Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourn to meet at 12:30 p.m. on Monday next for morning hour debate.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the business in order under the Calendar Wednesday rule be dispensed with on Wednesday next.

Mr. Speaker, let me first congratulate the chairman of the Budget Committee, Mr. Nussle. This is his sixth year chairing the Budget Committee. As I think most of my colleagues know, it has been six tough years, and Mr. Nussle has done a very, very good job in bringing us to this point. And I want to congratulate him and wish him well as he decides to leave the House and to pursue other political interests in the State of Iowa.

I think all of us know that we have been through a long, arduous process to bring this budget to the floor tonight. It has been months of conversations with Members, not always easy; certainly it has been very difficult. But the process has allowed us to better understand each other, understand our needs, and understand the needs of the American people.

As one of my colleagues earlier was pointing out, revenues to the Federal Government grew last year at over 11 percent. Revenues to the Federal Government this year are going to grow at over 12 percent, which really, I think, speaks volumes, that lowering tax rates does not necessarily mean lower revenues to the Federal Government.

If you look at what we did in the late 1990s when we balanced the budget, it was revenue growing to double digits rates and us holding the line on spending. And I know there is a lot of well-meaning, well- intentioned spending that people would like. But we can't continue to spend our kids' and their kids' inheritance every year, which has gone on here far too long. And if you look at what we are doing here, with revenues rising and holding the line on spending, we can, in fact, balance the budget in the next 4 or 5 years. It is very possible. And so I want to thank all of my colleagues for working with us to get to this point.

I want to yield to my colleague from Delaware (Mr. Castle).

Reclaiming my time, I thank my colleague from Delaware for his willingness to work through these long several months. I think you have very accurately portrayed the agreements that we have come to. And it is important to understand that we were able to do this without spending $1 more than what the President asked for. The $873 billion, 302(a) discretionary cap remains in effect. But moving the priorities around to meet the needs of our various Members is how we were able to do this. And any additional spending on the Labor, HHS bill at the end of the day is either going to have to be offset or come from other 302(b) accounts.

And the commitment is that we will get there at the end of the day. We will work with Members across the spectrum in terms of how we get there. But the important thing is that we are able to meet the needs of all of our Members without exceeding the President's numbers.

So I want to thank my colleague, tell him how much I have enjoyed working with him and all of the members of our conference. I am just glad that we are here.

Mr. Chairman, this series of votes that we are in will be the last votes of the day and the week. As many of you know, there was some chance that the budget would come to the floor tonight. We made a lot of progress today, I am very optimistic that we will get there, but we are not there today. I just wanted all the Members to know what the plans were.

Announcement by the Acting Chairman

I thank my colleague for yielding.

Next week, Mr. Speaker, the House will convene on Tuesday at 12:30 for morning hour and 2 p.m. for legislative business. We will consider measures under suspension of the rules. A list of those bills will be sent to Members' offices by the end of the week. Any votes called on those measures will be rolled until 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

On Wednesday and the balance of the week, the House will likely consider the Ag, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, which I anticipate will be scheduled for Wednesday, subject to change.

We will deal with the Department of the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, and the Military Quality of Life and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act.

The House will also consider H.R. 4200, the Forest Emergency Recovery and Research Act. The Committee on Resources, Ag, and Transportation and Infrastructure have all completed action on that bill.

In addition to these bills, I continue to hope that we are able to bring a budget resolution to the floor. A lot of progress was made today, but that is an issue that I am hopeful we can deal with next week.

I am very sure that next week there will be votes on Friday.

With three appropriations bills and several other bills, and the possibility of doing the budget, we will have our hands full.

It is not likely we will have any energy bills up next week, but there are a number of energy bills that are in the pipeline with regard to the possibility of drilling in ANWR, the CAFE bill continues to move along, and the refinery legislation that did not receive a two-thirds vote under suspension is likely to be back in some form.

After that bill came out of the Energy and Commerce Committee, the Judiciary Committee filed a request for a referral on that bill. It has been under consideration this week with the Parliamentarians, and we are hopeful that we will have an answer from the Parliamentarians about this jurisdiction which is holding up the consideration of the bill.

It depends on the ruling of the Parliamentarians; and until they rule whether there is a jurisdictional claim or not, there is not much that we can do.

I have talked to Chairman Sensenbrenner and others about the bill. We don't have it scheduled as yet, but we are hopeful that it will be coming to the floor in the near future.

As I have indicated, when we think we have the votes to pass the budget, we will bring it up, sooner rather than later, I hope.

