[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 18]
[House]
[Pages 24288-24290]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF MOTIONS TO SUSPEND THE RULES

  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I 
call up House Resolution 859 and ask for its immediate consideration.
  The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:

                              H. Res. 859

       Resolved, That it shall be in order at any time on the 
     legislative day of Friday, November 19, 2004, for the Speaker 
     to entertain motions that the House suspend the rules. The 
     Speaker or his designee shall consult with the Minority 
     Leader or her designee on the designation of any matter for 
     consideration pursuant to this resolution.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaHood). The gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Sessions) is recognized for 1 hour.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield 
the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Hastings), 
pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During 
consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose 
of debate only.
  This rule provides that suspensions will be in order at any time on 
the legislative day of Friday, November 19, 2004. It also provides that 
the Speaker or his designee will consult with the Minority Leader or 
her designee on any suspension considered under the rule.
  Mr. Speaker, the Republican leadership of this House has sent out a 
positive legislative plan for this week and the balance of the 108th 
Congress on behalf of the American people. The goal of this plan is to 
clean up this Congress's legislative calendar by passing a number of 
bills before we adjourn that will improve America's economic and 
national security.
  Over the past year, Congress has passed a number of important new 
education, trade, tax, and national security bills that will keep 
Americans safer, create new jobs, and improve our economy. Later today, 
and for the rest of the week, we will consider legislation to improve 
the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and provide for 
consideration of outstanding spending measures to ensure that Congress 
can complete its work before we adjourn.
  I understand that Members on either side of our aisle may have 
different views about how to address these issues, and we have had and 
will continue to have the opportunity to hear a great deal of debate 
from both sides not only on these issues but also on other issues that 
are important to this Nation.
  However, some of this legislation that the Republican House 
leadership has also scheduled for consideration on behalf of America 
has broad support from Members of both the majority and the minority. 
And, in an attempt to make sure that this important work is finished by 
the end of the 108th Congress, we are here today to pass this rule to 
provide for consideration of these bills under rules that will require 
them to pass by a two-thirds majority.
  This balanced rule provides the minority with the ability to consult 
with the Speaker on any suspension that is offered, ensuring that their 
input and views are duly considered before any legislation is 
considered under this rule brought to the floor today.
  Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to 
support this uncontroversial and balanced rule.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Sessions) for yielding me this time, and I yield myself such 
time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, as has already been explained, under Rule 15 of the 
House rules, bills may be considered under suspension of the rules only 
on Mondays and Tuesdays. The 108th Congress has approved the 
consideration of legislation under suspension of the rules on 
Wednesdays. Therefore, this resolution is required in order for the 
House to consider any bill under suspension of the rules today.
  Let me be clear from the onset, Mr. Speaker. The first day of the 
session or last day of the session, it does not really matter. I and so 
many others in this body on both sides of the aisle have grave concerns 
about handling bills outside the normal parameters of the way the House 
should conduct its business. When the House does operate this way, it 
effectively curtails our rights and responsibilities as serious 
legislators. Frankly, Members should be very wary of allowing the 
leadership to usurp our rights.
  I understand the circumstances and the end-of-the-session deadline of 
which the majority speaks, but their plan is for us to leave today or 
tomorrow without passing 11 of the 13 bare essential appropriations 
bills that each Congress is constitutionally mandated to pass into law. 
Shame on us.
  We are planning on leaving today or tomorrow without passing a 
highway reauthorization bill, the only legislation this Congress would 
have considered that actually had the potential to create jobs. Shame 
on us.
  We are planning on leaving today or tomorrow without passing 
comprehensive energy legislation. We are planning on leaving tomorrow 
or today without extending the child care tax credit to all working 
families. Shame on us.
  We are planning on leaving today or tomorrow without increasing the 
minimum wage. Shame on us.
  We are planning on leaving today while 44 million or more Americans 
remain uninsured. Shame on us.
  We are planning on leaving today or tomorrow without extending 
unemployment benefits for 1.9 million Americans who lost their jobs 
during President Bush's first term in office. Shame on us.

