[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6961-6963]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1515
                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. BLUNT asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. BLUNT. I yield to my friend, the gentleman from Maryland, the 
majority leader, for information about the schedule.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the Republican whip.
  On Monday, the House is not in session. On Tuesday, the House will 
meet at 12:30 p.m. for morning hour and 2 p.m. for legislative 
business. On Wednesday and Thursday, the House will meet at 10 a.m. for 
legislative business. On Friday, no votes are expected.
  We will consider several bills under suspension of the rules. The 
final list of suspension bills, as usual, will be announced by the 
close of business tomorrow. We will consider H.R. 493, the Genetic 
Information Nondiscrimination Act, and H.R. 5522, the Combustible Dust 
Explosion and Fire Prevention Act.
  Finally, Members should note that on Wednesday, the Prime Minister of 
Ireland, The Honorable Bertie Ahern, will address a joint meeting of 
the House and Senate.
  Mr. BLUNT. I thank the gentleman for that information.
  Will the Combustible Dust Explosion and Fire Prevention Act, will 
that act be under a rule?
  Mr. HOYER. Yes.
  Mr. BLUNT. And the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act will be 
as well?

[[Page 6962]]


  Mr. HOYER. Yes.
  Mr. BLUNT. I thank the gentleman for that. I notice the schedule 
doesn't include anything yet on the supplemental. I continue to see 
reports suggesting that the supplemental may come directly to the floor 
and not through committee. I wonder if the gentleman has any indication 
of what might be the schedule at this time on the supplemental.
  I would yield.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank my friend for yielding.
  As you have read, we are discussing how to process the supplemental. 
As I indicated to you, it is my intention that we will pass the 
supplemental prior to Memorial Day. By that, I mean in sufficient time 
so the Senate can do so as well so we can pass it finally.
  That is my hope and my intention. We are still working on the 
components of the supplemental, and very frankly, it has not yet been 
finally decided as to how that might be processed. Obviously, at times 
in the past it has been added to other legislation. In other times, it 
has been passed as a free-standing bill. Committee consideration, 
obviously, is part of the regular order, if we go that way, but there 
are other ways to go. We want to facilitate the passage of it as 
quickly as possible.
  Mr. BLUNT. I appreciate the need to get this war supplemental done. 
Of course we have been talking about it during this entire work period 
for the last 4 weeks now. Since 1989, the Congress has passed 36 
supplementals. All but seven of them went through the committee 
process. On those seven occasions--it was the supplemental right after 
9/11, the supplemental right after Katrina. I would just say to the 
gentleman that I know our members of the Appropriations Committee today 
have expressed great concern if the committee doesn't have the 
opportunity to mark this up in regular order, and I don't know that 
that has anything other than informational value to you, it may very 
well go through the committee. If it doesn't, I have heard a lot of 
concern expressed about why, with the amount of time we have had here, 
we would do what is a relatively extraordinary thing.
  I would be glad to yield.
  Mr. HOYER. I appreciate the gentleman yielding.
  Our intent obviously, as I said, is to pass this bill. Obviously we 
are considering the best way to do so, giving every Member an 
opportunity to vote as they see fit on various component parts of the 
supplemental, and we are considering how best to do that.
  I understand, certainly, the committee's concern, having served on 
that committee for about 24 years, and having considered a number of 
supplementals. As a member of that committee, I understand that 
concern. But I will tell the gentleman that we are trying to proceed in 
a way that will facilitate the passage of this bill to the Senate and 
hopefully transmittal to the President prior to the Memorial Day break.
  Mr. BLUNT. Well, I thank the gentleman for that. I do think the time 
does matter here because of the potential for furlough notices and 
other things for troops if we let this bill go much beyond the work 
period we are in right now between now and Memorial Day.
  One of the items that I keep seeing reports that could be in this 
bill would be enhanced GI benefits. The cost estimates I have seen from 
a Senate cost estimate on a bill over there, to a bill here, have been 
anywhere from a low of $20 billion to a high of $60 billion over 10 
