Legislative Program

Floor Speech

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the majority leader, Mr. McCarthy, for the purpose of inquiring of the schedule for the week to come.

I want to, first, congratulate the majority leader on his reelection. I want to congratulate him on the expansion of his majority--not something that I was seeking, but it is the reality. I know that all of us look forward to moving forward and to, hopefully, having a degree of cooperation that will respond to what, clearly, the American people want, and that is the two sides to be working together to make their country better and more successful.

And so I want to congratulate the majority leader, and at this point in time I will yield to the gentleman for the purpose of telling us what the schedule is for the week to come.

Mr. McCARTHY of California. I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I appreciate your comments.

Mr. Speaker, on Monday, the House will meet at noon for morning hour and 2 p.m. for legislative business. Votes will be postponed until 6:30 p.m. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the House will meet at 10 a.m. for morning hour and noon for legislative business. On Thursday, the House will meet at 9 a.m. for legislative business. Last votes of the week are expected no later than 3 p.m. On Friday, no votes are expected.

Mr. Speaker, the House will consider a number of suspensions next week. A complete list will be announced by close of business today.

In addition, the House will consider three bills aimed at alleviating burdens imposed on small businesses by EPA practices. The first, H.R. 1422, the EPA Science Advisory Board Reform Act, sponsored by Representative Chris Stewart, would establish board member qualifications. The second, H.R. 4012, the Secret Science Reform Act, sponsored by Representative David Schweikert, would prohibit EPA from finalizing a regulation unless the data is made public. The third, H.R. 4795, the Promoting New Manufacturing Act, sponsored by our majority whip, Steve Scalise, will bring much-needed transparency to the EPA permitting process.

I thank the gentleman.

Mr. HOYER. I thank the majority leader for that information, and we will expect to be considering those pieces of legislation.

The majority leader has not mentioned, of course, four bills that I know the majority leader is focused on and are very important.

Are we still, Mr. Majority Leader, expecting to end this session of the Congress on the 11th of December?

Mr. McCARTHY of California. Will the gentleman yield?

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

Mr. McCARTHY of California. Yes, it is our intention. I do understand that government is only funded until the 11th, and it is our intention to continue to work with you and all Members and have that finished by December 11 and be out.

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

Let me say, Mr. Majority Leader, I know there has been discussion on your side and my side of the aisle. I know Mrs. Lowey is working with Mr. Rogers to effect an omnibus appropriations bill.

As we all know, not a single appropriations bill has been adopted. We are operating under a continuing resolution. That is not giving the stability that we need to give to the agencies to know what resources they have to accomplish the objectives we expect.

Can the gentleman tell me whether or not his expectation is we will proceed with an omnibus out of the Appropriations Committee before December 11?

It is not on the schedule for next week. My presumption it would be, therefore, hopefully on the schedule for the first week in December when we get back so that we can send it to the Senate to be adopted.

I yield to my friend.

Mr. McCARTHY of California. I thank the gentleman for yielding. The gentleman is right. We did pass seven of the 12 and 11 of the 12 out of committee. Unfortunately, the Senate had passed none.

The best way for this House and this country to work is through regular order, and we hope to be able to get that back with the new Senate.

The gentleman is right. It is not scheduled for next week. No decisions are made, but there is a possibility that we could end on an omnibus in December.

Mr. HOYER. Is it the expectation of the Majority Leader that we would be considering an omnibus so that we would do the 12 appropriations bills in a single bill?

I yield to my friend.

Mr. McCARTHY of California. No decisions are made on the direction that we will go. The gentleman knows that we were down at the White House just last week meeting with the President. I do believe the best way forward is that we would all work together and move this country in the right direction. So no decisions are made on the direction that we go.

Mr. HOYER. Well, I would say, on our side, we agree with Mr. Rogers and Senator McConnell, who did indicate early on that an omnibus would be the preferable alternative.

The problem, as the gentleman well knows, with the CR, it gives a very limited ability of agencies, particularly the Department of Defense, at a critical time, to plan as they would like. General Dempsey and General Odierno and others have mentioned that, so I am hopeful that we will be able to work together to accomplish that objective.

There are three others. There is no mention of a tax extenders bill. As the gentleman knows, the Senate is addressing that.

