[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 18]
[House]
[Pages 24897-24898]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. LEWIS of Georgia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield to my friend and 
colleague, the chairman of the Rules Committee, to inquire about the 
schedule for next week.
  Mr. DREIER. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Obviously, the House 
has completed its work for the day and for the week.
  We will convene at 12:30 on Monday for morning hour and at 2 p.m. for 
legislative business. We will consider several measures under 
suspension of the rules. A final list of those measures to be scheduled 
will be getting to Members' offices by the end of the day. Any votes 
that may be called on those measures will be rolled until 6:30 Monday 
afternoon or early Monday evening.
  For Tuesday and the balance of the week, if the gentleman will 
continue to yield, the House will consider additional legislation under 
suspension of the rules, as well as two measures, the one I just 
mentioned, H.R. 1751, and I announced the filing of amendments for 
that, and also the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, which is much talked 
about here. We also anticipate that the House will next week consider 
additional appropriations conference reports as they become available.
  On Friday, we will not be in session, as Members know, so that there 
will be an opportunity for all of us to participate in Veterans' Day 
ceremonies that take place in our districts.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for yielding; and I would be happy to 
entertain any questions he might have.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, next Tuesday is Election Day in 
many States and localities around the country. Given that we are 
scheduled to be in session and voting, how do you think votes might be 
structured that day in order to accommodate Members who have elections 
in their States?
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, I will tell my 
colleagues that the State I represent is nearly 3,000 miles away, and 
we are having a very important election in our State. I have voted by 
absentee ballot. I did that just this week and sent my ballot in.
  We have a great deal of work to do, not only on Tuesday but next 
week, so we will be meeting here, and we have the items that I 
mentioned, the measures that will be considered under suspension, we 
have the very important Secure Access to Justice and Court Protection 
Act that needs to be considered, and we just have to proceed with our 
work.
  So let me say that we do want every Member to participate in those 
elections, but I suspect that, in light of the fact that we will have 
so much work to do here, that Members should plan to be in Washington 
during the day on Tuesday.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, could the chairman tell me what 
appropriations conference reports we might expect to see on the floor 
next week?
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, as I said in my 
remarks earlier today, the chairman of

[[Page 24898]]

the Appropriations Committee, the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Lewis), has done an absolutely phenomenonal job in moving these 
measures through. As you know, we have just voted on the foreign 
operations appropriations bill conference report, and we have three 
conference groups that are continuing to meet on Energy and Water, the 
Science, State, Justice, and Commerce appropriation bill, and the 
Military Quality of Life appropriations conference report.
  From the conversation I have had with the chairman of the committee, 
it is his hope that we have those three measures up for consideration 
at some point next week.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Does the gentleman have any idea of which days 
they may go to conference?
  Mr. DREIER. All three of those bills that I mentioned, the Energy and 
Water conference report and the Science, State, Justice, and Commerce 
conference report, and Military Quality of Life, they are all in 
conference as we speak. It is our hope that those conferences will be 
completed and those conference reports will be filed in the House. We 
cannot anticipate exactly when their work will be completed. We just 
want it to happen as expeditiously as possible.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Chairman, on which day next week might we 
consider the budget reconciliation bill that calls for more than $50 
billion in mandatory spending cuts?
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, as I think the 
gentleman heard in my announcement, I announced that it is our 
anticipation, we anticipate that we will consider what we call the 
Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, and it is a measure which we will be 
working on next week.
  Late next week or the middle to the latter part of next week, we 
anticipate a vote here in the House on that very important measure that 
is designed to try and reduce the deficit and reform government and 
ensure that we can do the very important work that the American people 
sent us here to do.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Is the gentleman suggesting that we not call it 
mandatory spending cuts? You are calling it reduction, budget 
reduction?
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, what this deals 
with is mandatory spending, and what this deals with is the deficit 
challenge which Democrats and Republicans regularly decry here, and we 
are trying to focus on the reduction of the deficit, and that is the 
reason that we are appropriately referring to this as the Deficit 
Reduction Act.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman.
  I would further like to inquire about the majority plan to extend the 
Terrorism Risk Insurance Act. This is an important issue that has had 
broad bipartisan support in the past, and action is needed because it 
is scheduled to expire on December 31.
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I will say that this very important 
legislation, which I personally support, is at this moment being 
discussed by the leadership of the Financial Services Committee. They 
are working with the Department of the Treasury and Members in the 
leadership of the Banking Committee on the other side of the aisle, and 
we do hope very much that we will be able to put together a legislative 
package that can be considered before that very important December 31 
date to which my friend referred.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I really want to thank the 
gentleman for being patient. I understand that our Financial Services 
Committee Democrats stand ready to work on a bipartisan basis on this, 
and they have asked for a markup as soon as possible. Since time is 
running out, I would like to ask my colleague why we could not simply 
take up H.R. 1153, a bill that is a largely bipartisan product that the 
Financial Services Committee reported last fall, but never acted upon.
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, I would say 
that we are taking that into consideration. We do not have it scheduled 
at this moment, but I appreciate my friend's raising this issue, and we 
will certainly take it under advisement and look at your 
recommendation, I hope from your perspective, favorably.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from 
California.

                          ____________________