[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 989-991]
[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 yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. 
McCarthy), the majority leader, for the purpose of inquiring about the 
schedule for the week to come.
  Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, on Monday, the House will meet at noon for morning hour 
and 2 p.m. for legislative business. Votes will be postponed until 6:30 
p.m. On Tuesday, the House will meet at 10 a.m. for morning hour and 
noon for legislative business. On Wednesday, the House will meet at 9 
a.m. for legislative business. Last votes for the week are expected 
around noon. On Thursday and Friday, no votes are expected.
  The House will consider a number of bipartisan suspensions next week 
to combat human trafficking. A complete list will be announced at close 
of business today.
  In addition, the House will consider H.R. 351, authored by 
Representative Bill Johnson. This bipartisan bill will expedite 
liquefied natural gas exports to our allies. In order to boost our 
economy here at home and encourage global energy security, we must help 
clear the backlog of export applications currently pending at the 
Department of Energy, and I thank the gentleman from Ohio for 
sponsoring this important bill.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, the House will consider H.R. 399, the Secure 
Our Borders First Act, authored by Chairman McCaul, which requires the 
Department of Homeland Security to achieve operational control of our 
border. The bill also ensures that we are using the latest technologies 
to assist with border enforcement and takes the commonsense step of 
allowing greater access to the border region--specifically, Federal 
lands--to Customs and Border Patrol officers.
  I thank the gentleman.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for his information. The last bill 
he says will be on the floor, I presume that it will be on the floor on 
Wednesday. Is that accurate?
  I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. McCARTHY. Yes, that is accurate.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for that information.
  As the gentleman knows, in the last Congress the Homeland Security 
Committee, chaired by Mr. McCaul, passed out of the committee a 
bipartisan bill that was supported--as a matter of fact, I think it was 
reported out by voice vote, and it was supported by Chairman McCaul and 
Ranking Member Thompson, as well as Republicans and Democrats from the 
committee.
  As you know, so far this month in January we have spent time, 
frankly,

[[Page 990]]

recycling what we perceive to be partisan bills from the last Congress. 
Unfortunately, it appears that we are going to do the same thing next 
week, and I ask the majority leader, Mr. Speaker, we have a bipartisan 
bill that just months ago was supported by Democrats and Republicans, 
reported out of committee, not brought to the floor, unfortunately, but 
reported out of committee I think unanimously, or at least without 
voiced opposition, and now instead of taking that bill up, which we 
know has broad bipartisan support, we have a bill that is now going to 
be reported to the floor without going to committee, without being 
marked up--excuse me, it was marked up yesterday. I am corrected. It 
was filed and marked up within hours of one another, no considered 
judgment, no hearings. It may have been marked up, but no hearings, no 
notice to the public that the bill was pending, no opportunity for the 
public or Members to look at it. As I understand it, the committee was 
organized yesterday at 10 a.m., and this bill was considered at 2 p.m. 
or some time in that timeframe.
  But my concern, Mr. Leader, is that we continue to go down the path 
of having bipartisan agreements worked out in committee, and now at the 
beginning of this Congress we are simply seeing partisan bill after 
partisan bill.
  I understand that your side had a victory in the election and 
expanded your membership. However, the President, as he pointed out, is 
still in office, and in order to get something done--we are all for 
border security. That is why the committee reported out the bill in the 
last Congress. We had agreement on it. I lament the fact that we didn't 
bring the bipartisan bill, which would have gotten overwhelming 
support, in my opinion. Substituting that on Wednesday, where we are 
going to come in at 9 and go out at 12, we will have a rule on that, 
maybe the rule the day before. There will be a very short time to 
consider this.
  We are bringing a partisan bill that is going to engender a lot of 
opposition on our side. It is going to be opposed by Mr. Thompson. It 
is so unfortunate, Mr. Speaker, that having achieved bipartisan 
agreement on a priority item, that is, border security, that within 
hours yesterday we turned that into a partisan bill on which there is 
neither consensus nor widespread agreement.
  I am sure the gentleman had the opportunity to hear a quote about the 
first 3 weeks of this session from one of his Republican Members, Mr. 
Dent, who talked about week one being, of course, the Speakership 
election.
  Then week two, we got into a big fight over deporting children under 
DREAMers, which I thought we had a consensus on, but we got into a big 
fight about that.
  And week three, we talked about rape and incest and, frankly, a 
partisan bill on a very, very important subject which did not have 
significant consideration and was substituted at 9 p.m. last night, no 
committee hearing, no committee input, no testimony available for that 
bill.
  I would say, Mr. Speaker, we understand there are going to be 
differences between the Republican side and the Democratic side on 
issues, but repeatedly, Mr. Speaker, I hear the Speaker and the 
majority leader and others talk about a transparent Congress. I hear 
them talk about regular order and how they are going to return to that, 
and how they are going to have consideration of bills. The majority 
leader himself was quoted a number of times saying we are going to have 
72 hours.
  The bill that we just considered on this floor had less, frankly, 
than 12 hours before it was brought to this floor out of the Rules 
Committee. I would hope, Mr. Leader, that if you are going to go 
through with this border security bill--we will have an argument about 
it, and it will be largely a partisan vote on it. That is unfortunate, 
because we ought to be coming together, working together, creating 
consensus on making sure our borders are secure, as happened in the 
last Congress but is not repeated here.

