Legislative Program

LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM -- (House of Representatives - April 06, 2005)

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

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I take this time for the purpose of inquiring about the schedule for the coming week. I yield to the majority leader, Mr. DeLay, for the purposes of informing us of the schedule.

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

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

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. The House will convene on Tuesday at 2 p.m. for legislative business. We will consider several measures under suspension of the rules; a final list of these bills will be sent to the Members' offices by the end of the week.

Any votes called on these measures will be rolled until 6:30 p.m.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the House will convene at 10 a.m. for legislative business. We likely will consider additional legislation under suspension of the rules, as well as S. 256, The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005.
In addition, we also plan to consider H.R. 8, the Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act of 2005.

Finally, I would like to remind all Members that we are finished voting for the week. We will not be in session tomorrow to accommodate Members traveling to Rome for the funeral services of His Holiness, Pope John Paul II.

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his information.
I would ask the majority leader if he knows which days we will be considering bankruptcy and which day we will be considering the estate tax bill? I yield to my friend.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding. We do not know at this point, and we will certainly advise the gentleman when we have that. The problem is because of this shortened week, we have committees that are marking up next week that had planned to mark up this week, and we have to try to work out the schedule so that we can make it as convenient for those markups as possible.

Mr. HOYER. Reclaiming my time, in any event, both bills will be on the calendar next week?

Mr. DeLAY. That is correct. The gentleman is correct.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, with respect to the budget resolution which we have passed, I know the Senate has appointed conferees, but we have not yet appointed conferees. Does the leader know when we might appoint conferees for the budget conference? I yield to the leader.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding.

I am not advised as to when we could go to conference on the budget, possibly next week. I know the House is yet to appoint the conferees, so we have a ways to go before a conference report is completed.

Mr. HOYER. I would ask the majority leader, he is confident that we will have a conference?

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield, I am confident that we will have a conference. Yes, I am very confident.

Mr. HOYER. One additional question. I presume the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Spratt) will be invited to the conference at some point in time, along with others?
Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield, the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Spratt) is a very good friend of mine, and it would hurt my feelings if we did not invite the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Spratt) to the conference.

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for that assurance. As the gentleman knows, we have had some problems, at least from our perspective, in being included in the conferences from time to time. That is an important one.

Our citizens are confronting, as my colleague knows, very high gas prices, $2.20, $2.30, $2.50 in some areas of the country. I understand that the committees of jurisdiction are expected to be marking up next week or are in the process of marking up the energy bill. Can the gentleman tell me when that bill might be on the floor?

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield, the gentleman is correct, and we are all concerned about the higher gas prices and as important as that is to higher prices of oil and gas. We have been trying to pass or get to the President an energy bill for almost 5 years or 6 years. We have an excellent chance of actually getting a bill to the President this year.

We have had three committees scheduled to mark up components of the energy bill this week, the Committee on Energy and Commerce, the Committee on Ways and Means, and the Committee on Resources, but due to the shortened week, only one of those was able to begin their markup. I hope, and we are going to work very hard, and I expect that all three of those committees will complete their markups next week, and we will be able to have a comprehensive energy bill on the floor hopefully by the following week.

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

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