I thank my friend for yielding. You and I did have a conversation about participation. The conversation was centered around the pension reform bill, only because I am a conferee on the pension bill. What happens in other committees and some of these conferences, they all have their own style and own way of doing their conferences. I understand the gentleman's concern, but that was not the reference that I was making when you and I were having a discussion about the pension bill.

I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I appreciate your concern. As the gentleman is well aware, these conferences that occur between the House and Senate trying to resolve the differences in these bills are sometimes dealt with by the majority. I saw it when I was a minority Member of the House. I understand the gentleman's concern.

I will urge my colleagues, my chairmen, to be more open. I share the gentleman's view that we all have a role to play in this institution and having people at the table gives usually a much better product and everyone has a right to voice their approval or disapproval of the actions that the conference is taking.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the business in order under the Calendar Wednesday rule be dispensed with on Wednesday next.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourn to meet at 2 p.m. tomorrow; that when the House adjourns on that day, it adjourn to meet at 2 p.m. on Monday next, and further, when the House adjourns on that day, it adjourn to meet at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 16, 2006, for morning hour debate.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleague for yielding.

Next week, Mr. Speaker, the House will convene on Tuesday at 12:30 for morning hour and 2 p.m. for legislative business. We will have several measures under suspension of the rules, a list of which will be sent to Members' offices by the end of the week. Any votes on those measures on Tuesday will be rolled until 6:30 p.m.

On Wednesday and the balance of the week, the House will likely consider H.R. 5122, the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2007 from the Armed Services Committee. As Mr. Dreier just mentioned, the committee reported the bill yesterday, and I expect this to be considered on Wednesday and Thursday.

Now, there will be no votes next Friday, but Members should be aware that Thursday we could go well into the evening. And so while Friday is already scheduled for a day in session, I think we can complete our work on Thursday, and that will be our goal.

We expect that H.R. 5143, the hydrogen relief bill, which was reported by the Committee on Science, could be up next week. And we can expect additional energy votes in the coming weeks.

I would have hoped it would have been up this week, but there is a jurisdictional dispute that is being sorted out; and until it is, we are unable to schedule it for floor action.

I hope so.

I hope so. We are continuing to work with our Members, some of whom want to spend more money, some of whom want to spend less money. And until we come to some resolution of those talks, I cannot give you any further information on when the budget resolution will be up.

I do too.

Mr. Speaker, there is a tentative agreement on the tax reconciliation bill between the House and the Senate, tentative to an agreement on a second bill that would consider the extender items, issues that clearly would not fit within the tax reconciliation bill. There is no agreement on that second bill, and so all of this is still under discussion.

There was a meeting of the principals, both Democrat and Republican, members of the conference on pensions last night. We are continuing to work on that, and it is my hope in the next several weeks that both of those issues will be ready for floor action.

I think the gentleman realizes that I have spent about 6 years trying to bring real pension reform to protect American working men and women's pensions. And the House and Senate have acted. There have been several months of conversations that have yielded, frankly, little results.

Now, I remain very optimistic that there will be a bill, but some of the principals involved are also involved in the tax reconciliation and the tax extenders conference which is complicating a lot of the discussions on the pension bill.

But I do expect, over the next couple of weeks, a lot of this to be sorted out.

The glass is always half full.

Mr. Speaker, the oldest Member of this institution is celebrating a birthday. He has been a Democrat, he has been a Republican, but I think he is loved by all of our colleagues.

Not many of you know the Boehner birthday song, but it is pretty simple: This is your birthday song. It doesn't last too long. Hey.

Now, my colleagues, the second verse is exactly like the first verse.

This is your birthday song. It doesn't last too long. Hey. Happy birthday, Ralph.

I thank my colleague for yielding, and suggest to my colleague from California, I am as concerned as you and many other Members on both sides of the aisle that the Ethics Committee process is not running the way it should. For the benefit of this institution, for the responsibility of this institution, the Ethics Committee should be functioning and should be enforcing the rules of the House. Unfortunately, one side of the aisle has decided that they don't want the process to continue.

Now, the gentleman from Colorado and I, yesterday, had a conversation about the ethics process. I am interested in seeing it up and running. I am interested in working in a bipartisan way to fix the problems that are there so that it will run for the benefit of Members and the institution; and the gentleman has my commitment to work with him and Members on the other side of the aisle to make sure that the ethics process works, because it is important for the integrity of this institution.

I yield to the gentleman.

