Legislative Program

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

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

On Monday, the House will meet at 10:30 a.m. for morning business and noon for legislative business, with votes rolled until 6:30 p.m. In addition to several bills under suspension of the rules, and a list of these bills, of course, will be announced by the end of the week, we expect to begin consideration of the fiscal year 2008 Transportation-HUD appropriations bill.

Let me reiterate that because that will require a vote on the rule, there will be a substantive, and perhaps more substantive, votes on Monday. So Members cannot be assured that there will not be controversies on the floor on Monday night. Usually we do only suspension bills.

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. On F
[Page: H12255]riday, the House will meet at 9 a.m. In addition to completing consideration of the Transportation-HUD bill, we have one additional fiscal year 2008 appropriations bill, the Commerce-Justice-Science, as well as the farm program reauthorization.

Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for that information.

I notice there is no listing at this point of an Iraq bill on next week's schedule. I also notice that FISA modernization has not been scheduled. I wonder if the gentleman has any information about the potential for either of those two issues to be on the schedule for next week.

Mr. HOYER. FISA legislation, as the gentleman knows, is being worked on by the Intelligence Committee now. I don't have a specific answer for you. I am hopeful that we will perhaps be able to address some very important issues before we leave here.

On the other, I think it is possible that we will have some legislation dealing with Iraq, but that decision has not been made. Obviously, there is still ongoing discussion both in the Senate and in this body on that subject. But whether there will be legislation next week is still in discussion.

Mr. BLUNT. I thank the gentleman for that and, of course, just to ask when that decision is made, the quicker we could be told what that decision is and get a sense of the schedule on that issue, the better.

Also, I have one question the gentleman might have information on. In the conference on the 9/11 bill earlier this week, it appeared that the protection that the House had added for liability in what was called the John Doe action, where if you suggest someone you think is pursuing a dangerous course of action, you turn them in, then you are personally held liable, we had some protections added to our bill on that. I am told that the chairman of the conference, a member of the other body, has now said that he believes those protections would be germane, and if they are germane, we would hope that we would continue to see an argument in favor of that. But I wonder if the leader has any information on that.

Mr. HOYER. I tell my friend that I do not have any immediate information on that particular issue. I know the issue, but where it is, I am not sure. So I don't have specific information on that.

Mr. BLUNT. Let me ask one other question about conferences, and that would be unless this proceeds into Ðanother area.

Mr. HOYER. I can say with respect to conferences, we have every intent of doing the 9/11 conference, as the gentleman knows, and passing that before we leave for the August break.

Mr. BLUNT. I would ask on conferences, in a press report this week there was a suggestion, as a matter of fact, I think it was today, that the ethics bill might come to the House under an extraordinary procedure that didn't actually involve a conference. I think the House changed its rules this year to be much more stringent on requiring a conference, and I am wondering if that report has any merit to it that the gentleman would be aware of.

Mr. HOYER. I understand press reports, but there is no decision that has been made on that.

Mr. BLUNT. I just would suggest to the gentleman that we have changed the rules in a way that, while that particular messaging between the two Houses has seldom been used, I think it is even harder to do in light of the House rules changes, and we would hope that these bills are done in conference and, of course, hope they are done in conference in accordance with the rules that this Congress has proposed for conferences.

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, will my friend yield?

Mr. BLUNT. I would.

Mr. HOYER. We are very, very hopeful that the lobbying disclosure conference can proceed. As the gentleman
knows, we have not gotten clearance on the other side to do so, so we are very concerned about that. This House passed the lobbying disclosure bill overwhelmingly. Our view is it will pass overwhelmingly in the Senate when that happens. But, unfortunately, it has not yet gone to conference.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. BLUNT. I thank the gentleman for his comments. And I also understand frustrations with the Senate process as he does and hope that we can work that out in a way that we go through the regular process.

Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman.

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