[[Page 24289]]

  We are planning on leaving tomorrow or today without doing anything 
to extend the solvency of Social Security. Shame on us.
  Just yesterday, my friends in the majority voted to again raise the 
debt limit. They added billions and possibly trillions more to our 
national debt, leaving our children and grandchildren to pick up the 
tab for generations to come, and they call themselves the party of 
fiscal responsibility. Shame on them.
  Footnote right there: Something that is not discussed in this body 
very much, nor was it discussed in the national debate that just 
concluded with President Bush and Senator Kerry, is the fact that the 
dollar around the world is troubled, to say the least, and that can 
have implications for the globe. Somewhere in all of this deficit-
building, some of us are going to have to begin to do more than green-
eye-shade talk in explaining to the American public the implications of 
the deficits that we are running on the currency that is the currency 
of the realm of the world.
  For the last 2 years, the majority has been so busy trying to keep 
its job that it has not done its job. Shame on them.
  The Republican leadership has also assured us that the Minority 
Leader will receive no less than 2 hours notice of any bill before it 
comes to the House floor. We expect that this assurance will be honored 
by the majority as well as previous agreements that have been reached 
between both sides of the aisle on the practices of considering 
legislation as a suspension. This includes the unwritten rule of not 
bringing controversial legislation to the floor under suspension of the 
rules.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, the American people understood exactly what the parties 
stood for, the accomplishments of those parties, and that is what the 
election was about. I am pleased today to be back in the United States 
Congress on the floor of the House of Representatives touting not the 
things that the gentleman from Florida talked about that did not get 
done but rather the things that did get done, accomplishments that 
occurred during this year.
  I am very proud of the leadership of the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. 
Hastert) our Speaker, and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay), and the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Pryce), and the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. 
Blunt) who have provided this body with the leadership to ensure that 
the things that were done in the 108th Congress got done.
  Mr. Speaker, I hold up 15 pages worth of bills, of accomplishments 
that this body was a part of. Mr. Speaker, this body was a part of 
making sure that we would answer the question about how Medicare would 
address the needs of senior citizens and low-income seniors, and we 
understood and we understand today that 95 percent of all of the money 
that is spent in Medicare is spent on major, critical, life-threatening 
issues that people have. We have changed that now to, instead of 
dealing with a person once they are sick, we are going to change that 
to preventative type of spending. That is what we believe Medicare 
should be doing. That is not something that we should be ashamed of. 
That is something we should be proud of.
  We are proud that we will have in place this next year again, once 
again, for low-income seniors, the ability for this government to help 
them not have to make a decision in buying and receiving their 
prescription drugs. That is something I am proud of.
  I am proud to know that we, once again, had a tax bill, a tax bill 
that would make sure that we become competitive with this marketplace. 
Mr. Speaker, when we cut taxes, business gets that money, and they do a 
bunch of things that are great for this country. They buy more 
equipment, they employ more people, and we become competitive with the 
world.
  I would say that Republicans have a different philosophy than 
Democrats. We believe that we should do a few things and do them well, 
and that is what this Republican Congress has done this year. We have 
not just rushed out and tried to tackle every single issue. We have 
done the things that will make a huge difference for the American 
public.
  I believe that that is what this election was about, and I believe 
that this President stood before the American people and talked about 
what his policies had been and will be. I think they are 
accomplishments that I am proud of, I think that this body is proud of 
them, and I darn sure know that the American people turned out in 
record numbers to say thank you so much for the service to this great 
Nation.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I 
may consume.
  I rise only to engage my colleague in a colloquy. The gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Sessions) says the words ``American people.'' Well, there 
are 55 million American people that probably have some differences with 
some of the things that the gentleman has discussed. Let me join my 
good friend in saying to him unequivocally that all of the things that 
he says that passed this body doubtless are good things from his point 
of view. But there are some that are not good things from other 
people's points of view.
  Now, I would ask the gentleman a question: Did the President of the 
United States sign all 13 appropriations bills as is mandated in the 
United States Constitution to be done by this body by October 1 of each 
fiscal year? Did the President sign 13 appropriations measures? And 
answer the next question: How many did he sign?

