that process next week.
  Mr. BONIOR. And do we know under what procedure the Patient's Bill of 
Rights may be brought to the floor next week?
  Mr. BLUNT. I am unaware of any procedural decisions that have been 
made on that.
  Mr. BONIOR. On the question of the faith-based initiatives, is that a 
probable, a maybe, or a most likely next week?
  Mr. BLUNT. I think it is most likely that that bill will come out of 
the Committee on Ways and Means to the floor next week.
  Mr. BONIOR. And if I might ask one other question of my friend from 
Missouri, what other appropriation bills

[[Page 13109]]

did the gentleman mention that may see the floor action?
  Mr. BLUNT. I mentioned we would go to Commerce-Justice, move to 
finish that and then move to Foreign Operations appropriations next 
week, if we meet our schedule.
  Mr. BONIOR. I thank my friend, and I encourage him to encourage the 
rest of the leadership on his side of the aisle to bring back a rule 
that reflects the vote we just had. The American people I think 
desperately want us to address this campaign finance issue, they want 
to do it in a fair way, and I think the gentleman from Massachusetts 
and the gentleman from Connecticut deserve to have a fair shot at the 
bill that they want on the House floor.
  Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. BONIOR. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
  Mr. BARTON of Texas. I just wanted to announce, for members of the 
Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality of the Committee on Energy and 
Commerce, that we are going to finish our markup this evening. Food 
will be provided on a bipartisan basis, so I would encourage all 
members of that subcommittee to come back to the markup, and I thank 
the gentleman for yielding.

                          ____________________