Legislative Program

Floor Speech

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

Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I yield to my friend from Maryland, the majority leader, for the purpose of inquiring about next week's schedule.

Mr. HOYER. I thank my friend.

I first would announce, notwithstanding the requests of almost every Member in the House and over their vigorous objection, we're not going to be meeting tomorrow. You know that.

But we will come back on Monday, and the House will meet at 12:30 for morning hour business, 2 p.m. for legislative business, with votes rolled until 6:30 p.m.

On Tuesday, the House will meet at 9 a.m. for morning hour business and 10 a.m. for legislative business. On Wednesday and Thursday, the House will meet at 10 a.m.

In addition to several bills under suspension of the rules, a list of those bills will be, as is the practice, announced by the close of business tomorrow, we expect to complete consideration of the fiscal year 2008 Energy and Water Development appropriations bill and the fiscal year 2008 Labor, HHS and Education appropriations bill. Again, to the great disappointment of the Members, there will be no votes on Friday.

Mr. BLUNT. Well, I sensed the sadness on those Friday opportunities to work in the district, and I'm glad we're working those out for our Members.

On the schedule next week, I'm wondering if we should anticipate any votes next week on Iraq. We voted today on an Iraq withdrawal bill that was introduced just 2 days ago. That bill wasn't noticed on last week's schedule. It didn't go through committee. It didn't have a hearing; didn't go into the Rules Committee until 1:30 on Wednesday, and I'm wondering if we're going to see anything like that on an Iraq bill next week.

I yield to my friend.

Mr. HOYER. I thank my friend for yielding. And I want to tell the gentleman it's possible that there will be a vote on some facet of our policy in Iraq next week. I don't know when that would be, and I don't want to say that it will be, but it is possible.

Mr. BLUNT. I thank my friend for that. Though that possibility is one that I'm surprised wasn't in the potential work for next week, though I hear that it's not in the scheduled work for next week, I'm wondering if we would see an Iraq bill next week or in the following week, will those bills go through committee, or will we just, once again, see those bills created and brought to the floor like the bill this week?

I would yield to my friend on that.

Mr. HOYER. I thank my friend for yielding. There may well be bills that we have already considered in committee and/or portions of bills that were considered in committee broken out of those bills and brought to the floor. That is a practice which, as you know, was not unheard of in previous Congresses, and that is possible.

Mr. BLUNT. Using my time here, I would suggest that in the previous Congress, while we did have some votes on Iraq, we did not have votes that didn't have hearings; we didn't have votes that didn't seek information.

At 10:30 at night, I don't want to belabor this in the debate that we've already had today, but I do think that information on these kinds of issues would be helpful if we could gain that through the normal process.

And while we may have talked about Iraq in the normal process, certainly, many of the questions that this bill generated never had a chance to be asked. And just from my own perspective as a Member of Congress, I would think that there's a better way to approach this critically important issue than that.

Mr. HOYER. Will my friend yield?

Mr. BLUNT. I would yield.

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

Of course, the bill that was on the floor was, while not exactly alike, very, very close to legislation we have considered at least twice on this floor, one of which we sent to the President. The President vetoed that legislation.

But with all due respect to my friend, I do not believe either the subject matter or the process that was set forth in that bill was unique and had not been contemplated by, frankly, every Member of the House. It was not the same bill. I understand that. But it was very much like it.

And my answer to your previous question was, there may be similar pieces of legislation which have been considered, either by committees or by the House, that may be brought up next week or the week after.

Mr. BLUNT. Well, I don't remember the bills on the House floor exactly the same way that the leader does, on the House floor in the past. I think there was quite a bit of new material there. And maybe, again, I also think, while we're on this topic, that the result of that vote was also very similar to votes we've had on this topic, and wouldn't anticipate that changing in the next weeks. But if that's the way we're going to spend our time, that is the way we're going to spend some of our time.

I have a couple of questions on conferences that I don't have any information on and I believe my friend may. Last time we talked on the floor, which was almost 2 weeks ago now, you thought we would be going to conference on the 9/11 recommendations bill and the lobbying reform bill in the near future, and I see that the Rules Committee is meeting on Monday concerning the 9/11 bill, and I'm wondering if you have any more information about combining that with something else or why there would be a Rules Committee meeting on that.

I would yield to my friend for any information on that process of going to conference.

Mr. HOYER. I think it is likely that we will go to conference on the 9/11 bill next week. They may link that up with another piece of legislation. But it is likely that we will go to conference next week.

Mr. BLUNT. Are there any other conferences anticipated?

Mr. HOYER. We're obviously hopeful that we can move the lobbying and disclosure conference. The Senate has not agreed to go to conference at this point in time. We're hopeful that they will, so that is a possibility. There may be other conferences, but I don't think so for next week. I don't have any specific information on a conference. The WRDA bill is, I think, pretty close to being ready, but I don't have any specific information on that bill.

Mr. BLUNT. I thank the gentleman.

Mr. HOYER. Will my friend yield?

Mr. BLUNT. I would.

Mr. HOYER. Thank you. I understand the gentleman's concern about Iraq, but I want to say, first of all, that all of us understand on this floor that there is no issue which has the attention more than Iraq of the American people, number one.

Number two, the American people feel it is a critically important issue. Not only does it have their attention, but they think it's critically important.

And my friend will remember, I think, returning here, I received a call Saturday afternoon that we were going to have a session on Sunday. Many of our Members were overseas. But the issue was perceived as so important by the majority leader that he reconvened us, with the Speaker's participation, as you recall, on the following Sunday afternoon.

We voted on a bill that many felt was a very important bill that hadn't gone through a committee late that Sunday evening.

Many people in this country and on this side of the aisle and I think on your side of the aisle feel that Iraq is a critical issue. So I say with all respect, we do intend to continue to address this issue, and we hope the votes do change. If they don't change, they don't change. There is nothing we can do about that. But we can continue to focus on an issue we think is critically important.

Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for his comments on that. I do recall that extraordinary session and dissatisfaction created with some of our Members and maybe with the country, and the country does look at what we do and how we do it and when we do it. They look at what we do over and over again, and it is up to the country to evaluate the purpose served by that. And if they evaluate it to the detriment of the majority, the majority sometimes pays the price for that.

And our troops in the field, not to debate this bill again, also I think, have some reason to anticipate that there should be a point when they are given direction and given an opportunity to follow up on that direction.

The last question I have is on energy. We have heard reports that the majority would hope to move an energy bill the week of July 23, and I have also heard that that bill could be moved in two parts, one dealing with the part of the bill marked up without the Ways and Means portion and then the Ways and Means portion. And I am wondering, as we anticipate that debate, if the leader could give us a sense of whether what we are hearing about that is the likely way that that energy bill will proceed.

I yield to the gentleman.

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. Clearly that is one option that, as the gentleman indicates he has heard, is being discussed. No decision is being made on that yet. However, it is our intention and hope that we will have the energy bill on the floor from the 11 committees that have been considering energy legislation on the floor prior to the August break. The week of the 23rd is, I think, a target week, but we have not made that decision at this point in time. But we do hope that we will have the energy bill on the floor prior to the August break.

Mr. BLUNT. I thank my friend for that. That is helpful information, and we will proceed with next week's work next week.

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