Legislative Program

LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM -- (House of Representatives - March 18, 2004)

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

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay), the distinguished majority leader, for the purpose of inquiring of the majority leader the schedule for the coming week.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Maryland, the distinguished whip, for yielding to me, and I will try to be brief as I am sure my friend is anxious to get back to watch the end of the Terps game.

Mr. HOYER. He is right.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, the House will convene on Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. for morning hour and 2 p.m. for legislative business. We will consider several measures under suspension of the rules. A final list of those bills will be sent to Members' offices by the end of this week. Any votes called on these measures will be rolled until 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the House will convene at 10 a.m. We plan to consider the budget resolution for fiscal year 2005. We would hope to complete several hours of general debate on Wednesday before moving into the amendment process on Thursday.

And, finally, I would like to note for all the Members, and they should take note, that we are making a change to the schedule that was sent to offices at the beginning of the year. We do not plan to have votes next Friday, March 26.
I thank the gentleman for yielding and would be happy to answer any questions.

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for the information. There are, of course, so many things which disappoint us when the majority leader announces them; but that is not one of them, I assure him.

I appreciate the majority leader's advice that Wednesday and Thursday we will be considering the budget, obviously one of the most important policy documents that we consider. And it appears from his announcement that there will be substantial time on Wednesday and substantial time on Thursday, I presume, for a full and fair debate on the underlying proposal that will be reported out of the committee, as well as such substitutes as may be made in order. Is that correct?

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. HOYER. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I really anticipate next week's process to resemble years past. I do not want to presuppose what the Committee on Rules would do, but I would think that we would likely have an extended general debate in the neighborhood of 4 or 5 hours.

[Time: 14:30]

In addition, the Committee on Rules could and will likely make in order multiple substitutes, and assuming that they are legitimate budget resolutions, and we will have a very vigorous debate.

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. I think that is very important for the House and for the American people, and we look forward to that discussion and the substitutes. As the gentleman knows, we will have the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Spratt), our ranking member, who will have a substitute. I expect the Black Caucus to have a substitute, and perhaps there will be some other substitutes as well. Certainly the Blue Dogs will have a substitute, all of which I think, in the gentleman's understanding of it, would be very substantive budget resolution proposals, and we anticipate them being made in order so we can debate each of those as well.

Mr. Speaker, one of the other aspects, as the majority leader knows, there has been a lot of discussion about enforcement mechanisms. We believe on this side of the aisle that enforcement mechanisms are critically important if we are going to get to balance at some time in the future, which is our objective and I think the gentleman's objective as well.

Can the gentleman tell me when and in what form enforcement mechanisms will be brought to the floor? I yield to the gentleman from Texas.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. Obviously, the Committee on the Budget passed out a budget mechanism that will be considered by the Committee on Rules. I have no idea at this point in time when we could schedule such a thing. There are a lot of Members on our side and the gentleman's side that want to participate in this process that have a lot of good ideas. I think this issue needs to ripen a bit. The Committee on Rules claims some jurisdiction in this regard and they want to look at and mark up their own bill.

This is a process that actually just got started yesterday by the Committee on the Budget marking up a bill and moving it out of their committee, so I really cannot say. I do not know when is the earliest. We have a pretty full schedule next week and the following week and then, as the gentleman knows, we break for the spring district work period. But it is vitally important, everybody wants to bring fiscal discipline to the budget process and show that this House can have fiscal responsibility, and we think that is an important bill and we will bring it to the floor as soon as it is ready.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the gentleman for his response. I would observe that, clearly, enforcement mechanisms we believe are critically important as we consider the budget in the mid-2005 budget, but also the outyears as well, whether we use a 5-year or 10-year budget analysis.

Without enforcement mechanisms, obviously, we really do not know what we are doing. We can say we are doing something, but without enforcement mechanisms to make sure that, in fact, we are controlling spending, controlling revenues, controlling entitlements, we do not have really a budget that is meaningful and enforceable. So we are hopeful that that will come relatively soon.

We would like to do it contemporaneously, but I understand what the gentleman is saying; the Committee on Rules wants to consider that. The Senate I think considered that contemporaneously and, of course, there are some in this country who have made it very clear that an enforcement mechanism that impacts on both spending and on revenues was the only kind of enforcement that would really be meaningful. I know there is a difference of opinion among people on that issue, but we think that needs to be debated fairly soon and fairly proximate to close the consideration of the budget.

Mr. Leader, my last question would be, if the gentleman knows, and I notice we have a member of the Committee on Rules on the floor, when will substitutes need to be filed, if the gentleman knows; or can the gentleman inform us when substitutes will need to be filed?

Mr. DeLAY. As soon as we can get back to the Terps game, I think the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Hastings) is going to stand up and announce when they should be filed.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, in a world of priorities, the gentleman just got mine.

END