[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 8725-8726]
[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 and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise to address the House to 
inquire of

[[Page 8726]]

the majority whip the schedule for next week.
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. I yield to the gentleman from Missouri.
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.
  Mr. Speaker, the House will convene on Tuesday at 2 p.m. for 
legislative business. We will consider several measures under the 
suspension of the rules. A final list of those bills will be sent to 
the Members' offices by the end of the week. Any votes called on 
measures will be rolled until 6:30 on Tuesday.
  On Wednesday and the balance of the week, the House will convene at 
10 a.m. for legislative business, and we may consider additional 
legislation under suspension of the rules, as well as two bills under a 
rule, H.R. 1279, Gang Deterrence and Community Protection Act of 2005; 
and H.R. 1544, Faster and Smarter Funding for First Responders Act of 
2005.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the majority deputy whip 
for that information. I will continue to yield to the gentleman to ask 
about the gang violence and the first responder bills. Which day will 
we consider each bill, and what type of rule is anticipated for each 
bill?
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I would like to defer on the rules to the 
Committee on Rules chairman. He will have some announcements regarding 
rules on those bills when he speaks.
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. I yield to the gentleman from California.
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I am planning, as soon as this fascinating 
colloquy is completed, to ask unanimous consent to make a formal 
announcement to our colleagues which will request that amendments be 
filed with us upstairs for consideration of the measures.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.
  Mr. Deputy Whip, does leadership anticipate having votes next Friday?
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. I yield to the gentleman from Missouri.
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, at this moment we are scheduled to work on 
Friday. If we determine that is not necessary, we will announce that as 
soon in the week as possible. But at this point we are scheduled to 
work next Friday.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, continuing to yield to the 
gentleman, I understand we have appropriation bills coming up, and we 
understand we may have a number of appropriation bills on the floor 
prior to the Memorial Day district work period. Which appropriation 
bills will be considered prior to the recess?
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, the Committee on Appropriations is moving 
their work along at an extraordinary pace, particularly based on the 
fact that they also were able to get this supplemental done today in a 
way that has not slowed down the progress we are seeing this year. We 
are hopeful to get many, if not all, of these bills done by the early 
part of July and expect to have some of these bills on the floor the 
week of May 16.
  The two bills that I think are the furthest along are Interior and 
Homeland Security, and it is likely that they would be first.
  As has been our process for a while, we would intend to move to the 
appropriations bills whenever they are available. In many ways the rest 
of the calendar will respond to the work coming out of the Committee on 
Appropriations and ready for the floor.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from 
Missouri for all of that valuable information. We appreciate it.

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