[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 4725-4726]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. HOYER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the distinguished gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. DeLay), the majority leader, for the purposes of asking the 
majority leader the schedule for the coming week.
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman for yielding. I am 
told that the airports are still open. I know all of our Members are 
rushing to catch their planes to go back to their districts, and I wish 
them a very good weekend. But, Mr. Speaker, I do appreciate the 
gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) for yielding to me.
  Mr. Speaker, the House will convene on Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. for 
morning hour and 2 p.m. for legislative business. We will consider 
several measures under suspension of the rules, and a final list of 
those bills will be sent to the Members' offices early next week. There 
will be no votes in the House before 6:30 on Tuesday.
  On Wednesday we expect to consider two bills from the Committee on 
Ways and Means: the Miscellaneous Trade and Technical Corrections Act 
of 2003 and H.R. 743, the Social Security Protection Act of 2003.
  On Thursday we expect to consider H.R. 878, the Armed Forces Tax 
Fairness Act.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I will be happy 
to answer any questions the gentleman may have.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for his comments. Reclaiming my 
time, the first question I have, Mr. Leader, am I correct that the two 
tax bills that you refer to as Miscellaneous Trade and Technical 
Corrections and Social Security Protection Act are essentially 
technical in nature?
  Mr. DeLAY. If the gentleman would continue to yield, that is correct.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Majority Leader, could you advise the House of when 
your expectation is that the medical malpractice legislation would be 
coming to the floor?
  Mr. DeLAY. If the gentleman would continue to yield, I appreciate the 
gentleman asking. My understanding is that the Committee on the 
Judiciary and the Committee on Energy and Commerce have tentative plans 
to mark up the medical liability bills sponsored by the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Greenwood) sometime next week. Once that bill is 
reported by the two committees, I would expect quick action in this 
House. I would also note that the Committee on Energy and Commerce and 
the Committee on Ways and Means have held mark-ups of legislation 
dealing with medical errors. I would expect legislation dealing with 
medical errors to be considered soon by the House as well, probably in 
the same week as the medical liability bill.
  Mr. HOYER. Reclaiming my time, would I be correct that the soonest 
that would be done would be the week after next?
  Mr. DeLAY. The gentleman is correct.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman.
  Secondly, could the majority leader tell me when he expects the 
budget resolution to be scheduled for the floor? I yield to the 
gentleman.
  Mr. DeLAY. I appreciate the gentleman yielding. I will say we will be 
as ambitious as I have seen in a long time in trying to bring the 
budget to the floor of the House, get the budget process done in an 
expedited manner. The Committee on the Budget is continuing to hold 
hearings with administration officials, economists and other budget 
experts; but we expect the House to consider the budget resolution 
actually on a schedule that allows us to have the conference report 
completed by April 15, as the Budget Act requires.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for that answer; and reclaiming my 
time, I would ask the gentleman if he expects the President's tax 
proposal, or the majority's tax proposal, to be included within the 
budget document. I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. DeLAY. I appreciate the gentleman yielding, and I would expect 
that there would be a tremendous debate over the size of the Economic 
Growth and Jobs Creation Act, and whatever that size is would be 
included in the budget that comes out of the Committee on the Budget, 
yes.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman. One additional question, Mr. 
Leader, with reference to the budget. Has the majority made a 
determination yet as to whether or not it will be a 5-year or a 10-year 
budget projection?
  Mr. DeLAY. If the gentleman would continue to yield, that decision 
has not been made yet. I know there are ongoing consultations with the 
chairman of the Committee on the Budget in the other body and also with 
the majority leader in the other body. The Speaker and the leadership 
on this side are consulting with them. That decision has not been made 
yet, but probably will be made fairly soon, certainly by the time the 
chairman lays out his mark.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the leader for that observation, and unfortunately 
I think I agree with him. But very frankly, Mr. Leader, if we could get 
maybe a little advice prior to the mark being laid on the table, it 
would be helpful for us to fairly consider the chairman's mark.
  Mr. DeLAY. If the gentleman would continue to yield, as the gentleman 
knows, it will probably be in the press before we even make the 
decision, so the gentleman can probably read it there.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman. And if he thinks the press will be 
dispositive of that issue, I will take that to heart.
  Mr. Leader, could you also tell me the status of the Partial Birth 
Abortion Bill that we had understood would

[[Page 4726]]

be considered early, perhaps as early as next week? And there was some 
discussion about it this week, but now we hear there may be an intent 
to wait on the other body's acting on this and sending it to the House. 
Can you bring us up to date on what the plans are on this?
  I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. DeLAY. I appreciate the gentleman yielding to me. At this time I 
do not believe the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Sensenbrenner) has 
scheduled any action on this legislation, the partial birth abortion 
ban. Having said that, I do believe that this is really important 
legislation. This is something that the Senate has indicated they will 
move early this year, and it is certainly something that I would expect 
the House to vote on at least by the beginning of the summer.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the leader for the information.

                          ____________________