[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 3395-3396]
[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 and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I rise for the purpose of inquiring of the 
majority leader the schedule for the week to come.
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. HOYER. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, the House will convene on Tuesday at 12:30 
for morning hour debates 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 Members' offices by the end of the 
week. Any votes called on these measures will be rolled until 6:30 p.m.
  On Wednesday, the House will convene at 10 a.m. We plan to consider 
H.R. 339, the Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act. In 
addition, we plan to consider H.R. 3717, the Broadcast Decency 
Enforcement Act.
  Finally, I would like to remind all Members that we do not plan to 
have votes next Friday, March 12. I will be happy to answer any 
questions that the gentleman from Maryland has.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for that information, 
and also for planning purposes that assurance for March 12.
  We talked last week and we know that the highway reauthorization 
extension for 2 months was worked out. When can we expect the 
committees to mark up the reauthorization bill, and when do you expect 
to see it on the floor.
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to yield, I 
believe the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young) is in the process of 
working with the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar), the ranking 
member, and members of the Committee on Transportation and 
Infrastructure to develop a product that can move through this House 
before the Easter recess and be signed into law as quickly as possible. 
So if we back away from our Easter recess, I would hope that the 
committee would, within the next couple of weeks, be marking up a bill 
so we can get it to the floor before the Easter recess.

                              {time}  1300

  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for that answer. Can the leader tell 
me whether or not there is an expectation that this will be, as we have 
had in the past, a 6-year reauthorization, or is it possible that there 
would be a shorter reauthorization, say, of 2 years, obviously focused 
on trying to build jobs and create jobs in the country?
  Mr. DeLAY. It is a jobs bill, a very important jobs bill to all of us 
here in the House. We want to do what we can to create these jobs and 
get them going as fast as possible. To answer the gentleman's question 
about whether it is a 2-year bill, a 6-year bill, what is the amount 
here or there, I am not advised, quite frankly. There are discussions 
about all of that. I do not think any decision has been made along 
those lines. The gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar) and the 
gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young) are still discussing that, but I am 
sure they soon will come to some sort of understanding as to how we 
will proceed.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman. As we, as well, also discussed last 
week, can the leader bring us up to date on the progress of the budget 
resolution and when he expects it to be marked up in committee and when 
we can expect to have that bill on the floor?
  Mr. DeLAY. It is my understanding after a lot of discussion that 
Chairman Nussle and his Budget Committee members are working furiously 
to complete all their hearings and be prepared to mark it up possibly 
as early as next week. I would imagine moving the budget resolution to 
the floor the week after the committee reports its resolution out of 
the committee.
  Mr. HOYER. I know this is preliminary and it is early, but my 
presumption would be that as we did in years past, that the minority 
would have its rights to submit such substitutes as it deemed 
appropriate?
  Mr. DeLAY. I am encouraging the minority to present substitutes so 
that we can have a very healthy debate about the future of this country 
and how we would as a House decide that the importance of the budget is 
such

[[Page 3396]]

that we can come to some sort of agreement as a House to move a budget 
along.
  Mr. HOYER. Reclaiming my time, if I may say, somewhat, I know, 
facetiously, but we are pleased that the leader is encouraging us to do 
so. As a matter of fact, we are as pleased about that as we were last 
year when the gentleman from Texas urged everybody to support our 
motion to instruct, that we follow the House Democratic substitute as 
opposed to the one that we actually passed. So we are encouraged by the 
gentleman's encouragement.
  Last, if I can, the FSC bill. We talked about this last week. 
Obviously, the Europeans have started to impose some penalties. Can the 
gentleman tell us the status of legislation to deal with the FSC issue?
  Mr. DeLAY. As the gentleman knows, the Committee on Ways and Means 
has reported a bill out, H.R. 2896, the American Jobs Creation Act. 
This was reported last year. But we continue to work with the committee 
and the other body and the administration to bring that bill to the 
floor in a form that not only meets our obligations to the WTO but also 
ensures the continued competitive position of all U.S. companies. I 
anticipate that we will bring such a bill to the floor in the very near 
future.
  Mr. HOYER. I presume, as well, that when and if that is brought to 
the floor, because there has been some real disagreement on who that 
bill ought to advantage and focus on as the gentleman knows in terms of 
domestic manufacturers as opposed to manufacturers who do a lot of work 
overseas, and hopefully we will be able to offer alternatives to 
certainly the bill that was reported out last year, if it is the same 
bill. As the gentleman knows, we would have an alternative to that. Can 
the leader give us assurance that we will have that option?
  Mr. DeLAY. The gentleman knows that it is the tradition of the House 
to keep Ways and Means tax bills very tight. We have always as a 
tradition discouraged amendments, but we have encouraged substitutes. I 
cannot speak for the Committee on Rules; but if there are alternatives 
in the form of substitutes, then they will be taken into consideration.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for that observation. One additional 
observation. That is obviously an important option. I think the 
gentleman states correctly the practice of the House under both 
Democrats and Republicans.
  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. HOYER. I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts.
  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. If I could ask the gentleman from Texas, 
I like to keep up with new trends in the House. I was struck when the 
gentleman from Texas, the majority leader, said he could not speak for 
the Rules Committee.
  Is that a new development we had not previously known about?
  Mr. DeLAY. That tradition remains the same, I would say to my friend 
from Massachusetts.
  Mr. HOYER. I thought of that question, Mr. Leader, but I thought it 
was probably not worth asking because I knew the answer. But to the 
other question, with respect to offering substitutes, very frankly, 
what happens is you can offer a substitute, but if it is not germane 
and you do not receive a waiver when you are granted the right to offer 
the substitute, obviously on the one hand you have the ability to offer 
a substitute, but you do not really have the ability to offer an 
alternative. There is a very substantial difference.
  I do not necessarily expect an answer today, but I really would hope, 
because we are talking about very significant, important issues, where 
there are differences in a bipartisan fashion on either alternative, 
that alternatives should be allowed that are consistent with the 
objective, although, as the leader well knows, from time to time 
because of what is or is not included in the committee product may or 
may not be germane even though it is pointed to the subject. I offer 
that as food for thought because I think it is fair and I think it 
would be good for the American public to have a broader spectrum of 
options than is sometimes allowed to us, notwithstanding the fact that 
theoretically a substitute is made available.
  I think the gentleman understands my point, and I thank the gentleman 
for the information.

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