[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15668-15670]
[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 of the 
schedule for the week to come.
  Mr. McCARTHY. 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 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, 
and no votes are expected in the House on Friday.
  Mr. Speaker, the House will consider a number of suspensions next 
week, a complete list of which will be announced by close of business 
today.
  The House will also consider H.R. 5143, the Transparent Insurance 
Standards Act of 2016, sponsored by Representative Blaine Luetkemeyer, 
which specifies U.S. objectives regarding international insurance 
standards to ensure that our State-based system is preserved.
  Additionally, the House is expected to consider the final Water 
Resources and Development bill as well as the continuing resolution to 
fund the government.

                              {time}  1145

  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, as the gentleman knows, the current CR 
expires on December 9. He has announced the CR will be on the floor 
next week, and it is my understanding that December 9 may be our last 
day in session, so I presume we need to act before December 8.
  Does the gentleman have a perspective on the specific scheduling of 
the CR and when it will be on the floor?
  I yield to the gentleman from California.
  Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, the Appropriations Committee is continuing 
to work on the CR, including the length of time and when. As soon as it 
is done, it will be posted. It is our intention to have it done next 
week, and it would be our hope that we could finalize it on Thursday.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I want to make a comment that I know the CR 
will be the vehicle. I know Mr. Tom Cole made a comment--and I have 
talked to him about it--with which I

[[Page 15669]]

agree. I am disappointed, our side is disappointed, and I think some on 
your side with whom I have talked are disappointed that we were unable 
to do an omnibus appropriations bill which would reflect the work of 
the committee on our side and, indeed, the work of the committees on 
the other side of the aisle.
  A CR is not helpful to management, obviously, not knowing 
specifically what resources they will have available for the balance of 
the year. Very frankly, although there will be anomalies in the bill to 
reflect the changes from last year's funding levels, they will 
undoubtedly not take care of a funding stream which will be appropriate 
for good management in the Federal Government.
  I would hope in the year ahead that we would certainly work toward 
having bipartisan appropriation bills done bill by bill. Both sides 
have had trouble doing that from time to time, but let's hope that we 
can work toward that end. Because a CR, in many ways, is simply a 
failure; and forgetting about who is at fault or who is not at fault, 
it is a failure to operate the government in a way that is rational, 
reasonable, and most effective.
  So I want to make that comment. I know the gentleman agrees with me 
on trying to go through regular order, and it is unfortunate that we 
didn't get there.
  I yield to the gentleman from California if he wants to say anything 
on that. I have another question.
  Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, I agree with the gentleman that we should 
go through regular order and get our appropriation bills done. It is 
our intention, as the gentleman knows from the new schedule coming out, 
especially loading more days in, to make sure, as we come back into the 
next Congress, that we start with appropriations and get that work 
done.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, as a constructive suggestion, I notice that 
the gentleman has scheduled--and I want to thank him for his 
communication with our office so that we could work together on trying 
to get the schedule together--we have four working weeks in June. As 
you know, essentially, the Appropriations Committee tries to get its 
work done by the end of May in terms of its bills--they don't get all 
of them done by the end of May--so we can start moving them to the 
floor.
  I congratulate the gentleman for putting sufficient time in so that 
we can do that in June and July, so that all the bills, hopefully--the 
objective, I would suggest, ought to be to have all of the 12 
appropriation bills sent to the Senate prior to the August break. I 
thank him for his schedule on that.
  Originally, March 31 was, as I understood, the CR date, but that is 
somewhat flexible now, I understand. Can the gentleman tell me what 
date he expects the CR to expire on?
  I yield to the gentleman from California.
  Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned earlier, the Appropriations 
Committee is continuing to work on the CR, and that would be including 
the length of time. The gentleman is correct that March was the date we 
were looking at. I believe that date will change. But as soon as 
discussions have ended and we are able to post, it will include the 
date of the length of the CR.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, one of the things that we are certainly very 
hopeful of--your office and my office were having a lot of discussions 
about that, as are Leader Pelosi and Speaker Ryan having a lot of 
discussions--is the WRRDA bill. This deals very critically with the 
Flint crisis that has been ongoing now for 2-plus years. I am very 
concerned, although we apparently have an agreement on the dollar 
figure, can the gentleman tell me whether that dollar figure will, in 
fact, be appropriated within the structure of the WRRDA bill?
  I yield to the gentleman from California.
  Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, I do want to thank the gentleman from 
Maryland for his work with his staff on this issue of the Flint crisis 
when we were dealing with WRRDA and the continuing resolution just 
short months ago.
  The Speaker and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi are continuing to talk. 
It is our intention that it gets solved inside WRRDA, and we are 
hopeful that we can close out on that even today. As soon as it is 
finished, it will be posted as well.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, when you say within WRRDA, in the event that 
that does not occur, would the gentleman believe that we would deal 
with the assurance of the funding in the CR itself?
  I yield to the gentleman from California.
  Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, as soon as it is finished, we will be able 
to put it out. But it is our intention, on the work that we agreed to 
with Members on your side of the aisle--and I know Speaker Ryan has had 
discussions with him as well, and he feels very comfortable about where 
we are and with funding on that--as soon as we are able to finish that 
up, I think everybody will be quite happy with the outcome. I think 
this is a work-on-both-sides-of-the-aisle compromise to find common 
ground to actually solve a problem.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I want to say to the gentleman from 
California that I appreciate the fact that our offices work together, 
that the Speaker and the leaders' offices have been working together 
and that the committees have been working together.
  I would urge, however this money is appropriated--whether it is 
appropriated within the CR, whether it is appropriated in the WRRDA 
bill itself--that the money needs to be made available before we leave 
this week because this is an issue that has dragged on for too long and 
the people of Flint are still in dire distress, which is terribly 
unfortunate given the length of this crisis and the causes of this 
crisis, in some respects.
  Lastly, Mr. Leader, I asked this and you responded that December 9 
was the date; but do you see any possibility of going beyond the 9th 
that we need to warn our Members about? We are hearing that both on the 
Senate side and on our side, that there is every expectation that next 
week will be the last week that we will be in session in the 114th 
Congress.
  I yield to the gentleman from California.
  Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman knows better than I--he has 
been here longer than I--that we can always set a date, but Congress 
sometimes has a problem making that date.
  It is our hope that we can be finished by December 8, but no one can 
predict what happens on this floor, whether we have to be here longer. 
It is always my intention that Members understand, if the work is not 
done, we will not leave.
  So we will not leave until we get a continuing resolution done and 
get WRRDA done. I believe that the prior work that we have done working 
together--and knowing where both of them are right now--that we can 
finish this up and be done on time.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman mirrors my words. When people 
would ask me when we are going to conclude, I would say we are going to 
conclude when we finish our work. Now, finishing, I guess, one's work 
is a subjective judgment; but certainly these two pieces of legislation 
need to get done, and hopefully we can get those done.
  If we don't have a further week, this will be the last colloquy. I 
want to say to my friend that we have been able to work on a lot in the 
114th Congress. We have had real substantive differences. We will 
continue to have those differences. But I look forward to working 
closely with the majority leader when, in fact, we agree, and when we 
disagree, to try to work constructively on trying to get to an 
agreement.
  This election has caused us, I think, some real challenges. The 
election itself was a challenge, and I know we will have a lot more to 
say on that afterwards.
  I want to thank the gentleman from California for the ability to work 
together and constructively on behalf of the American people where we 
have been able to do that.
  I yield to the gentleman from California.
  Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, I want to take a moment and congratulate 
the

