Legislative Program
Floor Speech
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Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, as we face the crisis that COVID-19 has confronted us with, the House must do its duty in full and do so in a way that contributes to the safety and welfare of our people, not in a way that harms it.
Members are advised there will be no votes expected in the House next week. Members are further advised that an updated 2020 legislative calendar will be released in the coming days.
I expect conversations to continue on additional legislation addressing COVID-19 and the legislation we passed honoring our heroes. In the event that an agreement is reached on a bipartisan or partisan bill--I don't know how an agreement can be reached on a partisan bill, but a bipartisan bill--then we will make sure that the House has 72 hours before they need to come back to vote on that legislation.
I am disappointed that Leader McConnell said, when asked about the next phase of coronavirus relief, he said, I think that's a decision to be made a month from now.
As we know, we have a lot of people in crisis. We see food lines that are very, very long. We see unemployment rising steeply. There are many people in this country that think waiting is not appropriate.
I am pleased the House has adopted a resolution to allow the committees to work remotely, Madam Speaker. I expect to use the coming weeks to get our committees back up and running so that they can begin having hearings and markups on critical legislation.
As my friend, Mr. Scalise, knows, we have a number of must-pass bills that need to be addressed; the National Defense Authorization Act, the 12 appropriation bills, the surface transportation bill, and the WRDA bill as well. As committees begin consideration of these bills, I will be in touch with Members about when they will be scheduled this summer.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Scalise), the minority whip.
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Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, I want to echo the gentleman's comments. Although the Congressman, the patriot, the hero, did not always vote with me, nor I with him, we became good friends. And I shared with the gentleman and others in this body a deep respect for who he was as a person, a decent man, a patriotic man, a good man and, obviously, as the gentleman pointed out, a very courageous man as well.
He served many missions, was shot down, imprisoned, but they did not break Sam Johnson, nor did they break the love he had for his country, and we honor the service he gave.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Louisiana.
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Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi).
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Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, as I said, what we are going to do over the next couple of weeks, we have adopted a rule that allows the committees to meet even if they can't be here for health reasons, depending upon what the status is in D.C. and the Capitol, where it is around the country, including transportation.
The rule that we adopted provides that committees must have, in order to conduct virtual or hybrid hearings, a practice session, then two hearings before they go to a markup.
So obviously, if we are going to work on this floor, we need product and, obviously, product comes from the committees. And so I am very hopeful that the committees will be getting up and running at top speed in many respects.
And, of course, the committees have been working so very hard, and the Members have been working so very hard, in my view, on both sides of the aisle, as they have been home and talking to their hospitals, talking to their governors and their county commissioners and their local folks, nursing home administrators, so many people that we have kept in touch with through these weeks to see what we could do to assist them with whatever they needed.
The committees will be getting up to speed, and they will be qualifying for having hearings. I expect work product to be coming later this month, and we will be giving notice in the near term on a longer term schedule. But the House will not be in session next week, and we will be looking at how the committees are proceeding from that point on.
We will give, as I said, as we have in the past, 72 hours' notice to Members when and if we have to come back.
I want to again say also that we are very hopeful that our Republican colleague will engage in the matters that were included in the HEROES bill because our States are struggling. I know my State is a relatively wealthy State, but its revenues are off 20, 25 percent. I don't know what Louisiana's position is, but I am sure they are struggling as well. Municipalities are struggling, cities are struggling, and counties are struggling from the revenue reduction that is a direct result of COVID-19. So, we are trying to help those States.
In addition, of course, we invested substantial sums in testing, isolating, tracing, and treating individuals who have COVID, and we need to follow up on whom they have contacted so that we can make sure that they isolate themselves because the only way we are going to get a handle on this is to make sure we reduce the transition from one to the other.
We are also hopeful that we will develop, and there is money in there to develop, a therapeutic to mitigate the adverse effects of COVID-19 but also a vaccine to protect us from getting COVID-19.
Until that happens, we also need to give additional help to our small businesses and individuals who are really struggling as unemployment is at historic levels. Over 38 million Americans--maybe it is now closer to 40 million Americans--are without jobs. We have given them assistance, and we need to give them some more.
That is where we stand now, and we will operate with an intent in mind of getting the business of the House done, in addition to the extraordinary work that we have done on five responses now from the House on the effects that the coronavirus has caused in this country both to human beings' health and to the health of our economy.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Louisiana.
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Mr. HOYER. The answer is yes. We are going to have out a fuller schedule in the near term. But we have to find out how our committees can operate.
I want to say, regarding the national defense authorization bill, Members on both sides of the aisle have been working very, very hard at a distance, on the phone, and in other ways. So, I expect them to be ready to come to the floor this summer, and we are going to pass that bill, we think, before the summer break. That is for certain.
Madam Speaker, I yield to my friend.
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Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, I think the country is distancing itself as well. I don't know whether my friend drove to work today, but there are hardly any cars on the street. There are hardly any cars on the street in New York. The reason is because people are taking the advice of the government and practicing social distancing.
We think that makes sense. We think that is consistent with medical advice, and that is what we have been doing.
It is very nice to say, well, they could have been here, but there are a lot of West Coast Members who have to get on airplanes. Some of those airplanes now, because there are so few flights, are very crowded, and people are concerned because they are not practicing social distancing.
When I am speaking, I don't wear a mask. But if you see me in the Capitol and getting into my car, I have a mask on. I think we are setting an example. I think we are setting an example of how you distance here on this floor, which we are all practicing right now.
So, I think the House is setting a good example of understanding that it is not business as usual. When you walk down the street and people are wearing masks, you know it is not business as usual. You know it is not the America of 3 or 4 months ago, Madam Speaker.
In any event, I think we are going to proceed. We have provided to do the business of the American people. We did that just in the last 2 days. We passed a number of very important bills, important bills to small business in particular.
I was sorry that we didn't resolve the FISA question, but we did go to conference. We will see what happens on that. We have passed, as the gentleman mentioned earlier, extraordinary legislation through this House over the last 2 months to ensure that the American people got the help they needed and that the economics of our country will undergird it to the extent we could. So, we have done a lot of work.
I want to say this: I think we do a disservice to our Members and to this institution if we go home and pretend that Members somehow aren't working because they are not physically in this room. I don't know, I presume my friend's Members--but I tell you, Madam Speaker, the Members on my side of the aisle are working around the clock and communicating around the clock.
That bill that we passed in a bipartisan way, we took a lot of time, days and days and days and days of hours- and hours- and hours-long conversations to get to a consensus on what ought to be in that bill, and we passed it in a bipartisan way.
So, my presumption is my friend did the same. I don't know; I was not on my friend's phone calls. But you do a disservice, I think--I don't mean you personally. But we do a disservice to allow the President or anybody else--nobody is on vacation. People are working harder now than if we didn't have this coronavirus is my observation.
I am hopeful that we will move on. I am hopeful that we will be back to business as usual and as soon as possible--``possible'' is the operative word--with the advice of our Capitol physician, with the advice of the administration, and my own Governor.
My friend talked about States. I have a Republican Governor, Governor Hogan, whose father was one of my predecessors. I know he is still very cautious and urging caution for our citizens.
Madam Speaker, unless the gentleman has something further, I am prepared to yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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