[House Report 104-633]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]



104th Congress                                                   Report
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 2d Session                                                     104-633
_______________________________________________________________________



         PROVIDING FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 3675, THE 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS BILL

                         FOR FISCAL YEAR 1997

                                _______
                                

   June 25, 1996.--Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be 
                                printed

_______________________________________________________________________


    Ms. Greene of Utah, from the Committee on Rules, submitted the 
                               following

                              R E P O R T

                       [To accompany H. Res. 460]

    The Committee on Rules, having had under consideration 
House Resolution 460, by a nonrecord vote, report the same to 
the House with the recommendation that the resolution be 
adopted.

               brief summary of provisions of resolution

    The resolution provides for the consideration of H.R. 3675, 
the ``Department of Transportation and Related Agencies 
Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 1997'' under an open rule, 
providing one hour of general debate divided equally between 
the chairman and ranking minority member of the Committee on 
Appropriations.
    The rule waives section 401(a) of the Budget Act 
(prohibiting consideration of legislation containing contract 
authority not previously subject to appropriation) against 
consideration of the bill. The rule also waives clause 2 of 
rule XXI (prohibiting unauthorized and legislative provisions) 
and clause 6 (prohibiting reappropriations) of rule XXI against 
provisions in the bill except as otherwise specified in the 
rule. (See explanation in the next section of this report.)
    Further, the rule provides that the amendment printed in 
section 2 of the resolution shall be considered as adopted. 
(See explanation in the next section of this report.)
    The rule allows for the Chairman of the Committee of the 
Whole to postpone votes during consideration of the bill, and 
to reduce votes to five minutes on a postponed question if the 
vote follows a fifteen minute vote.
    The resolution provides that a motion to rise and report 
the bill to the House with such amendments as may have been 
adopted shall have precedence over a motion to amend, if 
offered by the Majority Leader or a designee after the reading 
of the final lines of the bill.
    Members who have preprinted their amendments in the Record 
prior to their consideration will be given priority in 
recognition to offer their amendments if otherwise consistent 
with House rules. Finally, the rule provides for one motion to 
recommit, with or without instructions.

               explanation of special provisions of rule

    The rule exposes one provision of the bill to a point of 
order under clause 2 of rule XXI (legislation in an 
appropriations bill), and self-executes the adoption of an 
amendment contained in section 2 of the rule.

Exposed to clause 2, rule XXI points of order

    1. Coast Guard Boating Safety Program.--Page 10, line 25, 
beginning with the colon through the word ``program'' on page 
11, line 3. This would expose to a point of order a proviso 
reserving $5 million for the Coast Guard to be used only for 
establishing a boating safety grant program. Requested by 
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Self-executed provisions in rule

    1. Budget Act Point of Order Fix.--Page 8, line 18, strike 
``proceeds from the sale of''; page 8, line 20, strike 
``credited as offsetting collections to this account so as to 
result''; and page 8, line 22, strike all after the figure 
($338 million) through the word ``Act'' on page 9, line 1. This 
strikes a legislative provision that would count the estimated 
proceeds from the sale of certain Coast Guard property in 
Wildwood, New Jersey, in the budget baseline required by the 
Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985. This 
would have changed current scorekeeping requirements of OMB and 
therefore would have given rise to a section 306(b) Budget Act 
point of order (prohibiting amendments to the Budget Act in 
legislation not reported by the Budget Committee which has 
jurisdiction over such changes).
    2. Conforming to Authorization Level.--Page 11, line 18, 
strike ``$2,742,602,000'' and insert ``$1,642,500,000''. This 
would insert the proposed authorization level for funds that 
can be used from the Airport and Airway Trust Fund for FAA 
expenses. Requested by the Transportation and Infrastructure 
Committee.
    3. Transit Formula Grants--Page 27, line 4, strike ``$400 
million'' and insert ``$460 million''. This would increase 
funding for Federal Transit Administration formula grants. 
(Transportation request)
    4. Denver Airport Runway.--Page 48, line 12, beginning with 
the colon through ``funds'' on line 15. This would strike a 
legislative proviso in sec. 324 that would have allowed the 
Administrator of FAA to make a determination in writing that 
safety conditions warrant the obligation of funds for a sixth 
runway at the new Denver International Airport which is 
otherwise prohibited under a limitation provision in the first 
part of the section. Chairman Shuster and Representatives 
Schaefer and Schroeder (in separate letters) had requested that 
the section not be protected from points of order. The self-
executed provision has the same effect by removing the 
offending legislative language while preserving the legitimate 
limitation language.

                                
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