[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 8871-8872]
[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 rise for the purpose of inquiring of the 
majority leader the schedule for the week to come, and I yield to the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner), my friend, the majority leader.
  Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, the House will convene on Monday at 12:30 
for morning hour and at 2 p.m. for legislative business. We have items 
that will be considered under suspension of the rules. A final list of 
those bills will be in Members' offices by the end of the day. Any 
votes called on these will be taken after 6:30 on Monday evening.
  On Tuesday and the balance of the week, the House will consider the 
Ag approps bill, which I anticipate will be scheduled on Tuesday; the 
Energy and Water appropriations bill, which I would anticipate to be 
Wednesday or Thursday; and the Homeland Security appropriations bill, 
which will be Wednesday or Thursday as well.
  On Wednesday morning at 11 a.m. there will be a joint meeting of the 
Congress to receive the Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert.
  We also anticipate action next week on H.R. 4939, the Emergency 
Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror 
and Hurricane Recovery, if it is finished.
  Finally, I anticipate that we will likely consider energy legislation 
next week. Specifically, the issue of ANWR is likely to come to the 
floor.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for that information, 
and I, again, would simply emphasize that the majority leader said, as 
he did last week and accurately so, our Members need to make sure that 
they are available for a Friday session; am I correct on that?
  Mr. BOEHNER. That is correct. As we all know, next Friday is the 
beginning of the holiday weekend. We do have an awful lot of work to 
do, and Members should anticipate that we will be here until 2 p.m. 
next Friday.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman. I was going to ask him about the 
days for the appropriation bills, but I believe the gentleman has 
already indicated which days you anticipate that: Tuesday, the Ag bill; 
Wednesday, the Energy and Water, or Wednesday and Thursday; and then 
Homeland Security on Thursday.

[[Page 8872]]

  Would you anticipate that one of those bills might go over till 
Friday, or is there other legislation that might be on the calendar for 
Friday?
  Mr. BOEHNER. I think the issue would center around the availability 
of the supplemental, if it is finished.
  Mr. HOYER. Reclaiming my time, if the supplemental has not been 
completed by the conference committee, would you still anticipate that 
we would be in on Friday? I yield to my friend.
  Mr. BOEHNER. It really depends on how quickly we get through the 
appropriations process. The House was in late on Wednesday night. The 
House was rather late last night. As the gentleman knows, I like to go 
to bed at 10 o'clock, and to the extent that we can finish our work 
during normal business hours would be my approach.

                              {time}  1500

  And considering Friday is a getaway day for the holiday weekend, we 
are going to work together to try to see how quickly these bills move.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the leader, and I want to comment that the leader 
has been very inclined to try to work together to make his schedule as 
accommodating for Members as possible. And I want you to know I 
personally appreciate it, and I believe we appreciate that on this side 
of the aisle.
  Mr. Leader, on energy bills, you mentioned briefly, but do you 
anticipate, in addition to the ANWR bill that you mentioned as a 
possibility, any legislation on the refinery siting that might also be 
here?
  Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield.
  Mr. HOYER. I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. BOEHNER. There was anticipation that we would have the refinery 
bill up next week, the bill that did not receive the required two-
thirds when it was brought up under suspension, but there have been 
some conversations under way, bipartisan conversations under way on 
that bill, and we have decided to let those conversations continue to 
see if there is some way for both sides to resolve their differences, 
which would mean that the bill would be brought up under some kind of 
structured rule as opposed to bringing up the same bill under a closed 
rule.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman. I am shuffling papers back and 
forth here, but, again, ANWR, can you anticipate what you might expect 
with respect to an ANWR bill?
  Mr. BOEHNER. Just that we are very likely to have one next week.
  Mr. HOYER. Next week?
  Mr. BOEHNER. I wish I could be clearer in terms of what it would look 
like and how it would be considered; but as soon as those decisions are 
made, we will pass them on.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for that information.
  Lastly, I want to ask about two conference committees, the 
supplemental appropriation conference and the pension conference, which 
we have discussed on a couple of occasions. Can you tell us what your 
expectations are with reference to those two situations?
  Mr. BOEHNER. If the gentleman will yield.
  Mr. HOYER. I yield to my friend.
  Mr. BOEHNER. I will do the easy one first.
  With the pension conference, there are conversations going on. There 
has been a lot of shuttle diplomacy, if you will, between offices, both 
Democrat and Republican, trying to bring this bill together. I do 
believe that we are making progress. We are relatively close. But 
considering the complexity of this issue and the necessity that it be 
correct, I am hopeful we will have an agreement next week, but I have 
got my doubts whether it can be put together in time to be brought to 
the floor. But my overall point is that I think we are getting close.
  On the supplemental, I have made it very clear that the House will 
not consider a conference report on the supplemental spending bill that 
spends any more money than what the President called for for Katrina 
and the war in Iraq. And, secondly, I have made it clear that we ought 
to remember that the word ``emergency'' ought to be put back into the 
emergency spending bill.
  And so I think that the appropriators on both sides of the Capitol 
have their marching orders. I know they have had conversations. It is 
hard for me to gauge at this point the chances of whether this bill 
will be up next week. I hope that it is, but I think they have a big 
job ahead of them.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for the information.

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