[[Page 15670]]

gentleman from Maryland on his reelection to whip.
  Hopefully, this is our last colloquy for the year, but you know as 
much as I know.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, well, I know how much you look forward to 
these colloquies.
  I yield to the gentleman from California.
  Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, it is the highlight of my week.
  I look forward to the next Congress. I do enjoy working with the 
gentleman from Maryland, even when we disagree, because the gentleman 
is honest and forthright with his disagreements. The gentleman is 
willing to work where we do find common ground.
  We are going to have philosophical differences, but we are going to 
have the same commitment that we are going to try to find a way to move 
forward. At times, we are going to disagree; but those times that we do 
agree, we work very well together. I admire the gentleman. The 
gentleman works very hard when he disagrees, and that is just part of 
what I think the American people expect. We have got a lot of work to 
go before us. The election is over. I think it is time that this 
country comes together. We are going to have a lot of work.
  As the gentleman from Maryland knows, with the new schedule, Members 
are going to be here much more than they have been in the past, and we 
are probably going to be on this floor with legislation a little more 
than we were last year. I look forward to that and look forward to 
working with the gentleman on ways that we can work together.
  I wish the gentleman from Maryland a very Merry Christmas.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California and 
return that wish for a Merry Christmas. This is not our last week. We 
are going to be here next week, so maybe we will save that for then.
  I do look forward and the people look forward. This election has been 
a deeply troubling one for all sides in many respects. I think it is 
our responsibility to try to bring some degree of confidence to all of 
our constituents, whatever they believe, whoever they voted for, that 
we are going to move forward in a constructive, positive way to make 
America an even greater country than it is now.
  I yield back the balance of my time.

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