In responding to my colleague from Colorado, I am interested in working in a bipartisan way to come to an agreement on those issues that are necessary for the Ethics Committee to do its job on behalf of Members and this institution. And whatever I can do to help foster those changes and to initiate real action at the Ethics Committee, I will do everything I can to work with you to do that.

I thank my colleague for yielding. Given the hour and the commitments that Members have tomorrow, it is the intention of the majority leader to finish the bill under which the rule we just passed on ethics and lobbying reform on Tuesday. And so the House will convene at 12:30 for morning hour and 2 o'clock for legislative business. There will be some suspensions. Votes will be rolled until 6:30.

On Wednesday and the balance of the week, the House will consider H.R. 4943, the Prevention of Fraudulent Access to Phone Records Act. In addition to H.R. 4943, we will do H.R. 4954, the SAFE Port Act, which the Committee on Homeland Security completed yesterday, and we are continuing to work with other committees to assure that this bill will be ready. I would expect this bill to be considered on Thursday.

The committees of jurisdiction have also begun to hold hearings on energy, and Members should expect votes in the coming weeks addressing America's energy needs. That completes my report on what next week looks like.

There is a possiblity that the telco bill could get out next week. The committee acted. There are other committees of interest, and we are working with them. It is too early to give a hard commitment that it will be up next week.

If the gentleman would yield.

Let me work with you on whether that is actually Tuesday or whether we do it first thing Wednesday morning.

Does the gentleman want to agree right now that the first thing, the first order of business on Wednesday morning will be to take up the lobby and ethics reform package?

If it meets with your approval, I would be happy to do it.

I am hopeful.

Still.

I would hope that we would have a budget.

I appreciate my colleague for yielding. It is important that we protect America's pensions and that we protect the pension system that we have. And having spent some 6 years working on this proposal, trust me, there is no one wants this finished more than me.

There was some progress last night amongst the principals, and I remain optimistic that we will have this finished before the Memorial Day District Work Period. I am hopeful that it will be finished before then. But there has been some movement. There is some cooperation with the Senate. And I have talked to Members on both sides of the aisle, both the House and Senate, that are working together to get this issue passed. And I am very optimistic.

Will the gentleman yield?

I appreciate my friend yielding. The gentleman has been involved in a number of conferences himself over his long and distinguished career here in the House. And you realize that at some point, getting the basic framework or at least some beginning framework together amongst the principals, the committee Chairs, is essential before bringing other Members into this.

The chairman of the conference, Senator Enzi, and I have talked about this on several occasions, and I am very confident that you, all Members will have an opportunity to participate because it has been clear, as it is in all conferences that I am in, that nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to. And so the gentleman should have no fears.

Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

I appreciate the concerns raised by my friend from Maryland, but I need to remind my colleagues that the Pension Protection Act passed right before Christmas with almost 300 votes. There was broad bipartisan support for this bill, and it is my intention to maintain that broad bipartisan support for an eventual conference report. And the gentleman has my word that all Members will have their opportunity to be engaged in this conference report.

It still is.

Madam Speaker, I appreciate my colleague for yielding, and I want to congratulate Chairman Hyde and Ranking Member Lantos of the International Relations Committee, as well as Ms. Ros-Lehtinen for her work on this issue, and I rise strongly today to support H.R. 282, the Iran Freedom Support Act. The Iran Freedom Support Act sends, I think, a strong message: the United States expects Iran to be a responsible member of the international community.

Iran has repeatedly asserted its rights to nuclear power, but its government has remained silent on their international obligations. Iran must be transparent in meeting its international nuclear obligations. In particular, Iran's refusal to answer the International Atomic Energy Agency's questions about critical elements of its nuclear power program is of deep concern to me.

In addition, Iran's sponsorship of terrorism raises troubling questions about its true intentions and its long-term goals. It is impossible to have faith in a regime which spreads fear, violence, and disruption through its support of terrorist organizations and networks.

I support President Bush's efforts to work with the United Nations Security Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency to compel the Iranian regime to be a responsible member of the international community.

Mr. Speaker, I send to the desk a privileged concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 382) providing for an adjournment or recess of the two Houses and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today pursuant to this order, it adjourn to meet at 2 p.m. on Monday, April 10, 2006, unless it sooner has received a message from the Senate transmitting its concurrence in House Concurrent Resolution 382, in which case the House shall stand adjourned pursuant to that concurrent resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that business in order under the Calendar Wednesday rule be dispensed with on Wednesday, April 26, 2006.