Legislative Program

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, I rise for the purpose of inquiring of the schedule for the week to come.

Madam Speaker, I thought I saw the whip. I am prepared to yield to someone to tell us the schedule for the week to come.

Pending someone telling me about the schedule for the week to come, let me observe, as someone who has served, Madam Speaker, in this House for a very extended period of time--some 36 years--I was here in the era not too long ago, but long ago--when, if we had done to the Republicans what was done to us, what was done to switch votes so that discrimination could prevail, there would be outrage expressed long into the night from our Republican colleagues who would accuse us of undermining democracy, undermining this House, and making the House less than it should be.

217 people stood up and said: We ought not discriminate. And then, very frankly, Mr. Speaker, the leadership on the Republican side started its activity. And I have been the majority leader, I have been the whip. I understand that process. And they reached out to people and said: No, let us be able to discriminate. Let contractors be able to discriminate.

Mr. Speaker, seven people who had voted not to allow discrimination decided perhaps that principle was not as important as they thought just a minute or so before. I have a list of those names here--a lamentable list of people who did the right thing, who stood up for nondiscrimination, and then were opportuned to change their vote. And the Record reflects, Mr. Speaker, sadly, that they changed their vote.

I won't characterize those votes, because that would not be in order on this floor. And they will have themselves to look at tonight in the mirror and explain to themselves whether their first vote was a principled vote, or whether they had a Damascus Road experience in the few minutes that transpired between their voting not to allow discrimination, until they later--just a few minutes later--at the opportuning of some of their leaders, voted to allow discrimination. A sad day, Mr. Speaker, in the history of the House.

I still see no leader, unless Mr. Dent, who I have great respect for, wants to tell us what the schedule is for next week. I would be glad to yield to him for that purpose.

Mr. Speaker, I want to say that the majority leader is not here. The majority leader has a very happy day today, and I congratulate him. His son is graduating from Georgetown, and he obviously needs to be there.

I was hoping someone else could tell us the schedule.

At this point in time, I would be glad to yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Sessions), my friend, the chairman of the Rules Committee.

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Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for his comments. And the gentleman will observe, I have neither mentioned the names, nor did I impugn their integrity or their motivation.

What I said and what I will repeat is, initially they voted for an amendment that said there shall not be discrimination by contractors who get government money. That is what the amendment said. And they voted against discrimination, and for that amendment.

But in a short period of time, they changed that vote, resulting in, not becoming law yet, but this House saying to the administration: You cannot require contractors not to discriminate. That was the effect of it. And characterizing the effect of a vote is what our debate is about, what our country's values are about, what our country's future is about, and the respect we have for every citizen in this country, endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. And we ought not preclude those through discrimination.

That I can characterize without impugning motives. But the effect of the vote, we had 217 people for nondiscrimination right up until the last moment. And by the way, the last moment was far beyond what Speaker Ryan has said ought to be the end of votes.

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Mr. HOYER. If I could just finish my sentence, I will certainly do that.

I talked to the Parliamentarians. Interestingly, the presiding officer did not ask: Does any Member want to change his vote? Because once that, as I understand it, is intoned, then the ability to change one's vote, except to come forward and be seen in changing your vote, was not stated, which I suggest to the chairman of the Rules Committee, who knows the rules very well, is unusual--perhaps not against the rules--but unusual.

And the vote was an extended vote. The Speaker, Speaker Ryan, has talked to us from the rostrum, saying that we want to keep votes to a limited period of time. Particularly, I would suggest, we all want to keep votes to a limited period of time when it is a so-called getaway day.

But in this instance, that did not occur. In this instance, to change from 217 to a lesser number that was a losing number--215-214, I believe, was the final vote--excuse me, 212-213, 212 ``ayes.'' So five votes were switched, net. However, one person voted late. Again, seven people changed their vote.

You are correct. They had a right to do that, but the consequences of that vote are subject to debate. And I raise for you, for this House, and for the American people, that the changing of those seven votes resulted in this House saying to the President of the United States: You cannot tell contractors that they cannot discriminate.

That, I think, was unfortunate.

I yield to my friend.

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Mr. HOYER. I do.

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Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman.

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Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for his comments.

But let me make an observation. I wish the gentleman would stay in the well because he might want to respond.

I did not accuse the Republican Party of discriminating. I will not, at this point in time, hazard an opinion on that fact.

However, I want to recall to the gentleman that, in the Armed Services Committee, after due consideration, the Armed Services Committee voted not to discriminate, not to discriminate against women, not to say to women: Yes, you can serve, but you don't have to sign up for the draft.

Many of us felt that if you are going to ask young men to sign up for the draft, young women ought to be treated equally. We felt not to do so was discrimination.

That amendment passed in the committee and came to the Rules Committee--my understanding is--without a vote, without discussion. The rule that was issued from the Rules Committee said that, upon adoption of that rule, the adopted amendment in the Armed Services Committee, without a singular vote on this floor of the House, would be defeated.

That, I say to the gentleman, was neither regular order, nor was it giving us an ability to make a decision on that issue. And I believe, I personally believe, that it results in continuing discrimination against young men and young women, one of which has to sign up, the other whom does not; but they both have to serve, or can serve voluntarily in the Armed Forces of the United States.

So we may have a difference of opinion on whether or not that was, in fact, discrimination. But I will tell the gentleman that I was not happy, and I am still not happy that we did not have a vote on the floor about what we perceive to be discrimination.

And I regret that the Rules Committee chose to hide in its rule the repeal of what the Armed Services Committee adopted.

If the gentleman wants to respond, I will yield to him.

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Mr. HOYER. Reclaiming my time, it seems what the gentleman is saying is that people vote not to discriminate, and then some time a little later on, they have an epiphany that perhaps discrimination is okay. Perhaps that is what the gentleman said.

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Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman.

Mr. Speaker, it appears that no one is going to be able to tell me what the schedule is for the week to come. I will tell you that that is unfortunate.

I hope there is a schedule for the week to come because there is a lot to be done. We haven't finalized Zika. We passed a bill here which we think was inadequate.

We haven't dealt with Flint.

We need to pass Puerto Rico restructuring. I think they have made some progress on that. I congratulate the Speaker and the leader for facilitating that progress.

We don't have a voting rights bill scheduled. We need to do that.

There are a number of other serious pieces of legislation this House needs to consider. We are going to go out next week, and we will have no colloquy next week, Mr. Speaker. There will be no opportunity to discuss the schedule for, obviously, the break, and we will have no schedule for June or the weeks thereafter to do some of the serious business that confronts us and to help some of the people in this country who need help.

Having said that, Mr. Speaker, it is clear that nobody on the other side is going to have any response.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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