Legislative Program

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Madam Speaker, pending Senate passage of the CR tonight without amendment, the House will not be in session tomorrow--I want to reiterate, pending passage of the CR tonight. If the CR is not passed, we will be in session tomorrow at 9.

If the Senate fails to act, as I just said, we will meet at 9 a.m. for legislative business and expect to vote on some of the postponed suspensions. Members are encouraged to keep their schedules flexible as we work to fully fund government and prevent a shutdown at 12 midnight tomorrow night.

Next week, on Monday, pending Senate action on full government funding and H.R. 6119, the Further Extending Government Act, being signed into law, the House is no longer expected to meet. This is a change from our previously announced schedule. We will not be in session Monday, assuming we have funded the government.

On Tuesday, the House will meet at 12 p.m. for morning hour and 2 p.m. for legislative business.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the House will meet at 10 a.m. for morning hour and 12 p.m. for legislative business.

On Friday, the House will meet at 9 a.m. for legislative business, as was previously scheduled.

The House will consider several bills under suspension of the rules. The complete list of suspension bills will be announced by the close of business tomorrow.

Additionally, the House will pass H.R. 4350, the National Defense Authorization Act, again, a second time, to provide our troops with the pay they deserve and our military with the tools it needs to carry out its missions safely and effectively, keep America safe, and keep the peace.

Again, I will reiterate that is the second time we will pass this version. As I understand it, it will be the conference-agreed version of the defense bill. This has been a discussion between the House and the Senate.

The House will also consider H.R. 8363, the Protecting Our Democracy Act, to reassert Congress' role as a coequal branch of government by addressing the vulnerabilities exploited by the former President and his enablers to weaken our democracy, undermine the rule of law, and subvert the systems of checks and balances enshrined by the Framers in our Constitution.

The House may also consider legislation to address the debt limit and prevent a manufactured economic catastrophe that would derail our recovery from the pandemic and cause needless suffering to millions of American families.

I would reiterate that while we don't know the exact date at which America will be unable to pay its bills, we will address this next week, hopefully, in a bipartisan fashion.

Moreover, the House will be ready to act on H.R. 5376, the Build Back Better Act, should the Senate amend it and send it back to the House.

Lastly, of course, additional legislative items are possible.

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Mr. HOYER. We have a list of suspension bills, which has been announced and has been on our calendar for consideration. Those would be the pieces of legislation with which we would deal, pending action by the Senate.

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Mr. HOYER. Well, I think we will probably have to wait to see exactly what is going to happen. As the gentleman knows, we have passed a debt limit twice through this House. There has been a problem in the Senate, and I would expect Senator Schumer and Senator McConnell will be discussing that in the next few days.

Senator McConnell has made it very clear that he thinks that failing to protect the full faith and credit of the United States of America would have dire adverse consequences, so he has made it very clear he thinks we ought not to do that. Senator Schumer has done the same.

Essentially, my answer to the gentleman is, we have passed it twice in one form or another, so we can pass it and will pass it once the Senate agrees on a version. The two leaders are discussing that, I am sure. Now, I haven't talked to either one of them, but that is my premise.

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Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman, and I agree with his comments. It is my understanding, although I haven't talked personally, but it is my understanding that introducing the conference-agreed bill in the House, and passing it through the House will, under Senate procedures, facilitate them resolving this issue, hopefully, in a positive way next week.

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Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, I agree with the gentleman. We have talked to the sponsor, and we have talked to others. I expect this bill to be on the floor next week.

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Mr. HOYER. If the gentleman would yield?

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Mr. HOYER. With respect to the issues that I think we have broad agreement on, the cliffs that were created on Medicare and sequester are not good policy, and we ought to act on those. We are very seized of that issue, and hopefully, we can resolve something next week.

The gentleman mentions doing it in a bipartisan fashion. The good news is, and I know the gentleman will agree, that earlier this year, we delayed to January 1 of this coming year these items, particularly the 2 percent sequester by a vote of 90-2 in the Senate, meaning only two people voted against it, and in the House, 384. We were unanimous on our side, but you had the overwhelming majority on your side as well. So by 384-38, we extended that.

I am hopeful that we will do that again in a bipartisan way because not to do so, I think, would be very harmful to the medical community, to the country, and, obviously, to patients that are served by the medical community.

I am hopeful that we can resolve that as early as next week.

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