Legislative Program

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. I thank the Republican whip.

On Monday, the House is not in session. On Tuesday, the House will meet at 12:30 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 legislative business. On Friday, no votes are expected.

We will consider several bills under suspension of the rules. The final list of suspension bills, as usual, will be announced by the close of business tomorrow. We will consider H.R. 493, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, and H.R. 5522, the Combustible Dust Explosion and Fire Prevention Act.

Finally, Members should note that on Wednesday, the Prime Minister of Ireland, The Honorable Bertie Ahern, will address a joint meeting of the House and Senate.

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I thank my friend for yielding.

As you have read, we are discussing how to process the supplemental. As I indicated to you, it is my intention that we will pass the supplemental prior to Memorial Day. By that, I mean in sufficient time so the Senate can do so as well so we can pass it finally.

That is my hope and my intention. We are still working on the components of the supplemental, and very frankly, it has not yet been finally decided as to how that might be processed. Obviously, at times in the past it has been added to other legislation. In other times, it has been passed as a free-standing bill. Committee consideration, obviously, is part of the regular order, if we go that way, but there are other ways to go. We want to facilitate the passage of it as quickly as possible.

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I appreciate the gentleman yielding.

Our intent obviously, as I said, is to pass this bill. Obviously we are considering the best way to do so, giving every Member an opportunity to vote as they see fit on various component parts of the supplemental, and we are considering how best to do that.

I understand, certainly, the committee's concern, having served on that committee for about 24 years, and having considered a number of supplementals. As a member of that committee, I understand that concern. But I will tell the gentleman that we are trying to proceed in a way that will facilitate the passage of this bill to the Senate and hopefully transmittal to the President prior to the Memorial Day break.

Mr. BLUNT. Well, I thank the gentleman for that. I do think the time does matter here because of the potential for furlough notices and other things for troops if we let this bill go much beyond the work period we are in right now between now and Memorial Day.

One of the items that I keep seeing reports that could be in this bill would be enhanced GI benefits. The cost estimates I have seen from a Senate cost estimate on a bill over there, to a bill here, have been anywhere from a low of $20 billion to a high of $60 billion over 10 years. I know a number of Republicans have been working on that as well. Some of them have reached out to Democrats this week, saying, We hope we can find a way to pay for this.

Does the gentleman have any knowledge of whether or not that GI bill, expanded GI benefits, is being actively discussed as part of the bill?

I would yield.

Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

I will tell the gentleman that very definitely it's being discussed. We believe this is a cost of war. We have over 4,000 families who have lost husbands, wives, brothers and sisters. We have over 30,000 severely injured. Obviously, the GI bill for those who came home from World War II and Korea had very good benefits that were helpful to them. Unfortunately, particularly with respect to our Guard and Reserve, that is not the case.

JIM WEBB, the former Secretary of the Navy, now the Senator from Virginia, as you know, has introduced a bill. STEPHANIE HERSETH SANDLIN on this side has also introduced a bill. Others have introduced legislation trying to make sure that the veterans who are coming home from Iraq that have been deployed for long periods of time, have had their lives very substantially disrupted, their families' lives disrupted, fighting for their country, that this is a cost of war.

We are trying to address this, and the gentleman is correct, there is discussion about, as a cost of war, having this proceed to the President perhaps on the supplemental. That is under discussion. That decision has not been made. But it's certainly very high on our priority list to take care of these veterans that have come home and give them the kind of benefits that we think they are due as great patriots who have sacrificed for our country.

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I thank the gentleman for yielding.

I think the good news is that certainly on the farm bill, Mr. Peterson indicates that progress is being made. As you know, we extended it to May 2 to give the conference committee a little more time.

They have been working at it very diligently. It's difficult. There were substantial differences, not so much partisan differences, but substantial differences between the two Houses. The Democrats and Republicans, frankly, on both sides of the issues.

We believe that progress is being made. I am hopeful that we can, in the next week, have a conference report on the farm bill on the floor. I am hopeful. I am not predicting that, but I am hopeful.

As to the budget, I think progress is being made there as well. There are some thorny issues. We are very committed to PAYGO. You mentioned PAYGO as it relates to the GI bill. We are committed to PAYGO. I was very pleased to hear that some of your members want to make sure that the veterans bill is paid for. The war costs, which we believe the veterans benefit are a part of, are not paid for, as you know, in the President's proposal.

But with respect to the third conference, the higher education bill, let me see if I have a note here. We are also making progress, it says, on the higher education conference. But it is likely, according to the chairman, that we will need a short-term extension next week because apparently they are not sure that they will get it finished by next week. So we may need an extension. If so, we will bring one to the floor. I presume that will be in agreement with both the ranking member and the chairman.

Mr. BLUNT. I thank the gentleman for that. Of course we did a 1-week extension on the farm bill again today. We have done several extensions now. I hope we get to a point where we have a bill on the floor or have some ongoing policy that farmers can rely on, even if that is an extension of the bill we have, but some ongoing policy really does matter, and I hope we get there.

I thank the gentleman.

Mr. HOYER. I would just say we are in agreement.

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