[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 18889-18890]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. BLUNT asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I yield to my friend from Maryland, the 
majority leader, for the purpose of inquiring about next week's 
schedule.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank my friend.
  I first would announce, notwithstanding the requests of almost every 
Member in the House and over their vigorous objection, we're not going 
to be meeting tomorrow. You know that.
  But we will come back on Monday, and the House will meet at 12:30 for 
morning hour business, 2 p.m. for legislative business, with votes 
rolled until 6:30 p.m.
  On Tuesday, the House will meet at 9 a.m. for morning hour business 
and 10 a.m. for legislative business. On Wednesday and Thursday, the 
House will meet at 10 a.m.
  In addition to several bills under suspension of the rules, a list of 
those bills will be, as is the practice, announced by the close of 
business tomorrow, we expect to complete consideration of the fiscal 
year 2008 Energy and Water Development appropriations bill and the 
fiscal year 2008 Labor, HHS and Education appropriations bill. Again, 
to the great disappointment of the Members, there will be no votes on 
Friday.
  Mr. BLUNT. Well, I sensed the sadness on those Friday opportunities 
to work in the district, and I'm glad we're working those out for our 
Members.
  On the schedule next week, I'm wondering if we should anticipate any 
votes next week on Iraq. We voted today on an Iraq withdrawal bill that 
was introduced just 2 days ago. That bill wasn't noticed on last week's 
schedule. It didn't go through committee. It didn't have a hearing; 
didn't go into the Rules Committee until 1:30 on Wednesday, and I'm 
wondering if we're going to see anything like that on an Iraq bill next 
week.
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank my friend for yielding. And I want to tell the 
gentleman it's possible that there will be a vote on some facet of our 
policy in Iraq next week. I don't know when that would be, and I don't 
want to say that it will be, but it is possible.
  Mr. BLUNT. I thank my friend for that. Though that possibility is one 
that I'm surprised wasn't in the potential work for next week, though I 
hear that it's not in the scheduled work for next week, I'm wondering 
if we would see an Iraq bill next week or in the following week, will 
those bills go through committee, or will we just, once again, see 
those bills created and brought to the floor like the bill this week?
  I would yield to my friend on that.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank my friend for yielding. There may well be bills 
that we have already considered in committee and/or portions of bills 
that were considered in committee broken out of those bills and brought 
to the floor. That is a practice which, as you know, was not unheard of 
in previous Congresses, and that is possible.
  Mr. BLUNT. Using my time here, I would suggest that in the previous 
Congress, while we did have some votes on Iraq, we did not have votes 
that didn't have hearings; we didn't have votes that didn't seek 
information.
  At 10:30 at night, I don't want to belabor this in the debate that 
we've already had today, but I do think that information on these kinds 
of issues would be helpful if we could gain that through the normal 
process.
  And while we may have talked about Iraq in the normal process, 
certainly, many of the questions that this bill generated never had a 
chance to be asked. And just from my own perspective as a Member of 
Congress, I would think that there's a better way to approach this 
critically important issue than that.
  Mr. HOYER. Will my friend yield?
  Mr. BLUNT. I would yield.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for his observation.
  Of course, the bill that was on the floor was, while not exactly 
alike, very, very close to legislation we have considered at least 
twice on this floor, one of which we sent to the President. The 
President vetoed that legislation.
  But with all due respect to my friend, I do not believe either the 
subject matter or the process that was set forth in that bill was 
unique and had not been contemplated by, frankly, every Member of the 
House. It was not the same bill. I understand that. But it was very 
much like it.
  And my answer to your previous question was, there may be similar 
pieces of legislation which have been considered, either by committees 
or by the House, that may be brought up next week or the week after.
  Mr. BLUNT. Well, I don't remember the bills on the House floor 
exactly the same way that the leader does, on the House floor in the 
past. I think there was quite a bit of new material there. And maybe, 
again, I also think, while we're on this topic, that the result of that 
vote was also very similar to votes we've had on this topic, and 
wouldn't anticipate that changing in the next weeks. But if that's the 
way we're going to spend our time, that is the way we're going to spend 
some of our time.
  I have a couple of questions on conferences that I don't have any 
information on and I believe my friend may. Last time we talked on the 
floor, which was almost 2 weeks ago now, you thought we would be going 
to conference on the 9/11 recommendations bill and the lobbying reform 
bill in the near future, and I see that the Rules Committee is meeting 
on Monday concerning the 9/11 bill, and I'm wondering if you have any 
more information about combining that with something else or why there 
would be a Rules Committee meeting on that.
  I would yield to my friend for any information on that process of 
going to conference.
  Mr. HOYER. I think it is likely that we will go to conference on the 
9/11 bill next week. They may link that up with another piece of 
legislation. But it is likely that we will go to conference next week.
  Mr. BLUNT. Are there any other conferences anticipated?
  Mr. HOYER. We're obviously hopeful that we can move the lobbying and 
disclosure conference. The Senate has not agreed to go to conference at 
this point in time. We're hopeful that they will, so that is a 
possibility. There may be other conferences, but I don't think so for 
next week. I don't have any specific information on a conference. The 
WRDA bill is, I think, pretty close to being ready, but I don't have 
any specific information on that bill.
  Mr. BLUNT. I thank the gentleman.
  Mr. HOYER. Will my friend yield?
  Mr. BLUNT. I would.
  Mr. HOYER. Thank you. I understand the gentleman's concern about 
Iraq, but I want to say, first of all, that all of us understand on 
this floor that there is no issue which has the attention more than 
Iraq of the American people, number one.
  Number two, the American people feel it is a critically important 
issue. Not only does it have their attention, but they think it's 
critically important.
  And my friend will remember, I think, returning here, I received a 
call Saturday afternoon that we were going to have a session on Sunday. 
Many of our Members were overseas. But the issue was perceived as so 
important by the majority leader that he reconvened us, with the 
Speaker's participation, as you recall, on the following Sunday 
afternoon.

