[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 18881-18883]
[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, at this time I yield to my friend, the 
majority leader, Mr. Boehner, for the purposes of inquiring about the 
schedule for the week to come.
  Mr. BOEHNER. I thank my colleague from Maryland 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. No votes will occur 
before 6:30 on Monday evening. We will have a number of measures 
considered under suspension of the rules. We will have a final list of 
those bills to Members' offices by tomorrow afternoon.
  For the balance of the week, the House will consider H.R. 6054, the 
Military Commissions Act; H.R. 5825, the Electronic Surveillance 
Modernization Act; H.R. 748, the Child Interstate Abortion Notification 
Act; H.R. 2679, the Public Expression of Religion Act;

[[Page 18882]]

H.R. 5631, Department of Defense appropriations conference report; the 
National Institutes of Health reauthorization bill; H.R. 5313, Open 
Space and Farmland Preservation Act; and H.R. 5092, the BATFE 
Modernization and Reform Act of 2006.
  In addition to that, I would note that a conference report may be 
brought up at any time, and I expect to see H.R. 5122, the Sonny 
Montgomery National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 
conference report.
  In addition to these, we do hope to have suspension authority for all 
of next week to try to accommodate Members who have suspension items on 
both sides of the aisle. It is expected that there will be many 
suspensions next week, and I want to prepare Members for that.

                              {time}  1615

  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for that information. To clarify, am 
I correct that the three bills that you mentioned prior to the 
mentioning of the last conference report, the NIH authorization bill, 
the Open Space and Farmland Preservation Act, and the Bureau of 
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Modernization Reform Act, am I correct 
they will all be suspension bills?
  Mr. BOEHNER. Likely they will.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman.
  On the schedule, last week we talked about the 29th being the target 
date, and that we were going to get out on the 29th. But that being 
Friday, we might go over to Saturday if we did not finish on Friday, 
and we have advised Members to make sure that their Saturday schedule 
was flexible to accommodate that. But can you clarify that additionally 
as to what your thoughts are and the possibility of being here on 
Saturday?
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. BOEHNER. I thank my colleague for yielding.
  I have told Members and have told you for months that we will be 
finished on the 29th. We will be finished on the 29th. Now, how long 
the 29th lasts, I don't know. But I would expect that we would be here 
on the evening of the 29th and hopefully not much longer than that.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for that information.
  It reminds me that before we had a court of appeals opinion in 
Maryland, before I went to the Senate, constitutionally you had a 90-
day session, but as you point out, on the last day you weren't quite 
sure how long that last day would be.
  Mr. BOEHNER. If the gentleman would yield, we have both been here 
long enough to know that that last day before the recess for the 
election lasts a little longer than an average day.
  Mr. HOYER. I hear you. I will advise our Members not to have Friday 
night planes scheduled, and to have maybe a little later Saturday 
scheduled, maybe well into the morning.
  November is when we will next reconvene, it is my understanding. You 
previously indicated that after we have our last votes, the House will 
not be in session again until Monday, November 13. Is that still your 
intention?
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. BOEHNER. It is.
  Mr. HOYER. What can you tell us about the rest of the November and 
December schedule so that Members might be planning for that as well? 
Are we likely to have votes on Friday, the 17th, for example; and what 
about the following week and Thanksgiving week?
  Mr. BOEHNER. I would expect that we would have votes all that week, 
including the 17th. But once you get beyond there, it really is unclear 
as to when we will be back. I have been working with the Senate 
leadership trying to come to some understanding. We have not come to 
any agreement or understanding. But I can say this. If we cannot 
complete our work by Thanksgiving, which in my view is doubtful, that 
the House would be off the week of Thanksgiving and the following week 
and would come back the week of December 4 for a week or two to finish 
our business.
  I think that is the most realistic schedule that I see. Is it firm? 
Nowhere close. But in terms of trying to be helpful to Members as they 
plan, that is as helpful as I can be with the knowledge that I have 
today.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for that information. We understand 
it has to be tentative, and we understand that the leader cannot 
anticipate exactly what will and will not pass within certain time 
frames. We appreciate sort of the ballpark estimate of what would be 
available for time if we need it.
  You have not noted, but there has been a lot of talk about tax-
related legislation and speculation as to whether or not we will 
consider any tax or trade-related legislation, for example, the tax 
extenders, prior to leaving for the elections. It is not on your 
schedule. Do you have any expectation that we would be considering 
prior to the election, not after the election but prior to, any tax 
legislation, extenders or otherwise?
  Mr. BOEHNER. I do not.
  Mr. HOYER. You do not. Thank you.
  There is noted on the calendar a bill which is the Child Interstate 
Abortion Notification Act. Would it be your expectation there would be 
any other legislation prior to the election dealing with that subject, 
abortion?
  Mr. BOEHNER. I am not sure that there is any definitive answer on 
that. We do have this interstate notification bill up next week. There 
was some consideration to the unborn child pain bill that some Members 
have been hoping to get up. At this point I do not expect to have it on 
the floor next week. But at this point that is as much information as I 
have.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank you for that.
  You mentioned we are going to have, and you are going to try to pass 
a rule, I suppose, to give you suspension authority all of next week. 
Are there any other bills that you are contemplating bringing up under 
suspension? You noted the three that we discussed. Are there any 
others?
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. BOEHNER. Which of the several hundred bills that Members have 
asked me to bring to the floor next week would you like to know about?
  Mr. HOYER. It is a challenge, isn't it, Mr. Leader?
  Mr. BOEHNER. If the gentleman would yield, we are working with 
Members on both sides of the aisle who have issues that have been 
through committee or are almost through committee that they would like 
to bring to the floor. As typically happens, I and my staff will work 
closely with you and your staff to schedule those so everyone has fair 
notice and we have gone through the usual scrubbing process.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman. I understand there are a lot of 
bills that are possible, and we appreciate that fact and appreciate his 
working with us to try to accommodate Members on both sides.
  Two last things. Mr. Goodlatte and Mr. Peterson have been very 
concerned, as you know, about the drought and the stress that many of 
our farmers in rural areas of our country have been experiencing. There 
has been a lot of discussion about assistance that we could give. Is 
there any contemplation that next week we might be able to consider an 
emergency disaster assistance bill, H.R. 5099, that will help our 
farmers and ranchers who have been badly hurt by floods, droughts and 
other natural disasters?
  Mr. BOEHNER. I am not familiar with the bill, but I will be happy to 
take a look at it.
  Mr. HOYER. I appreciate that.
  The last question will not come as a surprise to you, I know. We 
still have yet to pass one appropriation bill.
  Mr. BOEHNER. That's right. We are still talking about it.
  Mr. HOYER. We have passed the others, but it is still out there. It 
is a large bill that deals with the education of our children, the 
health of our people, and the ability of our working people to succeed. 
I know that there is great attention being given to that bill. We are 
hopeful that it will come to the floor, and we are hopeful when it 
comes to the floor, there will be an opportunity to vote up or down on 
increasing the minimum wage over a period of time. Is there any hope or 
expectation that that bill might come to the floor?

[[Page 18883]]


  Mr. BOEHNER. The gentleman is aware there are some problems with the 
bill. We have been having conversations about trying to solve those 
problems. I don't expect it to be on the floor next week.
  With regard to raising the minimum wage, the House did, in fact, vote 
on that in late July. We sent it to the Senate where it remains under 
consideration.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman. Reclaiming my time, we would hope 
that you would continue to consider that.

                          ____________________