                              {time}  0930

  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman from Florida 
engaging in this wonderful discussion. I have been here for 8 years. 
During those 8 years as a Member of Congress, I believe 5 of those 
years I have been here at Christmas time, the week of Christmas, doing 
the job that needed to be done.
  I do understand that we do have these 13 spending bills that need to 
be done. I also recognize we have a process. The gentleman and I sit up 
late at night in the Committee on Rules attempting to work through 
those processes to make sure the President does get the needed 
legislation before him. But we have the underpinnings of the 
Constitution where we have two bodies, the Senate and the House. If we 
do our work, it does not mean they have to do their work. Likewise, if 
they do their work, it does not mean we have to. So we have to come to 
an agreement and those agreements sometimes take a little longer, but 
what we have avoided is shutting down the government.
  The government has done its business. We have been very successful to 
make sure that we address those issues. So I would say that, well, yes, 
the President is supposed to sign those bills, but at least we have not 
gone home before he will get a chance to do that.
  Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I might 
comment that I thought perhaps my friend was on a talk show where one 
of the hosts asked him a question, and as is typical of us, we give 
nice long answers without specifically answering the question.
  I just put out again for my friend that the President has signed two 
of the appropriation measures. We have been here, you and I, late into 
the year doing our work, and there have been other times when this has 
not been done pursuant to the Constitution. That does not make it 
right. Basically, what we have done, we have borrowed money from 
foreign investors in order that we might go about giving tax cuts, 
which ultimately will allow that we will pay greater interest on the 
deficit over a period of time, and your children and mine, and their 
children, are going to pay this debt.
  Now, my colleague can name it anything he wants to, but we have a 
responsibility here in this body to pass

[[Page 24290]]

those 13 appropriation measures. And the real reason we cannot pass 
them is because we have decided that we want to give tax cuts, and we 
cannot do the things that are necessary for highway transportation and 
child tax care; and I could go on and on.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, 
and I thank the gentleman for his observations about our not being able 
to do the things that need to be done because of tax cuts. Mr. Speaker, 
there is a difference between our parties. One of the differences is 
taxing and spending. We, as Republicans, believe that if we give the 
American people back more of their own money that they earned that we 
will create a circumstance, an environment, an economy in this country 
that grows to where people become employed, we become competitive with 
the world, and we do the things ultimately to give people, the American 
public, more of their own money so they can live their own dreams and 
make their own dreams happen.
  I do recognize we have a difference in our opinions. I do recognize 
that one party wants to tax and spend. I do understand that one party 
wants to give tax cuts and grow the economy. But at some point we also 
have to get our work done, and that is what we are trying to do today 
by saying that this rule is about allowing that necessary business when 
the minority leader, when the majority leader, and Speaker agree on 
legislation that can come to this floor.
  We are waiting here for other business to be finished and done, but 
it does not mean we should shut off debate or for other very important 
legislation if there is complete bipartisan agreement about moving 
forward. So I am proud today once again to stand here before the 
American public and to say we are ready to do business here in the 
House of Representatives, and in a few minutes we will have more work 
that needs to be done.
  We will handle legislation dealing with what is called IDEA, the 
Individuals With Disabilities Act, that deals with important education 
changes that have also been worked on and have bipartisan agreement 
that the gentleman and I heard about last night in the Committee on 
Rules.
  So for us to say we are not doing our work, that we are a failure is 
simply not, I do not believe, a correct enunciation of what this House 
of Representatives has stood for these last few years or stands for 
today. We are ready, capable, and able to work and reach out across the 
aisle to bring legislation that is important to the American people and 
for it to be sound legislation, for it to make a difference to the 
American people, but more importantly that it be done in a proper, 
cautious fashion that creates health and opportunity for the American 
economy and for the American family.
  That is what this United States Congress should be all about, 
producing a product that are accomplishments that we can be proud of.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaHood). Without objection, the previous 
question is ordered on the resolution.
  There was no objection.
  The resolution was agreed to.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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