Legislative Program

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his question. Let me read through this so I reach every point that I think each Member needs to know.

Following the next vote, the House will stand in recess subject to the call of the Chair. As all Members know, we are waiting for some technical pursuits of the budget and reconciliation process to be completed.

The House has completed, as I think all of you know, 1 hour and 40 minutes of the 2 hours of debate on the Build Back Better Act, so there will remain 10 minutes on each side prior to the passage of the Build Back Better Act.

We are waiting, as the gentleman indicated, for the completion of a privileged scrub from the Senate Parliamentarians necessary for the reconciliation process.

Once we have received that information, the Rules Committee and Mr. McGovern will meet to report a rule with an additional manager's amendment to make technical corrections to the bill, which will be considered on the floor so that the Parliamentarian's concerns will be met in that technical amendment.

We are also awaiting the final two committee estimates from CBO. We expect CBO to have estimates--and I want to make it clear that this may not be the CBO score of the overall piece of legislation. We have just heard from those who are going to be reading that through the night, I know. We are also waiting for the final two committee estimates.

As I said, I want to thank the Senate Parliamentarian, who has been working around the clock--their office has been working around the clock to get us to where I think we are now.

I want to also thank CBO, who has been working extraordinarily hard. This is a large piece of legislation, which I guess is an understatement, and it is also complex.

Having said that, obviously, CBO has been working for months-- literally August, September, October, and November--on this legislation. We appreciate the hard work of the Parliamentarian and the Director of CBO and their staffs.

We are working toward completing the Build Back Better Act today, and more information on the schedule will be provided as soon as it becomes available.

Let me add, if I can, Mr. Whip, it is my hope that we will complete this legislation today so that this would be the last legislative day prior to the Thanksgiving work period.

I want to make sure everybody understands, however, we will complete Build Back Better before we go home. I am hopeful and believe--I think most Members are hopeful--that we can do that tonight, whether you are for it or against it, that we can do it tonight, and that is my effort to achieve that objective. I know it is the Speaker's effort as well.

I yield to my friend, the whip.

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Mr. HOYER. There would be debate on the rule, and then the 20 minutes of remaining debate on the bill itself; 10 minutes on your side and 10 minutes on our side.

I want to say, we do expect to have a full table of the score. As those of you who have pored over CBO scores, you know there is a number of pages--sometimes shorter, 15, it can be longer than that--of prose in explanation of the score. What we will have is the score itself, as I understand it, a summary table of the score. We may not have the prose by that time.

I want to make it clear to you that that is not necessary for us to pass it. It is necessary, and it will be in place, before it goes to the Senate under the reconciliation rules.

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Mr. HOYER. The Energy and Commerce has been done, so we do have that. But the other two will be in the table, correct.

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Mr. HOYER. Yes, that is my understanding.

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