years. I know a number of Republicans have been working on that as 
well. Some of them have reached out to Democrats this week, saying, We 
hope we can find a way to pay for this.
  Does the gentleman have any knowledge of whether or not that GI bill, 
expanded GI benefits, is being actively discussed as part of the bill?
  I would yield.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  I will tell the gentleman that very definitely it's being discussed. 
We believe this is a cost of war. We have over 4,000 families who have 
lost husbands, wives, brothers and sisters. We have over 30,000 
severely injured. Obviously, the GI bill for those who came home from 
World War II and Korea had very good benefits that were helpful to 
them. Unfortunately, particularly with respect to our Guard and 
Reserve, that is not the case.
  Jim Webb, the former Secretary of the Navy, now the Senator from 
Virginia, as you know, has introduced a bill. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin 
on this side has also introduced a bill. Others have introduced 
legislation trying to make sure that the veterans who are coming home 
from Iraq that have been deployed for long periods of time, have had 
their lives very substantially disrupted, their families' lives 
disrupted, fighting for their country, that this is a cost of war.
  We are trying to address this, and the gentleman is correct, there is 
discussion about, as a cost of war, having this proceed to the 
President perhaps on the supplemental. That is under discussion. That 
decision has not been made. But it's certainly very high on our 
priority list to take care of these veterans that have come home and 
give them the kind of benefits that we think they are due as great 
patriots who have sacrificed for our country.
  Mr. BLUNT. I thank the gentleman for that information. I know Senator 
McCain on the other side of the building also has come up with a 
proposal in this area. He introduced legislation in this area. So it's 
widely discussed. I think something can be done. Whether or not the 
supplemental is the place or not, I don't know. I do believe that 
whatever we do should become permanently part of the benefits that 
veterans should anticipate being able to have in the future and not 
have any kind of a temporary aspect to it.
  The other question I had of my friend are just about the conferences 
that I haven't asked about in a couple of weeks. There are really three 
of them I am wondering about, and that would be the conference on the 
farm bill, the conference on the higher education bill, or the budget 
itself.
  I would yield.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  I think the good news is that certainly on the farm bill, Mr. 
Peterson indicates that progress is being made. As you know, we 
extended it to May 2 to give the conference committee a little more 
time.
  They have been working at it very diligently. It's difficult. There 
were substantial differences, not so much partisan differences, but 
substantial differences between the two Houses. The Democrats and 
Republicans, frankly, on both sides of the issues.
  We believe that progress is being made. I am hopeful that we can, in 
the next week, have a conference report on the farm bill on the floor. 
I am hopeful. I am not predicting that, but I am hopeful.
  As to the budget, I think progress is being made there as well. There 
are some thorny issues. We are very committed to PAYGO. You mentioned 
PAYGO as it relates to the GI bill. We are committed to PAYGO. I was 
very pleased to hear that some of your members want to make sure that 
the veterans bill is paid for. The war costs, which we believe the 
veterans benefit are a part of, are not paid for, as you know, in the 
President's proposal.
  But with respect to the third conference, the higher education bill, 
let me see if I have a note here. We are also making progress, it says, 
on the higher education conference. But it is likely, according to the 
chairman, that we will need a short-term extension next week because 
apparently they are not sure that they will get it finished by next 
week. So we may need an extension. If so, we will bring one to the 
floor. I presume that will be in agreement with both the ranking member 
and the chairman.
  Mr. BLUNT. I thank the gentleman for that. Of course we did a 1-week 
extension on the farm bill again today. We have done several extensions 
now. I hope we get to a point where we have a bill on the floor or have 
some ongoing policy that farmers can rely on, even if that is an 
extension of the bill we have, but some ongoing policy really does 
matter, and I hope we get there.
  I thank the gentleman.

[[Page 6963]]


  Mr. HOYER. I would just say we are in agreement.

                          ____________________