[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 13281-13283]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1140
                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. HOYER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield to my friend from Virginia, the 
majority leader, Mr. Cantor, for the purposes of inquiring about the 
schedule for the week to come.
  Mr. CANTOR. I thank the gentleman from Maryland, my friend, the 
Democratic whip, for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, on Monday, the House will meet at noon for morning-hour 
and 2 p.m. for legislative business, with votes postponed until 6:30 
p.m.
  On Tuesday and Wednesday, the House will meet at 10 a.m. for morning-
hour and noon for legislative business.
  On Thursday, the House will meet at 9 a.m. for legislative business. 
Last votes of the week are expected no later than 3 p.m. on Thursday.
  On Friday, no votes are expected in the House.

[[Page 13282]]

  The House will consider a few bills under suspension of the rules on 
Monday. A complete list of suspension bills will be announced by the 
close of business this afternoon.
  As for the remainder of the week, we have a number of items to 
consider. We will complete action on H.R. 2218, the Empowering Parents 
Through Quality Charter Schools Act. We expect to consider an 
additional FAA extension. We will vote on a resolution of disapproval 
relating to the President's debt limit increase request. And we will 
consider H.R. 2587, the Protecting Jobs from Government Interference 
Act, the first bill in our fall agenda, Mr. Speaker, relating to job 
creation.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for the information he has given to 
us.
  Can I inquire, as the gentleman knows, when we left for the August 
break there was a very substantial issue with respect to the FAA. Does 
the gentleman know whether there will be any policy riders on the FAA 
bill that comes to the floor? I know there is a reduction in authorized 
levels, but are there any policy riders in that bridge bill?
  Mr. CANTOR. Mr. Speaker, I would say to the gentleman that we are 
still in discussions with the other body on the other side of the 
Capitol, as well as the committee, on exactly the construct of that 
bill, but do intend to bring that forward next week.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for that information.
  I certainly hope that we can do so. And I am pleased to hear that we 
are having discussions so that that will not be a matter of contention. 
As you know, we had 4,000 FAA employees and about 71,000 or so 
contractor, private sector employees who were laid off for a period of 
time because of the failure to get agreement with the rider that was 
included in the bill that we passed over to them. I'm hopeful that we 
don't have a recurrence of that situation because it would be very 
harmful not just to those 75,000 people but to the FAA and generally, 
so I'm hopeful that we can work that out.
  The President, Mr. Leader, spoke to us last night about a jobs 
program. I know that you have made comments with reference to shifting 
focus from cuts to jobs. We think that's appropriate; we appreciate 
that observation. But do you have any idea of how soon we may get to 
the President's proposal on job creation and trying to get our economy 
growing again? You made some, I think, positive comments and the 
Speaker has made some positive comments. I think those are welcome. But 
can you give me some idea, given the President's sense of urgency and I 
think the sense of the American people of the urgency of trying to 
create jobs and give them some more resources with which to support 
themselves and their families, and to invest and to comprehensively try 
to staunch the loss of teachers and police and fire personnel that each 
one of our communities is experiencing?
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. CANTOR. I thank the gentleman.
  Mr. Speaker, I would respond by saying, first of all, the President 
has not sent a text of his bill, and we will be awaiting that. I would 
also like to respond by saying that the President came last night, and 
there were several things and proposals within his speech that seemed 
to reflect some areas that we can both agree on and build towards 
consensus. I would say to the gentleman that insisting that this body 
and the two sides here agree on everything is not a reasonable 
expectation. But I feel, and have said so many times since the 
President's speech, that this is an opportunity for us to set aside the 
differences that we have, because good people can differ, and begin to 
focus on things like allowing for tax relief for small businesses, like 
allowing for the rollback of regulatory impediments that stand in the 
way of small business growth. As the gentleman knows, we have put 
forward a fall agenda that is squarely focused on those two goals: 
rolling back regulation proposals that are standing in the way of 
middle class job creation, and affording tax relief for small 
businesses to create an environment for middle class jobs.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman.
  I would hope that we could also have hearings.
  I understand the gentleman is correct that the text has not been sent 
up--I expect that to happen in the very near future, probably, I would 
hope, before we get back on Monday night--but I would hope that we 
could start hearings on all segments of that and see that on which we 
could get agreement. Certainly investing in our infrastructure, 
investing in our schools, in our highways, critically important, we 
believe. And I think that will not only create jobs, but it will create 
jobs that will have a meaningful, positive impact on our infrastructure 
and our economic competitiveness.
  The President mentioned about making it in America. As you know, we 
have a Make It In America agenda which includes a large number of 
items, including a manufacturing strategy, the President mentioned. 
That was one of the few times we all stood very enthusiastically when 
he mentioned, whether it was making cars or refrigerators or other 
goods here in America, that having made in America goods was something 
that I think we all support. So that's part of his agenda as well and 
certainly our agenda, and I hope our agenda writ large on a bipartisan 
basis.
  If I might ask you, on the front page of The Washington Post today, 
as you probably saw, is a picture of my district in Upper Marlboro, 
Maryland, where there is great flooding as a result of the rains that 
we have received from Irene. The supplemental for FEMA is coming 
hopefully from the Senate relatively soon.
  I would ask the gentleman: As you know, $484 million remains in 
FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund, clearly not enough to meet the disasters. 
In the aftermath of 9/11, as the gentleman knows, we appropriated such 
funds as were necessary, and we did so without paying for them because, 
in fact, they were real emergencies, real pain, real displacement, real 
dislocation, real costs immediately incurred by people as a result of 
the disaster--in that case in a terrorist act, but in this case a 
disaster. Can the gentleman tell me whether or not we will be able to 
pass, in a relatively accelerated fashion, sufficient resources for 
FEMA without getting into arguments about how, in the short term, we 
will pay for them?
  We have to pay for things in the long term; I'm for that. But I would 
ask the gentleman whether or not he would anticipate getting that 
supplemental done as early as possible--and hopefully a clean 
supplemental next week if that is at all possible--because we need to 
respond to the emergencies that confront us.
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. CANTOR. First of all, I would say to the gentleman, he knows as 
well that my district was the epicenter of the earthquake and damage 
there for that as well as extremely hard hit by the high winds 
associated with Irene. We had almost 900,000 people out of power. There 
are still some people out of power. So I understand the situation that 
people are suffering and we need to get them their relief. The 
gentleman knows that I share his commitment to making sure that 
happens. I also applaud the gentleman for saying that, yes, because he 
has always been, Mr. Speaker, someone who says we have to pay for what 
we do here.

