[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6461-6462]
[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 rise for the purpose of inquiring about 
next week's schedule from my friend, the majority leader; and I yield 
to my friend.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the distinguished Republican whip for yielding; 
and I would tell him on Monday, the House will meet at 12:30 p.m. for 
morning hour business and 2 p.m. for legislative business. We will 
consider several bills under suspension of the rules, as we usually do; 
but there will be no votes until 6:30 p.m. on Monday.
  On Tuesday, the House will meet at 10:30 a.m. for morning hour 
business and noon for legislative business. We will consider additional 
bills under suspension of the rules, a complete list of which will be 
available by the end of the week. We also expect to consider H.R. 1227, 
the Gulf Coast Hurricane Housing Recovery Act, which has been reported 
out of the Financial Services Committee.
  On Wednesday and Thursday, the House will meet at 10 a.m. On Friday, 
the House will meet at 9 a.m. We will consider the U.S. Troop 
Readiness, Veterans' Health and Iraq Accountability Act; the Caller ID/
spoofing bill; and the DC vote bill.
  Mr. BLUNT. I thank my friend for the information.
  Mr. Speaker, on the I guess what I would consider the two major 
bills, the supplemental appropriations bill and the D.C. voting bill, I 
may be wrong in characterizing those are the two, but I would think 
they would.
  You would expect both of those to be on the floor next week, is that 
what I heard?
  Mr. HOYER. I do.
  Mr. BLUNT. On the supplemental, we have a fairly firm sense that that 
will be ready next week? The committee has dealt with it today.
  Mr. HOYER. The committee has favorably reported that bill, and we 
expect it to be on the floor next week.
  Mr. BLUNT. You would expect that to be near the end of next week?
  Mr. HOYER. Yes, sir.
  Mr. BLUNT. I thank my friend for that.
  On both of those bills, do you have a sense of the opportunities we 
will have on the D.C. voting bill and the supplemental to have 
amendments to those bills, to have the ability to change them?
  Mr. HOYER. Because the bills, not the D.C. bill, but the supplemental 
was just reported out, I have not had, nor do I believe the Speaker has 
had an opportunity to discuss with Mr. Obey his recommendation on a 
rule, so I unfortunately don't have an answer for you on the 
supplemental.
  On the D.C. bill, they are marking up right now, so I am in the same 
position, because they haven't finished their markup. They are marking 
up as we speak on that bill. So I have not had the opportunity to talk 
to Mr. Waxman about his advice or desire, or Mr. Conyers. It's a joint 
referral, they are considering it together, the D.C. bill. So I cannot 
give you an answer. I apologize at this point in time.
  Mr. BLUNT. I thank my friend for that response. I would say that 
there are few exceptions to the rule, but my experience has been, and I 
have had some experience on this question when we were in the majority 
and had chairmen, the chairman almost never wants to believe that the 
bill can be improved.
  So the chairman's desire for a closed rule is generally unanimous, 
though I know the chairman of the Finance Committee last week took a 
different view, and I was pleased to see his different view of that.
  I think on appropriations bills, there are very few, if any, 
exceptions where those bills have not come to the floor with an open 
rule. The gentleman is a member of the committee and would have a sense 
of that, but the tradition here is pretty strong.
  I don't know of any more important bill we are likely to deal with 
this year than this particular appropriations bill. I would hope that 
we have this kind of open process on the appropriations bill that we 
have had in the past.
  I would yield for a response.
  Mr. HOYER. I appreciate your yielding and appreciate your 
observation. Although I am not now on the Appropriations Committee, you 
are correct, I served there for 25 years. I am on leave. I have no 
expectation of going back soon, I hope.
  In any event, the gentleman is correct. As you know, the bill we are 
talking about is probably, as we discussed on the floor, one of, if not 
the most important bill that we might consider this year on funding our 
troops, supporting our troops in Iraq, and dealing with the policy that 
we are pursuing in Iraq.

[[Page 6462]]

  Obviously there is a broad spectrum of views on that. Just as 
obviously, if you had some bills that in many instances come with an 
open rule, very frankly, I don't know about your experience, but our 
experience has been that there are a wide range of views.
  It may well be that we will solicit a request for possible amendments 
and make decisions on them, because this is, to some degree, as you 
know, not a straight appropriations bill in the sense that this is 
where the money is, in or out, up or down. This is a consideration of 
policy and authorizing bills. Usually the tradition is to have 
amendments offered in the Rules Committee and the Rules Committee 
determines which amendments they want to make in order.
  I cannot anticipate what we are going to do at this point in time. 
The gentleman's point is well taken, but we will have to see how we 
want to bring to this floor to try to reflect in the final product, as 
best we can, the views of the American people, which are divided, and I 
think will be reflected in the floor vote on that bill.
  Mr. BLUNT. I thank the gentleman for that response. I would say that 
I believe that I reflect the view of this side that the debates both on 
the policy issues, that I frankly think may be appropriate in some 
other bill besides an appropriations bill, on the policy issues and the 
spending issues, a full and free opportunity to discuss those is the 
desire of this side. I think it serves the best interest of the 
country.
  As this appropriations bill gets broader and broader in the areas it 
deals with, it becomes more and more like the regular appropriations 
bills we will bring to the floor, and the tradition of the House, 
unaltered by any pattern I am aware of, has been on appropriations 
bills, as long as the Member was willing to say where they would pay 
for the change that they want to make, that they have been given the 
opportunity to make those amendments.
  I was disappointed, as broad-based and as big as the continuing 
resolution was that we passed earlier, that it violated what I 
considered a well-understood and time-honored principle of amending 
those bills. This bill would go even further if we did that, and it 
would be a bad pattern, I think.
  On the budget, does the gentleman have any information on the budget 
itself, when we might be able to see the majority's budget and when we 
would be voting on it, both?
  I would yield to my good friend.
  Mr. HOYER. We expect the budget to be marked up in the latter part of 
next week, the middle or latter part of next week, and we expect the 
budget to be on the floor the following week. As I indicated last week, 
we are still on that path, that schedule.
  Mr. BLUNT. And so my friend's expectation from the previous week is 
unchanged, that we will see the supplemental on the floor next week and 
the budget on the floor the following week would be your anticipation?
  Mr. HOYER. That is my anticipation.
  Mr. BLUNT. I have no other questions. I am pleased for the 
information and hope we have an opportunity to debate these bills.

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