                              {time}  1330

  I will be glad to yield to my friend.
  I don't know whether this is going to be a closed rule or not. If I 
were betting, though, based upon the first 3 weeks of this session, I 
would bet it is going to be a closed rule or a structured rule with 
very, very few amendments, given the timeframe available to us.
  I would say that we are very concerned on this side of the aisle, Mr. 
Leader, I will tell the Speaker that we are concerned about the closed 
processes that we are going through, the partisan processes that we are 
going through, and the lack of transparency and consideration that is 
being given to the bills that are coming to this floor.
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. McCARTHY. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  I listened very closely to you, but I think we have two different 
experiences. I watched on the day of swearing in we had Hire More 
Heroes. Every single Member on both sides of the aisle voted for it. 
That was bipartisan.
  I watched, Mr. Speaker, bringing up a bill from Mr. Fitzpatrick, 
where we had a bipartisan vote just a few months before, and the reason 
we brought it back--committees were not organized yet, we were just 
in--so we grabbed a bipartisan bill, but many Members on the other side 
of the aisle--and we had it on suspension--changed their vote just in a 
month before, but we were able to pass that, again, bipartisan.
  Earlier, in asking me what would come to the floor next week, you 
heard me say 12 bipartisan bills on suspension that deal with human 
trafficking.
  You bring up the border bill. It has been noticed for a week--
remember, we have been here for 2 weeks--it has been marked up in 
committee where both sides late into the night got to debate, where 
Members on both sides of the aisle got to express their opinions and 
their amendments the way the system should work.
  We have noticed that today, more than 72 hours of why it will go up 
on Wednesday and not Friday, both sides have their retreats. We already 
had ours. We left that Wednesday, yours going through there. So there 
has been more notice. There has been clear debate. There has been 
bipartisan bills here.
  I have no problem or qualm with a difference of philosophical 
opinion. The problem I have is when we misstate what history has shown.
  You asked me about the rule. Bringing up the bill, I will leave the 
type of the rule that will accompany the bill up to the Rules Committee 
and Chairman Sessions. I do expect, though, a robust debate and look 
forward to considerable participation on both sides of the aisle.
  Mr. HOYER. I am sorry, Mr. Speaker. I am not sure I heard. Do you 
think it is going to come up on a closed rule or a structured rule? I 
am sorry. Did you mention that?
  Mr. McCARTHY. If the gentleman will yield?
  Mr. HOYER. I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. McCARTHY. I expect the type of rule--and I leave that up to the 
Rules Committee and Chairman Sessions--but I do expect to have debate 
from both sides of the aisle.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I would find it shocking if a bill ever came 
to this floor that precluded all debate. The gentleman is telling me it 
is going to come up and there will be time for debate. I don't know 
that I have ever been here where a bill came up that had no time for 
debate, so I assume that, Mr. Speaker, to be the case.
  The question is: Will there be an opportunity for Members to offer 
amendments so that perhaps we can get back to the bipartisan bill that 
was reported out of the committee and leave the partisan parts of that 
bill for further discussion, debate, and amendment? We would like to 
have the opportunity to vote on such an amendment.
  I ask my friend again, there is no doubt, Mr. Speaker, that I believe 
there will be time for debate. It won't be very much time, I presume, 
but I presume there will be time for debate.
  But will there be time to offer alternative views and provisions to 
that bill as it is debated?
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. McCARTHY. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

[[Page 991]]

