Legislative Program

LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM -- (House of Representatives - September 09, 2004)

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

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I understand the leader had to leave early to catch a plane. So for the purpose of inquiring of the chairman of the Committee on Rules the schedule for the coming week, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Dreier).

Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.

Mr. Speaker, let me say the House has completed its work for today and the week and will convene on Monday 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 those measures will be rolled until 6:30 p.m.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we expect to consider additional legislation under suspension of the rules. We also plan to consider two bills under a rule: H.R. 5025, the fiscal year 2005 Transportation, Treasury, and independent agencies appropriations bill; and H.R. 4571, the Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act.

In addition, Mr. Speaker, we will consider several other litigation reform bills: H.R. 3369, the Nonprofit Athletic
Organization Protection Act; H.R. 1787, the Good Samaritan Volunteer Firefighter Assistance Act; and H.R. 1084, the Volunteer Pilot Organization Protection Act.

Finally, I would like to remind Members that the Jewish High Holiday of Rosh Hashanah occurs at the end of next week. We will not have votes on either Thursday or Friday. We expect to finish voting on Wednesday in the early afternoon.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for yielding. I am happy to respond to any questions he might have.

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

I might ask, and I know it will be the leader and the leader's office, but part of the leader's distinguished staff is on the floor, so he will hear us. I know my friend from California will be appreciative of this.

As I understand it, one of the planes to California is at 2:55, or late, just before 3. This says "early afternoon." The request on our side has been that if we could try to conclude by 1:30 so they could get from here to Dulles in time to catch that plane, so, of course, they could get home by sunset, if we could try to do that?

Mr. DREIER. If the gentleman will yield further, obviously there is a great desire to ensure that Members who will be marking the holiday have the opportunity to do that, so we will do everything that we can to see that Members are able to get the earliest flights possible.

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the gentleman.

With today's vote, the House and the Senate have now both gone on record in a bipartisan fashion in overruling the overtime regulations which were perceived obviously by a majority of the House and a majority of the other body as putting at risk millions of Americans losing their overtime.

In light of the fact that the House has passed that and the Senate has also passed it, not in the same bill, can we expect, does the gentleman think, that the conference report will reflect the views of both Houses? We are very hopeful, of course, that that will be honored by the conference committee.

I would be glad to yield further.

Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for yielding. Let me say it is obviously impossible to determine exactly what a joint House-Senate conference will do on any issue, but it is clear that the votes cast in both Houses will be taken into the mix as the conference would proceed with its work.

Mr. HOYER. Reclaiming my time, I appreciate the gentleman's observation. Our concerns, of course, as the gentleman can well imagine, are based upon the fact that, for instance, in the air traffic controller situation, both Houses of the Congress overwhelmingly, almost unanimously, directed that they not be outsourced or privatized. Notwithstanding that, that was dropped from the conference report.

So we would just, on behalf of the minority, strongly request that the majority vote, bipartisan vote, in the House, be supported by our conferees. That is not a motion to instruct. It was a very strong vote, almost 40 of the majority, of the Republicans, and an overwhelming majority of Democrats. I hope that would be honored.

I yield further to the gentleman from California.

Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding further. Let me say obviously that vote did not go unnoticed, and the gentleman's request clearly will be taken into the mix. But, again, it is impossible to determine exactly what a conference would do. This House will have an opportunity to vote on that conference report, if that is in fact what we do end up with.

Mr. HOYER. Reclaiming my time, I appreciate the gentleman's remarks.

Next week, the gentleman indicated, and we knew this was going to be on the schedule, the Transportation-Treasury appropriations bill will be on the floor. That is the 12th of 13 appropriations bills to be considered by the House, leaving only the VA-HUD bill to be the last to be brought to the floor.

The first question, and this may be unfair because this does not fall within your expertise, but perhaps you can be advised. When do you expect the VA-HUD bill, if there is an indication of when that might be on the floor?

Mr. DREIER. We right now are in the process of outlining the plan for next week, and, as I know my friend just observed, the chairman of the subcommittee, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Walsh) just filed the VA-HUD bill; and we will obviously be considering it just as quickly as we possibly can.

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for that observation. I will tell the gentleman that the joint leadership, the Speaker, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay), the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Blunt), the leader, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), and myself were at the White House earlier this week, as the gentleman probably knows, and met with the President. But the chairman of the Committee on Appropriations in the other body observed that we may hold over 11 of the appropriation bills until next year. Now, that is a process that we have followed in the last 2 years because we have obviously passed the majority of appropriations bills in the year after the fiscal year began, in January and February, as the gentleman recalls.

I am wondering, can the gentleman tell me, if we have some 3 weeks left, are we contemplating the passage of the 13 appropriations bills prior to adjournment, or are we planning on a continuing resolution or an omnibus appropriation bill of some type?

Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield further, and I thank the gentleman for yielding, let me say obviously we are going to do everything that we possibly can to work in a bipartisan way to ensure that we complete this very important appropriations work just as quickly as possible. It is too early to make a determination as to whether or not we would possibly have an omnibus bill or a continuing resolution, but we feel very strongly about the need to get the work done this calendar year, within the operations of the 108th Congress, and not proceed into next year with this work.

So we are going to strive to meet that, and I think that the gentleman will want to work closely with us as we pursue that goal.

Mr. HOYER. Reclaiming my time, the gentleman is correct, we will want to work closely with you to accomplish that goal.

Let me ask you an additional question raised by your response. Would there be in the realm of contemplation on the majority side a lame duck session? When you refer to this calendar year, as I said, we have 3 weeks, maybe 4, I am not sure how long the majority intends to go prior to recessing or adjourning for the election, but does the majority, if the gentleman knows, contemplate the possibility of a lame duck session?

Mr. DREIER. Let me say that we obviously have heard a great deal of speculation about that from a wide range of sources; and while it is a possibility, I think that everyone would like to have the work of the 108th Congress completed before we adjourn for the election. But at this juncture, we have to see what will take place in the next few weeks to make that final decision as to whether or not we would come back in a lame duck session.

I thank my friend for yielding.

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. Reclaiming my time, I would simply request that, realizing the vagaries of the legislative process make it difficult to determine, but just as obviously Members will be making up schedules for the post-election period, either to take time off after the election or for other family-related matters or district matters that they might have. The sooner we might give them notice of that, obviously the more helpful on both sides of the aisle that would be.

Mr. DREIER. If the gentleman would yield on that, I would simply say that it is the intention for the organization for the 109th Congress to take place beginning the week of November 15th. That would be a time when Members would be here in Washington as we begin our preparation for the next Congress.

I am not going to say anything further on that, other than to throw out that is the date for the organization for the Democratic Caucus and the Republican Conference.

Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for that response.

This week, after a long August recess, bipartisan bills were introduced to implement the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission with regard to reorganizing the intelligence operations of our country in order to better protect our people and our country. Earlier this week we met, as I said to the gentleman, with the President, who asked us to send him legislation quickly.

The reason for my question is, the Democratic leader, after requesting participation by your side of the aisle and a determination was made not to participate, introduced legislation drafted to incorporate the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. In addition to that, Mr. McCain and Mr. Lieberman have introduced legislation in the Senate. Mirror legislation has been introduced by a Member on your side and a Member on our side as well.

The President, as you know, changed his position on the budget authority for the National Intelligence Director and apparently now supports that, so there may well be good bipartisan White House-congressional agreement.

Clearly the American public are very concerned about this, we are very concerned about it, and I know the gentleman is very concerned about it. We want to put our intelligence community in the best possible posture, as the 9/11 Commission recommended, to respond to the terrorist threat to this country.

My question is, therefore, sir, can we expect, do you think, to perhaps take the bipartisan bills that have been introduced in both the Senate and the House, mirror images of one another, and work on those bills and pass them prior to the time that we either recess or adjourn prior to the election?

Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, and I thank the gentleman for yielding, let me say we were all very impressed in a bipartisan way when the report of the 9/11 Commission came forward. We know that President Bush has already, through executive order, implemented many aspects of the 9/11 Commission report.

The gentleman also is aware of the fact that immediately upon release of that report, the Speaker of the House called on the chairmen and ranking minority members of numerous committees here in the House, over a half dozen committees, called on them to hold hearings. There were 25 hearings held in the House of Representatives during the August district work period, and I believe that some very important information came forward.

One of the goals that the Speaker has set forth is to ensure that we do proceed with legislation. He very much wants to, before we adjourn in October, see the passage of legislation. Exactly what shape that will take is, of course, up to the legislative process that we have here. We are very well aware of the fact that we have seen the introduction of the 9/11 Commission report, and we know that a lot of people are thinking about that.

I will say that I am particularly honored, as I know the gentleman is, that a Member of this body, the former chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and vice chairman of the House Committee on Rules, has been nominated to be the director of Central Intelligence. He has obviously spent a great deal of time on this, and many of our colleagues have expertise on this.

So we will in the coming weeks I hope be able to fashion legislation so that the goal that the Speaker has set forth of passage of legislation before we adjourn in October will come to fruition.

I thank my friend for yielding.

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for those comments. We are hopeful that we can in fact work together in a bipartisan fashion, as seems to be started by the Senate and in this House as well, to accomplish the objective of the early passage of a reorganization to make us better to respond to the terrorist threat to this country. We hope that that will happen.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his comments.