[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 626]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1515
 ANNOUNCEMENT BY COMMITTEE ON RULES REGARDING AMENDMENTS TO H.R. 3030, 
        IMPROVING THE COMMUNITY SERVICES BLOCK GRANT ACT OF 2003

  (Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, the Committee on 
Rules may meet next week to grant a rule for the consideration of H.R. 
3030, Improving the Community Services Block Grant Act of 2003, which 
may require that amendments be printed in the Congressional Record 
prior to their consideration on the floor.
  The Committee on Education and the Workforce ordered the bill 
reported on October 1, 2003, and filed its report with the House on 
October 10, 2003. Members should draft their amendments to the bill as 
reported by the Committee on Education and the Workforce. Members 
should use the Office of Legislative Counsel to ensure that their 
amendments are drafted in the most appropriate format. Members are also 
advised to check with the Office of the Parliamentarian to be certain 
their amendments comply with the rules of the House.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. I yield to the gentleman from 
Maryland.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  As the gentleman was on the floor when the majority leader and I had 
our weekly colloquy, and he said I was going to be very pleased, I was 
pleased to hear the information, of course, as to how one perfects an 
amendment that needs to be made in order, but I did not hear anything 
about whether or not the Committee on Rules is going to grant, as I 
asked the leader, the ability of the minority to offer any substitute 
and/or offer substantive amendments.
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, 
I would say to the gentleman that the Committee on Rules, as this 
announcement stated, may meet, I believe may very likely meet on this, 
and the Committee on Rules will obviously consider any request from any 
Members with regard to amendments. If the gentleman from Maryland or 
any other Members have amendments, we will be more than glad to listen 
to them and will give them all the merited courtesies.
  Mr. HOYER. If the gentleman will continue to yield, Mr. Speaker, I 
appreciate very much that warm assurance that the gentleman from 
Florida will be glad to listen to me or to others.
  I am a big fan of Martina McBride. I do not know if the gentleman is 
familiar with her. She is one of the great country music singers in 
America, and she has a song, the title of which is ``I know you can 
hear me, but are you listening.'' And I know you may hear me, but I 
want you to be listening as well.
  As the gentleman knows, as he is a long-time distinguished member of 
the Committee on Rules, we are very hopeful we will start this session 
off on the right foot and that the minority will be given, as your 
minority asked when you were in the minority, for the opportunity to 
offer amendments and substitutes so that our perspective can be 
considered as well as the majority's perspective. We think that serves 
the American people well. We think it is what you asked for when you 
were in the minority. We believe we gave it to you most of the time. 
You are correct, not all the time.
  But we would hope, and this bill I think is not one of the very 
contentious bills that we will take up perhaps during the session, but 
we would hope that that opportunity would be afforded the minority.
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Once again reclaiming my time, 
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman very much for his comments and 
concerns, and as I stated before, what we are asking at this point, 
precisely because we will be looking very much forward to amendments, 
is that if any Members have ideas for such, is to please be ready with 
them because there may be a requirement that amendments be printed in 
the Congressional Record prior to consideration on the floor.

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