Legislative Program
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM -- (House of Representatives - July 24, 2009)
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Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman from Virginia, the Republican whip, for yielding. On Monday the House will meet at 12:30 p.m. for morning-hour debate and 2 p.m. for legislative business with votes postponed until 6:30 p.m. On Tuesday the House will meet at 10:30 a.m. for morning-hour debate and 12 p.m. for legislative business. On Wednesday and Thursday the House will meet at 10 a.m. for legislative business, and on Friday the House will meet at 9 a.m.
We will consider several bills under suspension of the rules. A complete list of suspension bills will be announced by the close of business today.
In addition, we will consider the 2010 Department of Defense Appropriations Act; also H.R. 3269, the Corporate and Financial Institution Compensation Fairness Act of 2009; and H.R. 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009.
Mr. CANTOR. Mr. Speaker, I did not hear the gentleman speak of the prospects of the House considering the health care bill. I would ask the gentleman the status of that discussion and whether this House will be delivering on the Speaker's commitment that this House was going to vote on her health care bill.
I yield to the gentleman from Maryland.
Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for yielding. The status of the health bill, I think as the gentleman probably knows, is it's still in the Energy and Commerce Committee. The Energy and Commerce Committee has not reported out that bill.
I don't know the Speaker's commitment, but certainly the Speaker and I both had the hope that we would be able to pass the health care bill by the time we left here on the 31st of July. My view is at this point in time, that may not be possible. However, that does not mean necessarily that we won't be here perhaps longer. I hope that's not the case; but if it proves to be necessary, we may be here a little longer, either on the Saturday or the 3rd or the 4th. I don't want anybody to be planning on that at this point in time. But currently the status of the bill is it's still in the Energy and Commerce Committee.
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Mr. CANTOR. I thank the gentleman.
Mr. Speaker, I would ask the gentleman again for some clarification. Did I just hear the gentleman say that we will not be considering the health care bill this week?
Mr. HOYER. I didn't say it in so many words. But I have indicated and the Speaker has indicated that we're going to do 48 hours' notice, as required, or at least as we would hope to do. This is a very important bill. It is a bill that is of great consequence to all Americans, and we are going to meet those targets of notice.
So in that context, in light of the fact the bill is still in the committee, it may be impossible to meet that commitment and get the bill on the floor on the 31st. As a result, my view is the probability of doing that bill by the 31st is very small.
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Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
We think the bill that is pending--we are not sure that your premise is correct. As a matter of fact, we think your premise is probably not correct. We think the majority of people on this floor want to vote for a health care reform bill. We think a majority of people on this floor will vote for the bill that is currently pending as it becomes more perfected. So I'm not sure that--I'm not only not sure, I don't accept your premise that there aren't a majority of votes for the bill that is being considered in this House.
Having said that, however, my point was that we want to give appropriate notice. If we can't give appropriate notice by the 31st of July, it is possible, I'm not saying that we're going to be doing this, but it is possible that we would move on to either Saturday, the 1st, or Monday and Tuesday the 3rd and 4th, if need be, if that was appropriate. It may or may not be. I don't want to say at this point in time, but I do want to give Members some notice that that is a possibility.
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Mr. HOYER. You're certainly going to have good faith on our side, as you've had all along. On the Defense Appropriations bill, it is my understanding there are well over 100 amendments that have been filed. Clearly, if we did that under an open rule or allowed all 100 amendments--which, by the way, are by one Member. There are over 100 amendments by one Member--we would never finish the bill if we stayed through August.
Having said that, I have talked to the chairwoman, and it's my belief that Mr. Flake, who has filed over 100 amendments, will be given, certainly, ample opportunity to choose which amendments he wants to offer at the time that we consider the bill. I don't know the other amendments. Notice has been filed. I don't know the other amendments and don't know what the Rules Committee is going to do. But I will tell the gentleman, as I'm sure he knows, the bill will come under a rule.
We believe that your side of the aisle has had most of the amendments that have been offered, clearly, and Mr. Flake and others, Mr. Hensarling were given the opportunity to offer a number of their amendments on earmarks, which I know are of great concern to both sides of the aisle.
So I say to the gentleman, we do expect to take the Defense bill up under a rule similar to those under which we have operated, which have facilitated, by the way, as the gentleman knows, all 11 of the 12 appropriations bills having passed. And while I was not sure of what was going to happen on the health care bill, we will achieve our objective of passing all 12 appropriations bills in a timely fashion.
I yield back.
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