[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 18583]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  LIMITATION ON AMENDMENTS DURING FURTHER CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 2691, 
  DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 
                                  2004

  Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent 
that during consideration of H.R. 2691 in the Committee of the Whole 
pursuant to House Resolution 319, no further amendment to the bill may 
be offered except: pro forma amendments offered by the chairman or 
ranking minority member of the Committee on Appropriations or their 
designees for the purpose of debate and, the amendments printed in the 
Congressional Record and numbered 6, 15 and 16, each of which shall be 
debatable for 10 minutes;
  The amendments printed in the Congressional Record and numbered 4 and 
12, each of which shall be debatable for 20 minutes;
  The amendment printed in the Congressional Record and numbered 1, 
which shall be debatable for 30 minutes to be allocated as follows: 10 
minutes to the proponent, 15 minutes to the chairman of the Committee 
on Appropriations, and 5 minutes to the ranking minority member;
  A substitute amendment by the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Matheson) to 
the amendment numbered 1, which shall be debatable for 20 minutes;
  An amendment by the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Taylor) to the 
amendment numbered 1, which shall be debatable for 10 minutes;
  The amendments printed in the Congressional Record and numbered 2 and 
9, each of which shall be debatable for 50 minutes to be allocated as 
follows: 15 minutes to the proponent, 25 minutes to the chairman of the 
Committee on Appropriations, and 10 minutes to the ranking minority 
member;
  An amendment by the gentleman from California (Mr. Gallegly) 
regarding bear feeding, which shall be debatable for 10 minutes;
  An amendment by the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Inslee) regarding 
Forest Service regulations on roadless areas, which shall be debatable 
for 50 minutes; and
  An amendment by the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Shadegg) regarding 
Forest Service land acquisition, which shall be debatable for 10 
minutes.
  Each such amendment may be offered only by the Member designated in 
this request, or a designee, or the Member who caused it to be printed, 
or a designee, shall be considered as read, shall not be subject to 
amendment, except as specified, and shall not be subject to a demand 
for a division of the question in the House or in the Committee of the 
Whole.
  Each amendment shall be debatable for the time specified, and time on 
each amendment shall be equally divided and controlled by the proponent 
and an opponent, except as specified.
  All points of order against each amendment shall be considered as 
reserved pending completion of debate thereon, and each amendment may 
be withdrawn by its proponent after debate thereon.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from North Carolina?
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, reserving the right to object, I would simply 
like to note a few facts.
  This is a bill that I happen to oppose, and yet we are trying to work 
with the majority to speed up consideration of the bill because we 
think it would suit everyone's interests if the bill is completed 
around eight o'clock tonight rather than eight o'clock tomorrow 
morning.
  I would also like to point out that at the request of the majority, 
we in the minority withheld amendments during the consideration of 
every appropriations bill so far at the subcommittee level except for 
one. We have also agreed to consideration of two bills, even though the 
GPO did not provide copies of the legislation as late as last Friday.
  The military construction bill was completed in 1 hour, with 
procedural cooperation from both sides. The Department of Defense bill 
was completed in a similar length of time; and in the process, the 
minority also cooperated in bypassing the need to have a rule.
  Three of the six bills that have been brought up so far have been 
brought up by unanimous consent, thereby saving everyone time in terms 
of the need to go to the Committee on Rules. Those unanimous consent 
agreements limited amendments and limited time for consideration of 
those amendments. So I think it is fair to say that we have helped the 
majority greatly run the trains on time, even if we have on occasion 
disagreed with the contents in the boxcars.
  I simply wanted to take the time to point those facts out because of 
some of the comments that I have heard the last 3 days from some 
Members of the majority about the ``lack of cooperation'' from the 
minority. I think there has been extraordinary cooperation, even though 
we have differed with the number of bills; and even though, for 
instance, on the labor-health bill last week we voted unanimously in 
opposition to it, we still cooperated in accommodating the majority in 
terms of schedule.
  So I simply want to take note of that. I am glad we have finally 
gotten to this UC. I do not have any objection to it; but Mr. Speaker, 
I wanted to make clear and put in the record what the facts have been 
with respect to cooperation between the two parties on these procedural 
matters.
  Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. OBEY. I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina.
  Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the 
ranking member for his cooperation and also the ranking member of the 
subcommittee for the cooperation he has shown in drafting this bill and 
on the floor of debate.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I withdraw my reservation of objection.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from North Carolina?
  There was no objection.

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