  As the gentleman knows, committees have jurisdiction. The Rules 
Committee is where you decide what rules comes forward. Chairman 
Sessions and those in the Rules Committee will take that up. As soon as 
a decision is made, we will notify every Member of the House.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman--I don't know the answer, but I 
thank the gentleman for his observation.
  I would observe, though, he mentioned a heroes bill. That was 
obviously overwhelmingly a bipartisan bill. You didn't hear me complain 
about that or anybody else complain about it.
  Mr. McCARTHY. If the gentleman will yield, I didn't even hear you 
bring it up when you say we weren't bipartisan.
  Mr. HOYER. Right.
  The Keystone bill, however, which I think is a very important issue, 
was made partisan. The 30- to 40-hour workweek was made partisan.
  The Regulatory Accountability Act, as the gentleman mentioned--excuse 
me, the Financial Services--that bill was changed. It was changed 
without a hearing. It was changed without public testimony, as I had a 
personal discussion, Mr. Speaker, with the majority leader about the 
change that occurred from the House bill that was passed.
  So that bill was made, again, a partisan piece of legislation. 
Unfortunately, it could have passed on suspension, I think, as it did 
the year before, had it not been changed.
  On the pipeline permitting legislation, again, not a bipartisan bill. 
This bill that we just considered, obviously very partisan, but no 
hearings and a closed rule.
  Again, very important issues brought up and, I would suggest to the 
gentleman, nontransparent. He mentioned the bill that was filed last 
Friday, the border security bill, which is coming up Wednesday. The 
committee organized at 10. This bill was passed sometime shortly after 
2--or thereafter. Debate started at 2.
  When we talk about transparency, when we talk about regular order, 
very frankly, on pieces of substantive legislation, regular order, I 
would suggest, Mr. Speaker, to the majority leader, is not introducing 
a bill, then we are off for 3 days, coming back, and the day after 
organizing the committee without hearings, without any testimony, then 
passing the bill, and bringing it to the floor, when clearly it is a 
partisan difference.
  We will move on, Mr. Leader. I know you are happy about that.
  As the gentleman knows, after next week, we have two 4-day weeks 
scheduled in February prior to the President's Day recess.
  Can the gentleman give me a sense of what legislation will be on the 
floor in February, again, Mr. Speaker, so that Members can have some 
knowledge of what might be brought to the floor, so that they can 
prepare and the public knows what legislation is going to be 
considered?
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. McCARTHY. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  We have made no decisions on February and notification yet, but as 
soon as we do, we will give ample time for all to know.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman and, again, would emphasize that the 
majority leader, Mr. Speaker, has made it clear in his statements, both 
in a book that he and two others coauthored prior to their taking the 
majority, but he has said numerous times since then about his 
commitment to transparency, openness, 72-hour rule, which has been 3-
day rule--it used to be 72 hours, now 3 days.
  Three days, I suggest, Mr. Speaker, can be 26 hours. That is the last 
hour of the third day and the first hour of the third day. I understand 
that, but that is not regular order. We have all breached that. We all 
understand that.
  Having said that, this Congress has started with closed rules, no 
hearings, and anything but regular order. I would urge, Mr. Speaker, 
that the majority leader try to adhere to that.
  As he has observed in the past, if we do that, I think we will have 
better legislation, greater participation by Members, and reflect 
better the voice of the American people.
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. McCARTHY. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  First, I want to thank the gentleman. If you quoted my book, I hope 
you bought it, so I thank you for that. Proceeds went to help the 
veterans.
  I listened to what the gentleman said. As the gentleman knows, any 
new Congress, when you start, the committees are just beginning to 
organize. That is why, when we look to legislation, we look to those 
that the American public wanted.
  You had brought up Keystone. Twenty-eight Members on your side of the 
aisle voted for it. I would consider that bipartisan. You have a large 
majority of Americans who want it and waited 5 years.
  I know you bring up that we had a debate on the border, but we just 
now organized, and we were just now sworn in, but they have been 
debating this issue for quite some time.
  It is our intention to run this House in a very open manner. I have 
been here when it has not been, and just as we said in our book, I 
think the American public wins when we go through regular order and we 
have greater transparency. I look forward to working with the gentleman 
as we progress throughout the term.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman.
  I don't want to be very cynical, but talk is fine. Performance--as 
Ronald Reagan said: ``Trust, but verify.'' We can read the talk, we can 
read the assertions, we can read the promises, but if it is not carried 
out, the American people are going to be--and continue to be, as they 
were when the gentleman appealed to them in his book--they are going to 
be cynical about our actions.
  I think Mr. Dent observed it correctly. For the first 3 weeks, we 
have gone through a partisan practice. Hopefully, we can, Mr. Speaker, 
skew that in the future, give notice, make sure everybody has the 
opportunity to participate, make sure that we have the ideas from both 
parties and the American people, given opportunity to be expressed and, 
yes, to be included.
  Next week, we will bring to the floor, as we have in the past, a bill 
that skews and abandons bipartisanship, which was achieved in the last 
Congress through the same committee for a partisan bill on which there 
will not be agreement. That is unfortunate for the security of our 
country. It is unfortunate for the due process of this institution.
  I yield back the balance of my time.

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