[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 17582]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. LEWIS of Georgia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I wish to inquire of the leader 
the schedule of the House for next week.
  Mr. ROGERS of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. I yield to the gentleman from Michigan.
  Mr. ROGERS of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
yielding to me.
  Mr. Speaker, the House will convene on Monday at 10:30 a.m. for 
morning hour and 12 p.m. for legislative business. We will likely 
consider several measures under suspension of the rules. A final list 
of those bills will be sent to Members' offices by the end of the week. 
We will also consider the fiscal year 2004 agricultural appropriations 
bill on Monday. Any votes called on these measures will be rolled until 
6:30 p.m.
  For Tuesday and the balance of the week, we may consider additional 
legislation under suspension of the rules. We are also expected to 
consider several bills under a rule including the fiscal year 2004 
through 2005 State Department authorization bill; H.R. 2122, the 
Project BioShield Act of 2003; the fiscal year 2004 Department of the 
Interior appropriations bill; and H.R. 2210, the School Readiness Act 
of 2003.
  Finally, Members should be aware that on Thursday Prime Minister Tony 
Blair will address a joint session of Congress at 4 p.m.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding and will be happy to 
answer any questions he may have.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, I thank the 
gentleman from Michigan for responding, but I would like to continue to 
yield to him to find out if next week we are bringing up the Head Start 
reauthorization bill, and do you expect to have an open rule on this 
bill.
  Mr. ROGERS of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue 
to yield, I would defer to the Committee on Rules, but can assure the 
gentleman that the gentleman from California (Mr. Dreier) and his 
colleagues will work hard to address the concerns Members bring to that 
committee.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, continuing to yield and to 
inquire, on Medicare prescription drugs, when does the gentleman expect 
we will appoint conferees on this legislation?
  Mr. ROGERS of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
continuing to yield. We hope to appoint conferees to the bill on Monday 
and look forward to working fast and furiously on this issue.
  In fact, I believe there have already been some informal 
conversations across the Capitol on this issue. Having said that, we do 
not intend to create any artificial time lines and, instead, will work 
as long and as hard as we can to get the best possible project.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. If this does occur on Monday, as the gentleman 
stated, when during the day would that be scheduled? What time of day 
would it be scheduled?
  Mr. ROGERS of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, it would most likely be after 
the ag appropriation bill in late afternoon.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, when does the gentleman think we 
might see a conference report? Would it be before the August recess?
  Mr. ROGERS of Michigan. Again, Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will 
continue to yield, I would defer to those who are involved in the 
conference. We are not going to set any artificial time lines. We want 
to make sure we have the best possible product, and so we will move 
ahead on Monday with the conferees, and certainly after next week we 
can reassess where we are time-wise.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I would continue to yield to my 
friend from Michigan on the child tax credit. When does he expect the 
conference committee to meet to report out a conference report? It has 
now been 27 days, 22 hours-plus since we appointed conferees. Does the 
gentleman have any idea when we can expect a report coming to this 
House?
  Mr. ROGERS of Michigan. I thank the gentleman from Georgia for 
continuing to yield.
  As we understand, there are some differences, and we hope the Senate 
conferees can quickly realize the sensible approach of the House and 
allow us to move a conference report before the end of July. Certainly 
that would be our hope.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I will continue to yield to my 
friend from Michigan to inquire about trade agreements. Does the 
gentleman anticipate that we may have votes before the August recess on 
any trade agreements?
  Mr. ROGERS of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I understand that both the 
Committee on Ways and Means and the Committee on the Judiciary held 
markups of the proposed Chilean-Singapore trade agreements this week. 
And while we have a significant amount of work to do in the next 2 
weeks, I am hopeful we can find some time to consider this legislation 
before August. But, again, we will not set any artificial time lines, 
although we do hope that can happen.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Let me say to my friend from Michigan, Mr. 
Speaker, that it seems like we are going to be very busy during the 
next few days before the August recess.
  Mr. ROGERS of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, we will have a 5-day workweek 
certainly both weeks before the recess.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend for 
responding to the questions.

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