Legislative Program

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCALISE. I thank the gentleman from Maryland for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, on Monday, the House will meet at noon for morning hour and 2 p.m. for legislative business. Members are advised that first votes of the week are expected at 6:30 p.m. on Monday.

Mr. Speaker, 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. No votes are expected in the House on Thursday or Friday.

Mr. Speaker, the House will consider a number of suspensions next week, a complete list which will be announced at the close of business today.

I want to take a moment to highlight one of those bills. The North Korea Sanctions Enforcement Act by Chairman Ed Royce is a critical bill, given current events, which would prohibit North Korea's access to the hard currency and other prohibited goods that allow this oppressive regime to continue its destabilizing behavior.

Additionally, Mr. Speaker, the House will consider a bill, H.R. 3662, the Iran Terror Finance Transparency Act, sponsored by Representative Steve Russell. This bill, Mr. Speaker, would block the President from offering sanctions relief to an individual or bank until certifying that the entity has not conducted any transactions with a terrorist organization.

Lastly, Mr. Speaker, the House will consider two bills aimed at burdensome rules and regulations by this Obama administration. The first of those, Mr. Speaker, is a bill by Representative Alex Mooney, H.R. 1644, the STREAM Act, which is a critical piece of legislation to address the administration's stream protection rule. This is a rule which is designed to shut down all surface mining and a significant portion of underground mining, particularly in the Appalachian region. H.R. 1644 would save taxpayer dollars and protect American jobs.

The second is a joint resolution, S.J. Res. 22, calling for the disapproval of the Obama administration's regulatory overreach on the Waters of the United States. This resolution would express congressional disapproval of an unprecedented power grab that harms the traditional Federal-State partnership in implementing the Clean Water Act and would expand the scope of the EPA to puddles in the backyards of millions of Americans.

Those are the bills that I wanted to highlight and feature.

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Mr. SCALISE. I thank the gentleman from Maryland for yielding.

I know that the gentleman from Maryland is aware that Speaker Ryan has laid out a vision that we want to have a bold agenda that we are going to bring forward for 2016. In fact, one of the things that the Speaker laid out is not an agenda that is going to be driven from the top down; it is not agenda that is going to be driven by leadership. In fact, it will be driven by the Members.

One of the things that both the House Republican and House Democrat conferences do in the upcoming weeks is have Member retreats, where our Members can come together and discuss those items. That is what we are going to be doing next: our Members are going to be coming together. We want to build a consensus amongst our membership, again, not from the top down, but one that includes the interests of the Members of our conference to fix the problems that have been created by the President's healthcare law and actually bring forward a patient- centered approach that puts patients back in charge of their healthcare decisions.

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Mr. SCALISE. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Again, Speaker Ryan's commitment has been that we are going to restore regular order in the House. What regular order means is that there is not going to be some predisposed outcome by leadership to determine what is going to happen and when it is going to happen, regardless of what the membership feels, regardless of what the committee process produces.

Again, I think what is exciting to our membership about this year is that the Members are going to be able to participate in that process and the committees will be involved in this. I can't tell you what the committees will ultimately do or produce. This is going to be a process that is going to be very open and transparent. People can watch on C- SPAN as hearings are held. It is not going to be some predisposed outcome from the top down. Again, this will be something that will be membership-driven, using the regular order of the House.

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Mr. SCALISE. I thank the gentleman, again, for yielding.

Of course, as the gentleman knows, many of these issues that he discussed are at various stages of the legislative process. Some are in current hearings in committees. Some legislation is being developed or being voted on. Some of those issues that were discussed by the gentleman have already come to the House floor and passed. In fact, many of the bills to get the economy back on track passed this Senate with good, strong bipartisan votes that had been stuck in the Senate.

I encourage the gentleman from Maryland, the minority whip, to work with us in the majority to get our colleagues in the Senate to move forward on some of that important legislation that we have passed out of the House in a bipartisan fashion.

I know the gentleman from Maryland was at the same ceremony as I was earlier this week, where the Navy did, I think, a very important, significant action in naming a class of Naval vessels after our colleague and civil rights hero, John Lewis. It was an honor to participate in that ceremony, as I know you were there as well, in a very touching, warm moment where you saw House Members come together to pay tribute to our colleague, John Lewis.

Also, you saw the Navy making such a significant step in saying they are going to develop and build a class of Naval ships that honor civil rights legends, starting with and, in fact, naming the entire class of ships after John Lewis.

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Mr. SCALISE. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Of course, as the gentleman from Maryland knows, Puerto Rico is facing a serious debt crisis and is in need of structural reform. That is critical. That is why our committee is starting the process of examining solutions. In fact, as the gentleman mentioned, next week, on January 12 at 10 a.m., the committee of primary jurisdiction, the House Committee on Natural Resources, led by Chairman Bishop, as the gentleman mentioned, has the first hearing scheduled on this matter.

In keeping with Speaker Ryan's commitment to regular order, it is important that we allow the committees of jurisdiction to work through these issues to put forward the best solutions to a bad situation.

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Mr. SCALISE. I appreciate the gentleman yielding.

I would just say, in the spirit of bipartisanship, at some point I would like to bring up some great blue crabs from the Gulf of Mexico, and the gentleman can bring up some of those great Maryland blue crabs, and we can do a good taste test and enjoy some of our great cuisines and enjoy some good company.

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