Legislative Program

LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM -- (House of Representatives - September 08, 2005)

(Mr. HOYER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I rise for the purpose of inquiring of the majority whip the schedule for the week to come. Oh, I am sorry. I was told that the leader was not going to be available, but the leader is available. So I am pleased to yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay), my friend, the leader.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding; and as the gentleman knows, once a whip, always a whip.

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, with all due respect, I hope that is not the case.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I understand. I appreciate the gentleman yielding.

Mr. Speaker, the House will convene on Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. for morning hour and 2 p.m. for legislative business. We will consider several measures under suspension of the rules. A final list of those bills will be sent to the Members' offices by the end of the week. Any votes called on these measures will be rolled until 6:30 p.m.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the House will convene at 10 a.m. for legislative business. We expect to consider additional legislation under suspension of the rules relating to the Hurricane Katrina relief. In addition, we plan to consider two bills under a rule, H.R. 889, Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2005, and H.R. 3132, the Children's Safety Act of 2005.

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the leader for the information.

If I might start with perhaps a general question, I noted in the paper that the leader indicated that he thought we would probably be here through at least the week before Thanksgiving, which is what I related to my Members in the whip's meeting this morning; but I wonder perhaps if he could amplify that. The gentleman has had a few days to discuss it with the leadership and with the administration and perhaps the Senate leadership to have some better idea of where we might be going. Obviously, with Katrina and other challenges, I know it is very flexible, but I appreciate and I know the Members would appreciate getting my colleague's further thought on where he sees the possibilities for the balance of the session.

I yield to my friend.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding, and I appreciate the question because if we look at all the work that we need to do, we could probably get finished earlier.

As the gentleman knows, we are sort of at the mercy of the schedule of the Senate. Conversing with the Senate and looking at our schedules, particularly as the gentleman has mentioned, Katrina has risen to the top priority of this House. It has pushed other issues back a week or two.

We still have to get our appropriation process done. There is the entitlement reform process that needs to be done. There are some other issues we would like to get done. And, at the same time, there are not just short-term issues dealing with Hurricane Katrina, but there are intermediate issues we will have to be dealing with, major policy considerations, and who knows what else the hurricane may give us. And trying to put all that together and on a calendar, it is pretty obvious to me that we will be here until at least, at least, the Friday before Thanksgiving.

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the leader for those comments.

On a more immediate basis, next week we are scheduled obviously to come in on Tuesday at 12:30, and Friday is on the schedule. Is it the majority leader's expectation that we will probably be in on Friday or is Friday there if we need to be?

Mr. DeLAY. If the gentleman will continue to yield, Mr. Speaker, I would say that it is difficult to predict at this point in time.

Clearly, if the only items of the House for the House to consider next week are the ones I just outlined, then we could complete our work by Thursday afternoon. However, if additional legislation relating to Katrina becomes necessary or a conference report becomes available, Members should be prepared to have votes on Friday.

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the leader's remarks. We have advised our Members to be available for Friday, and they will be, obviously, if we have a session.

In addition, the gentleman has indicated and just reiterated the possibility of doing further legislation as a result of Katrina and responses to Katrina. Can the majority leader give us an idea of what legislation might be possible in response to Katrina next week?

Mr. DeLAY. I thank the gentleman for continuing to yield.

I cannot, obviously, give a list like that. I do not have a list with me. Lists are being worked on, and certainly the gentleman will be included, or his side will be included in discussion of these issues.

These are issues that are incredibly important that need to be addressed immediately so that we can do the recovery work that needs to be done for the victims of Katrina. It is a very expedited process, I might say, as to how we can take these simple bills and get everybody signed off on them and bring them to the floor.

So I do not have a list now, but by this afternoon, or tomorrow certainly, the gentleman and his side will be informed as to what we are thinking about. Any ideas that the gentleman and his side of the aisle might have, we would welcome and would consider those. We are working with both sides of the aisle trying to be as bipartisan as we possibly can in considering everybody's ideas.

Mr. HOYER. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the leader's observations and his comments. Again, we will certainly respond to that.

We have a lot of ideas on this side, as all the Members have, in trying to respond to this and trying to anticipate what the needs will be in this crisis situation. As the leader pointed out in his closing remarks on the supplemental, we have had literally millions of people whose lives have been adversely affected, displaced, moved, and some whose lives have been put at great disruption; so I am sure Members on all sides have ideas of how we can best respond. So we will do that.

Let me say, Mr. Leader, and I appreciate your remarks about working together on this, that there is not a person on this floor on either side of the aisle who does not want to work together to have an effective response so that we can help our brother and sister citizens who have been traumatized. I would hope that we would have an opportunity on whatever the legislation might be that we come up with over the next 48 hours, or by Monday, to have that perhaps reviewed. And because of the crisis and the need to move expeditiously and quickly, even if it is an hour or two notice to have a subcommittee or committee or, frankly, the bipartisan leadership look at a piece of legislation to discuss what is in it and what could be in it and what should be in it, I think that would be very helpful.

The gentleman observed that the American people want us to act together on this, and I agree with him. Not only do I agree with the gentleman, but we want to do that. So that would facilitate that, and I hope we can do that.

Let me ask something else, and I say to the leader that, unfortunately, there was not the kind of discussion that I think would have helped us on this. I agree with you, and every Member here I think agrees with you, that today or tomorrow or next Monday is not the time to look at what went wrong and how do we make it right. What we need to do is respond, rescue, and recover.

