[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 14304-14305]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to speak out of order 
for 1 minute for the purposes of inquiring of the majority leader the 
schedule for the week to come.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Maryland?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. HOYER. I would be pleased to yield to my friend, Mr. Boehner, the 
majority leader.
  Mr. BOEHNER. I thank my colleague for yielding.
  Next week, Mr. Speaker, the House will convene on Monday at 12:30 for 
morning hour and 2 p.m. 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 later on this afternoon.
  On Tuesday, we expect to do House Joint Resolution 88, the marriage 
amendment.
  For the balance of the week, H.R. 2389, the pledge protection bill; 
H.R. 5684, the United States-Oman Free Trade Agreement Implementation 
Act.
  We do expect that if the Senate acts on the Castle stem cell 
legislation and several other bills that could be brought over to the 
House, where the House would consider the other two stem cell bills, 
and send all three bills to the White House. And then, depending upon 
what happens at the White House, whether we would vote on a veto 
override or not is certainly under consideration.
  I do expect that we will have votes on Friday at this point. We will 
continue to work with Members on both sides of the aisle as the 
schedule develops. But the next two Fridays are scheduled. My hope is 
that we are able to finish our work, both next week and the following 
week, by Thursday night so that Members would not have to vote on 
Friday. But I cannot make that commitment at this point.
  Mr. HOYER. Thank you, Mr. Leader, for that information.
  Tuesday is the marriage amendment. Would it be fair to believe that 
these, they are listed relatively in chronological order, therefore, 
the pledge protection bill would come on Wednesday probably, and then 
Oman on Thursday probably?
  Mr. BOEHNER. Probably.
  Mr. HOYER. On the veto override, you expect H.R. 810 to pass the 
Senate and then be vetoed and come back to us at that point in time, 
which would be either Thursday or Friday, depending upon how quickly we 
were doing our business?
  Mr. BOEHNER. Yes. It could be Wednesday if you are a real optimist.
  Mr. HOYER. If it were Wednesday, are you going to try to keep the 
other two bills that would come over from the Senate with that bill? 
Are you going to try to do all three of them at the same time, or is 
that not necessarily the case?
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. BOEHNER. I thank my colleague for yielding.
  It is expected that the House would take up the other two stem cell 
bills, pass them, and send them with the Castle bill to the White 
House, and then be prepared to deal with whatever happens from there.
  Mr. HOYER. So if you were trying to keep the three bills relatively 
together at the White House, is that what I am hearing you say?
  Mr. BOEHNER. Yes.
  Mr. HOYER. Then we might pass those earlier in the week?
  Mr. BOEHNER. But I do not expect that they will get here until late 
Tuesday, and so I think the earliest we could take them up would be 
Wednesday morning.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for that information. And I 
appreciate what you are saying about Friday. That will be dependent 
upon how quickly we get the work that is before us done. I understand 
that.
  Mr. Leader, we have had some discussions, and we still have pending, 
as you know, one appropriation bill, the Labor-Health bill which is 
pending. It has, as you know, attached to it an amendment adopted in a 
bipartisan fashion on the minimum wage, taking the minimum wage to 
$7.25 in three increments.
  Can you tell me the status of the Labor-Health bill? I know it is not 
on the calendar, but can you tell me its status?
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. BOEHNER. I thank my colleague for yielding.
  There is that issue and other issues on the bill that are still being 
discussed. There has been no resolution on those.

[[Page 14305]]

  But I think I will anticipate the next question with regard to the 
minimum wage. I have had conversations with Members on both sides of 
the aisle about the issue. It is clearly under discussion, but there 
have been no decisions made as to what to do or when to do, whatever.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for that information. He anticipated 
my question, but I noted in the paper that there are some 25 or 25-plus 
Members on your side of the aisle who have written suggesting that we 
bring this to the floor. I would think if that is the case that we do 
have a majority, I would think, who would be for bringing this to the 
floor and, quite probably, a majority who might vote for a minimum-wage 
bill, assuming it comes to the floor as a minimum-wage bill.

                              {time}  1745

  Mr. Leader, I am very hopeful that that can happen, and it would be 
wonderful if it could happen before we left here for the August break. 
But I hear you saying that is still under discussion, and, hopefully, 
the result will be a positive one from the perspective of having an up-
or-down vote on the minimum wage. I thank the gentleman for that 
information.
  Lastly, Mr. Leader, the pension conference, you and I are very 
concerned about it. Literally millions of people are very concerned 
about it. But it still languishes in the conference committee. Can you 
give us any update on where the pension conference is and what 
expectations there might be for the pension bill to come to the floor?
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. BOEHNER. Clearly, protecting the American people's pensions and 
ensuring that we get better funding of private pension plans is the 
goal of this legislation. I can tell the gentleman that I think we are 
very close. There is some progress. We are close. We have discussed 
this for months and months here. It is a very difficult bill, as you 
are well aware, and trying to make sure that there is balance, that we 
dot the I's and cross the T's, that process is under way. But I am 
hopeful.
  Mr. HOYER. Hope springs eternal. Let's hope the bill is not 
eternally, however, in the conference committee.
  Mr. Leader, if I could comment as well, you and I had a discussion 
and I had a discussion with your predecessor on this issue as well and 
with Mr. Blunt, when he was acting in the capacity you now have, with 
reference to the bipartisan inclusion of conferees in the decision-
making process as to what the pension bill is going to be. In our 
experience in dealing with you when you were chairman of the committee, 
you did that. We appreciated that. We think it was the right thing to 
do. And, frankly, we think it manifested itself in some good products. 
But, Mr. Leader, I must tell you that the minority members and the 
ranking member have not been included, in the information I have, in 
the conferences or deliberations that have been going on with reference 
to the pension bill.
  In light of the fact, as you point out, it is a complicated bill, a 
difficult bill, we think that would be useful certainly for us; but 
very frankly, we think it would be appropriate for the process itself.
  I yield to my friend in hopes that he will, as he indicated he would, 
try to prevail on those powers that be to effect that happening, as he 
indicated he thought ought to happen.
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. BOEHNER. As the gentleman is aware, this conference is being 
chaired by the Senate. There has been one formal conference meeting. 
But I can tell you there have been consultations with Members of both 
parties on both sides of the Capitol with regard to many of the issues 
that have been agreed to and issues that are yet to be resolved, and I 
fully expect those conversations will continue.
  Mr. HOYER. Reclaiming my time, I hope that is the case. And perhaps I 
will privately discuss with you whom these consultations have been with 
because on my side of the aisle, they have not talked to me yet. But I 
thank the gentleman, and I will talk to him privately.

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