Does the gentleman have any idea, again, given the fact that we have essentially 3 weeks left to go and a few days, and cooperation is going to be essential if we get our work done, where we are going on tax extenders?

I yield to my friend.

Mr. McCARTHY of California. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I had just met with our chairman of Ways and Means and he has been working in the other House with the chair on the Senate, and nothing has been finalized yet.

As you know, we had passed many of those bills permanently out of this House. Negotiations are still going on with the Senate, but it is our intention to have that done before the end of the year as well.

Mr. HOYER. Given that intention, can the Majority Leader tell us whether or not there is an inclination--the Senate, as you know, had a different approach. They did a limited extension, not permanent extensions, and they dealt with all of the extenders, and they had a 2-year extension, as you know.

Whether or not we are looking at doing something temporarily while we prepare for what I think both sides think are necessary, and that is a major tax reform bill at some point in time in the spring or the summer, can the gentleman tell me whether there is that component of the consideration of the tax extenders legislation?

I yield to my friend.

Mr. McCARTHY of California. I thank the gentleman again. As the gentleman stated, yes, coming out of the House we made it permanent because that gives much greater stability to the country, and that is still part of the negotiation.

The Senate has a different idea than inside the House. None of that has been finalized yet. When the negotiation gets finalized, that will give us the answer.

Mr. HOYER. I would thank the gentleman and urge him that we get to agreement pretty soon because if we are going to give some certainty to the business community, as well as individuals, we need to act on that, and we have some approximately maybe 10 days, if we count 3 days for each one of the weeks that is remaining, 10 days in order to accomplish that through the House and the Senate. So it is necessary, I suggest respectfully to the Majority Leader, that we come to agreement on that fairly soon if we are going to have the ability to pass and send to the President that legislation.

Thirdly, the third of the items, the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, which Mr. Hensarling just wrote an op-ed about. I know that the committee has acted or is contemplating action on that.

Can the gentleman tell me whether or not TRIA--and I know there has been some discussion about including it in the omnibus. I don't know whether that is rumor or fact that it is being considered. But can the gentleman tell me where we are on the Terrorism Risk Insurance?

As the gentleman knows, it passed 93-4 in the United States Senate, so it was not a partisan bill in the Senate, overwhelming support for it, and I would hope that we could move it through the House in a similar bipartisan, overwhelming fashion.

I yield to my friend.

Mr. McCARTHY of California. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I have just met with our chairman and he is scheduled to meet with the Senate on the other side of the aisle early next week.

The Speaker and I have both put a statement out that we know the timeline of this. If they can't come to agreement, we are open to doing a 1-year extension, making sure that it doesn't have any problems. But we would like to see a resolution of this with a negotiation between both sides.

Mr. HOYER. The Senate bill, of course, is 7 years, as the gentleman knows, and that gives a certain degree of certainty to the lenders and borrowers and those who do business with both lenders and borrowers and in the construction industry.

I am hopeful that we could come to an agreement that is longer term so we could give more confidence. I think that would be in the best interest and, very frankly, I think would enjoy bipartisan significant support in this House, Mr. Majority Leader.

Lastly, the National Defense Act, authorization bill, which has passed this House, as you know, is pending in the Senate. Does the gentleman have any knowledge as to where that stands now and what possibilities there are to assure its adoption prior to the 11th of December?

I yield to my friend.

Mr. McCARTHY of California. I thank the gentleman for yielding. The gentleman is correct. We have passed it in the House and we have been working with the Senate. I think it is very strong that we will get this done before December 11. I don't have a set date, but I believe that this is a top priority, not just on this side, but on your side of the aisle as well. We just need a little movement on the Senate and we will be done with it.

Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman.

Given that expectation of moving on it, does the gentleman expect or know whether or not we will deal with the ``train and equip'' authorization within the framework of the National Defense Authorization Act, or perhaps the omnibus or some other piece of legislation?

I yield to my friend.

Mr. McCARTHY of California. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

You were with us at the White House when the President laid out the supplemental. The Appropriations Committee is going through all the funding there. No decisions have been made yet where that would move forward, but it is our intention to be able to have that question answered but be able to have the resources needed to do the job.

Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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