[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 19]
[House]
[Pages 25703-25704]
[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 my friend from Missouri (Mr. 
Blunt), the acting majority leader, for the purposes of informing us of 
the schedule for the week to come.
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Maryland for yielding 
and would say that the House will convene on Tuesday at 10:30 p.m. for 
morning hour and 12 noon for legislative business. We will consider 
several measures under suspension of the rules. 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 
Tuesday.
  For Wednesday and the balance of the week, the House will consider 
additional legislation under suspension of the rules, as well as two 
measures under a rule, H.R. 1065, the United States Boxing Commission 
Act, and we anticipate either the budget or the tax reconciliation 
package on the floor next week.
  We also anticipate that the House will consider up to four additional 
appropriations conference reports as those reports become available. We 
have every reason to believe that those could all be available next 
week, and if they are, all of the appropriations bills will be passed 
individually and, with the exception of the defense and homeland 
security bills, the collection of the others, individually and under 
last year's spending limit.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for that information.
  I also want to reiterate what I understand has been the change in 
schedule for all of our Members to note that we will not be meeting on 
Monday, but Tuesday will be our day. I thank the gentleman for that 
information.
  Which appropriation bills do you expect to come on the floor next 
week?
  Mr. BLUNT. Well, there are four bills remaining, and we think any and 
all of those bills could be here next week. We have already sent the 
previous eight bills to the President's desk, and so we have the 
remaining bills, all of which are likely to be done by the end of next 
week.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. Do you anticipate a 
motion to go to conference on the DOD appropriations bill next week?
  Mr. BLUNT. I would expect to have that conference motion next week.
  Mr. HOYER. Do you know how early in the week that might be? 
Obviously, as you know, there is a very important motion to instruct 
which would be in order at that time. Many of our Members are concerned 
about that. Would you know when possibly that might be done? I yield to 
my friend.
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for yielding to me. I do 
not know exactly when in the week we would get to that, but I am 
hopeful that enough staff work and other progress has been made on that 
bill that it could be on the floor next week. If it is on the floor 
next week, we obviously would have to go to the official conference 
sometime midweek.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman. The current CR, as you know, runs 
out on Friday. First of all, presumably, we anticipate another CR 
coming. I am sure we have to have another CR at least for some 
agencies. How long do you think that CR would run? I yield to my 
friend.

[[Page 25704]]


  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend again for yielding. We are 
continuing to consult with the Senate on that. Of course, as a senior 
appropriator, as you well know, as we work the appropriations bills 
out, the nature of that CR changes. Ideally, we would not have to have 
a CR because it would be clear that we would have all the bills passed 
by Friday. If not, we would have to consult with the Senate, see how 
long they are willing to have a CR or how long we think is in the best 
interest of the process, but the appropriations work has gone well and 
I would not see any being extended for a significant period of time.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for that information.
  The budget reconciliation bill, we did not take it up today and the 
mandatory spending cuts bill today. When might we consider that?
  Mr. BLUNT. I thank my friend again for yielding, and we are 
continuing to work on that bill. We have asked our budget chairman to 
take one final look at it. We have not had a mandatory review of the 
mandatory programs in terms of looking at their budget for almost a 
decade now. Frankly, what we are learning is when you have not done 
anything in almost 10 years, it takes a little longer to do it than you 
thought it would.
  We hoped to have that bill on the floor today. The appropriate 
eagerness of Members to want to be sure and be home tomorrow for 
Veterans Day events and, frankly, the challenge of the last few details 
did not allow us to have that happen. So we have asked the budget 
chairman to look at those details again, and we hope to have that bill 
on the floor next week.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. So it is possible that 
that bill will be back next week?
  Mr. BLUNT. It is possible. I would like to say likely. I think it is 
likely it will be back, and certainly, it is possible it will be back 
next week.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, as I understand it, from your announcement, 
the tax reconciliation bill will also be on the floor next week? I 
yield to my friend.
  Mr. BLUNT. I thank my friend for yielding. At this point, we are 
still talking to the Ways and Means chairman about his schedule of 
moving forward with that event. Like some of our other chairmen, he is 
also involved in the mandatory spending reconciliation, and we will be 
talking to him about his view of how he manages those two conflicting 
things going on and whether we can have them both going on at the same 
time or not.

                              {time}  1630

  Mr. HOYER. I thank my colleague for that information. Reclaiming my 
time, the pension bill, as the gentleman knows, which had passed 
through the Education and the Workforce Committee, was considered by 
Ways and Means and marked up on Wednesday, I believe. Is it my 
colleague's expectation that that might be on the floor next week as 
well? I yield to my friend.
  Mr. BLUNT. I thank my friend for yielding. My expectation is not that 
we would have that on the floor next week, but that we would have that 
on the floor between now and the time we leave here for the end of this 
year.
  Mr. HOYER. Let me then go to that question about when is the end. As 
I understood from our previous colloquies, we are going to be out 
Friday for at least 14 days, that would be the Thanksgiving week and 
the week thereafter. And then if we need to come back, am I correct 
that we are still looking at coming back the week of December 5? I 
yield to my friend.
  Mr. BLUNT. I thank my friend for yielding. I understand everybody has 
their holiday plans or wants to begin to make their holiday plans. The 
gentleman is correct in his observations about our past discussion 
here. We would not intend to be here the week of Thanksgiving or the 
week after Thanksgiving. We do plan to be back and do not see any 
reason we would not be, and every Member should anticipate being back 
the week of December 5.
  It is possible it could take 2 weeks to complete our work for the 
year and that we could have some work even into the week that begins on 
December 12. But we definitely intend to be here the 5th and would 
encourage Members to plan to be here both of those weeks in case our 
work carries over into the week following the week of December 5. That 
would be the week of December 12.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his information.

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