[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 11653-11654]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       RETURNING TO REGULAR ORDER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, yesterday we watched as Senator John McCain 
returned to the Capitol after having been diagnosed with cancer and 
undergoing a serious operation. All of us are praying for his swift and 
full recovery.
  In earlier days, as we all know, he faced danger with courage. He is 
doing the same again right now. When he spoke yesterday from the Senate 
floor, he talked about a time when legislators, Republicans and 
Democrats, despite their differences, worked together to make progress, 
albeit incremental, on major issues through discussion and compromise.
  He lamented, as do I, the recent tendency to seek total partisan 
victory or nothing at all, something we see as much in the House as in 
the Senate.
  Senator McCain said this: ``We've been spinning our wheels on too 
many important issues because we keep trying to find a way to win 
without help from across the aisle.''
  He concluded in that paragraph: ``. . . we are getting nothing 
done.''
  Instead, Senator McCain proposed legislators ought to return to 
regular order. Regular order, for those who aren't familiar with the 
day-to-day workings of Congress, simply means doing things in the 
proper way: drafting a bill in committee, holding open hearings, 
marking up with amendments, reporting it out, and then bringing it to 
the floor for amendment and debate before voting on it. This process, 
this regular order of business affords every member an opportunity, 
regardless of party or district, to have input and help shape the 
policy. That is the way it should be.
  The product of such a process, as Senator McCain described it, would 
be ``something that will be imperfect, full of compromises, and not 
very pleasing to implacable partisans on either side.'' But he 
concluded it was one that ``might provide workable solutions to 
problems Americans are struggling with today.''
  Mr. Speaker, that is how our system is supposed to work.

                              {time}  1015

  I started my career in this body in 1981. Shortly thereafter, I 
joined the Appropriations Committee. I like to tell people that I 
served on the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related 
Agencies Subcommittee, and there were 13 of us. The Democrats were in 
the majority, and there were eight Democrats and five Republicans. I 
used to tell people that you could take the 13 of us, throw us up in 
the air, have us come down in random seats, have a markup, and you 
would have been hard-pressed to identify which party each member 
represented. Today, lamentably, Mr. Speaker, it would take you about a 
minute to determine those differences.
  Our Speaker said on October 29, 2015: ``We will advance major 
legislation one issue at a time.'' Mr. Speaker, we are about to 
consider a so-called minibus. The former chairman, my Republican 
friend, Mr. Rogers, is seated here in this Chamber with us. He and I 
both recall a time when we considered one bill at a time. We brought it 
to the floor, we amended it, we debated it, and we voted on it one bill 
at a time.
  That is what Speaker Ryan was referring to when he said: ``We will 
advance major legislation one issue at a time.'' Apparently, Mr. 
Speaker, that has become inconvenient or impossible, but it is not the 
regular order that we are pursuing.
  Speaker Ryan went on to say: ``We will not duck the tough issues. We 
will take them head on.'' Mr. Speaker, we will adopt a rule that will 
duck the issue that will preclude full debate, and it deals with 
President Trump's proposal to build a wall that many in his 
administration believe will be ineffective in accomplishing the 
objective that we all support, and that is keeping our country secure 
and making sure that those who come into this country are known to us 
and don't sneak into the country.
  But the wall will not work and we will not be able to debate that 
fully because it will be included in the rule. I suggest, Mr. Speaker, 
that is ducking

[[Page 11654]]

the issue. It will be deemed passed. We won't vote on it. We will vote 
for the rule or against the rule, and the wall and $1.6 billion will be 
deemed passed.
  Mr. Speaker, that is not how our system is supposed to work. Neither 
side ought to let the perfect become the enemy of the good. Neither 
side can claim credit for all of the best ideas. That is why working 
together is imperative.
  That was my experience when I served for 23 years on the 
Appropriations Committee. That is why regular order is so important. It 
protects the American people. It protects each Member who is here 
representing some 700,000 people, give or take. That is why regular 
order is so important. It facilitates dialogue and debate. It brings 
out every view and idea and provides the framework for compromise.
  Compromise is the essence of democracy, and I suggest it is the 
essence of successful families, whether they be countries or Mom and 
Dad and kids. They come together and they agree, not because they get 
everything they want or the other side gets nothing they want, but 
because both sides compromise.
  Mr. Speaker, I agree with Senator McCain: we need to return to 
regular order.
  Speaker Ryan, as I have said, told us shortly after his elevation 
that he wants ``the House to work its will.'' Minibuses don't allow 
that, omnibuses don't allow that, and, frankly, CRs don't allow that.
  The Speaker adopted, in principle, an open and transparent process. 
Sadly, Mr. Speaker, we haven't always seen that. But there is still an 
opportunity for the 115th Congress to reflect that vision.
  That is what Senator McCain was talking about yesterday. He was 
appealing to the best of us, the American in us, not the partisan in 
us, not the confrontationalist in us, but the seeker of productive 
compromise in a democracy. The Congress and our country will be better 
if we return to regular order.

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