On the other hand, it is hurricane season. We still have threats, as the gentleman knows. There is a tropical storm off Florida right now that is forming, so we do need to ensure that we have the best opportunity to respond in an emergency manner.

The Speaker and Mr. Frist met yesterday and announced a committee. We believe that perhaps a commission might be more appropriate, with both parties participating equally to respond to this and to see how we can do better. Can the gentleman tell me anything about the status of either the joint committee or commission that the gentleman's side might be thinking about?

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman continuing to yield, and as he knows and has said, the Speaker and the majority leader of the Senate announced a joint committee to look into the response before and after Hurricane Katrina. I am not privy. It is the responsibility of the Speaker to make those kinds of appointments for that committee and put together the resolution, if it requires one to create the committee. I do know that the Speaker and his staff are working hard to get that up and going as soon as possible.

The gentleman is right, we should not be bogging down those that are trying to make decisions that affect the lives of these victims. At the same time, and the gentleman understands this, the longer we wait around this place, the longer things take to happen, and it is incumbent upon us to get this joint committee up and running.

I might say to the gentleman that I know he has suggested a commission, but I feel very strongly that it is our responsibility as a Congress in a bipartisan way to look at these issues and have oversight of these issues. And in accepting and understanding that responsibility, and not being relieved by somebody else or some other commission of that responsibility, this was one of the best ways we knew to do this.

We looked back at precedent, even when the gentleman's side of the aisle was in the majority, and found a precedent for doing this in a bipartisan, bicameral way when the Democrats wanted to do it, and we thought it made sense and so that is exactly what we did.

So we feel strongly that we, in a bipartisan way, are responsible for looking at these issues, and I would imagine by next week we will address this by whatever means is necessary to get it up and going. And also next week, I would assume that the Speaker would make those appointments that are necessary to fill that joint committee.

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the leader, and reclaiming my time, I think I have suggested this before, but I believe it would be useful, perhaps at some point in time in the near term, that the Speaker convene the leadership of both sides of the aisle to discuss how we are going forward.

I understand there were precedents for the action that was taken, but it was not taken after discussions with this side of the aisle. And as the majority leaders know, both on the Senate side that was the case and on the House side it was the case.

Again, I agree with the gentleman's proposition that the public wants to see us move ahead together and respond to this crisis together because those who have suffered are our focus, not party politics or ideological differences, but helping those who are hurting and making sure that we protect those who may still yet be vulnerable. I think we can best do that by working together.

On another subject and moving on, can the majority leader tell me where we stand on reconciliation? Press reports indicate that there is a delay in the development of those bills, as called for in the budget resolution, at least for some period of time. Can the gentleman bring us up to date on what the present status of reconciliation is?

Mr. DeLAY. I appreciate the gentleman continuing to yield.

Entitlement reform is still one of the highest priorities of the House this fall. However, due to the events of the last 10 days, it has been replaced as the number one priority. Therefore, we will likely postpone consideration of these very important reforms for a number of weeks.

We are still trying to decide when we might approach this issue, based upon all the issues that are flooding in from all Members of things that we need to do in light of the disaster of Katrina. So I just think it is probably a little early for us to give specific dates as to when we would go to markup and those kinds of things until we get a better handle on what we need to be doing to make sure that we are doing everything that we can to take care of those victims of Katrina.

Mr. HOYER. I appreciate the gentleman's comments, Mr. Speaker. I am sure the gentleman is familiar with the letter that the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Spratt) and Mr. Conrad and others have sent with reference to reconciliation. We are concerned, of course, because of Katrina and for the exact reason we have postponed reconciliation, we are very concerned that the needs are so large at this point in time that we need to be very careful about the issue of Medicaid and, frankly, the issue of additional tax cuts.

In light of the fact we have just spent $62 billion additional, which we did not anticipate and which will exacerbate, therefore, our budget deficit, and which absolutely had to be done, everybody, almost everybody supported that effort, including the majority leader and myself, but we hope that we can perhaps have discussions about that issue as well.

Lastly, Mr. Leader, I talked about the long term and Thanksgiving. October. We have a number of holidays in October. Could the gentleman perhaps amplify on what his expectation is of the first 2 weeks in October?

My understanding is the probability is that we will be in Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of the first week of October, but the second week of October, can the gentleman give us some thoughts on what that might be in light of the Jewish holidays and the Christopher Columbus holiday?

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to yield, I would note that the week of October 10, which is the second week of October, and due to the way that Columbus Day and Yom Kippur fall that week, there is only a very narrow window of time when we could be voting. And with the expectation that we could potentially be in session until the Friday before Thanksgiving, we would suggest that the House follow the Senate and adjourn for the entire week of October 10.

As for the week of October 3, Rosh Hashanah will make it very difficult for many Members to return to the Capitol prior to the evening of Wednesday, October 5, and at this point in time we anticipate having votes that week but not before Wednesday night.

We will watch as things unfold with regard to the needs of floor time and we will make further pronouncements as we get closer to that week.

Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for that comment, Mr. Speaker, and presume, therefore, that we are reasonably safe in advising our Members that the second week of October we will probably not be in session; is that accurate, Mr. Leader?

Mr. DeLAY. The gentleman is correct.

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the majority leader for his information.

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