                              {time}  2230

  We voted on a bill that many felt was a very important bill that 
hadn't gone

[[Page 18890]]

through a committee late that Sunday evening.
  Many people in this country and on this side of the aisle and I think 
on your side of the aisle feel that Iraq is a critical issue. So I say 
with all respect, we do intend to continue to address this issue, and 
we hope the votes do change. If they don't change, they don't change. 
There is nothing we can do about that. But we can continue to focus on 
an issue we think is critically important.
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for his comments on that. I 
do recall that extraordinary session and dissatisfaction created with 
some of our Members and maybe with the country, and the country does 
look at what we do and how we do it and when we do it. They look at 
what we do over and over again, and it is up to the country to evaluate 
the purpose served by that. And if they evaluate it to the detriment of 
the majority, the majority sometimes pays the price for that.
  And our troops in the field, not to debate this bill again, also I 
think, have some reason to anticipate that there should be a point when 
they are given direction and given an opportunity to follow up on that 
direction.
  The last question I have is on energy. We have heard reports that the 
majority would hope to move an energy bill the week of July 23, and I 
have also heard that that bill could be moved in two parts, one dealing 
with the part of the bill marked up without the Ways and Means portion 
and then the Ways and Means portion. And I am wondering, as we 
anticipate that debate, if the leader could give us a sense of whether 
what we are hearing about that is the likely way that that energy bill 
will proceed.
  I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. Clearly 
that is one option that, as the gentleman indicates he has heard, is 
being discussed. No decision is being made on that yet. However, it is 
our intention and hope that we will have the energy bill on the floor 
from the 11 committees that have been considering energy legislation on 
the floor prior to the August break. The week of the 23rd is, I think, 
a target week, but we have not made that decision at this point in 
time. But we do hope that we will have the energy bill on the floor 
prior to the August break.
  Mr. BLUNT. I thank my friend for that. That is helpful information, 
and we will proceed with next week's work next week.

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