                              {time}  1150

  I don't think that the two are mutually exclusive. I don't and have 
never said we should be holding up any relief at all for people who 
need it. I also think we can work together to act responsibly.
  The gentleman has been an advocate always for paying for what we do. 
And so I would say, as to the request as to where and when we were 
doing the supplemental, we still have not heard from the administration 
because, as the gentleman knows, there's a process that goes on at the 
local and State levels to make a determination about the need and to 
make a determination that the need exceeds the capacities of the local 
and State governments so as to then turn to FEMA and the Federal 
Government to come in.
  So I say to the gentleman, we need to understand exactly what the 
costs are

[[Page 13283]]

going to be, and we will make sure that we find the money. I will also 
say that we continue to try and get out of the sort of ad hoc way of 
appropriating for such emergencies. The fact is in the past that we, in 
this Congress, have not adequately funded the disaster accounts and 
have found ourselves caught shorthanded when disaster hits.
  As the gentleman knows, part of the debt ceiling agreement included a 
10-year rolling average to now be the amount for which we will budget 
for the disaster fund. Hopefully, that will get us on a much more even 
keel and allow for the adequate funding of what's needed, both in the 
short term and long.
  But as for the supplemental, we are still waiting for the 
administration's determination of what is needed. And if it is FY12 
monies, we will have the opportunity to roll that into the process of 
budgeting for the disasters the way we set out to do that in the debt 
ceiling agreement.
  Mr. HOYER. I appreciate the gentleman's observation and also his 
reference to the head room that we gave in the agreement that was 
reached in raising the debt ceiling, understanding that there are 
emergencies that occur and you need head room to deal with those 
emergencies. I'm appreciative of the gentleman's observation.
  I understand as well, I want to acknowledge that his district was 
hard hit, not only by the earthquake, but by Irene and, I presume, by 
the rains as well that have compounded that issue.
  In any event, I appreciate his willingness to ensure that we do, in 
fact, get a supplemental that will meet the needs, the immediate needs 
of those people throughout certainly the Atlantic coast, but in other 
parts of the country as well. I appreciate and will look forward to 
working with him on that objective, as I will look forward to working 
with him on realizing the early passage of a jobs bill which will, in 
fact, get Americans back to work and get our economy growing, as is 
essential.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________