The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Transportation was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H4657-H4658 on June 18, 1999.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM
(Mr. BONIOR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)
Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, I ask for this 1 minute for the purpose of inquiring from the distinguished Majority Leader the schedule for today and next week.
Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. BONIOR. I yield to my friend from Texas.
Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to announce we have concluded legislative business for the week.
The House will not be in session on Monday, June 21.
The House will next meet on Tuesday, June 22, at 12:30 p.m. for morning hour and 2 p.m. for legislative business. Members should note that we expect recorded votes after 2 p.m. on Tuesday, June 22. On Tuesday we will consider a number of bills under suspension of the rules, and H.R. 659, the Patriotic Act, under an open rule.
On Wednesday, June 23, and the balance of the week the House will consider the following legislation, all of which will be subject to rules:
H.R. 2084, the Department of Transportation Appropriation Act;
H.R. 1658, Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform;
H.J. Res. 33, Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States Authorizing the Congress to Prohibit the Physical Desecration of the Flag of the United States; and
H.R. 1802, Foster Care and Dependents Act of 1999.
Mr. Speaker, we expect to conclude legislative business by 2 o'clock p.m. on Friday, June 25, and I thank the gentleman for having yielded me the time.
Mr. BONIOR. If I could ask the gentleman from Texas: Do we expect any late nights next week, any anticipated late evenings?
Mr. ARMEY. I thank the gentleman.
We do have a fairly full legislative schedule, but it seems to me given that most of the work is considered under the rules and not very controversial we should not expect a flood of amendments, and we should be able to manage ourselves into relatively reasonable working hours.
Mr. BONIOR. I thank my colleague.
Let me ask him a further question and inquiry:
When are we going to take up campaign finance reform? I understand that the Committee on House Administration is going to have a series of hearings, and I would just implore my friend from Texas and my colleagues on this side of the aisle in the majority that the time has come for us to have this bill on the floor where we can have an open debate on an issue in which we debated for weeks and weeks and months on end in the last Congress. I think the country is ready, we are tired of waiting, and I hope the gentleman can give us some indication of when that bill will be before this body.
Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, let me again remind the gentleman the summers belong to the appropriations process. The Speaker and the leadership have correctly, I think, in terms of the management of the year's flow of business placed that priority on the process, and yet the Speaker has given assurance, and I would second the assurances that he has given, that we should be able to address this matter of campaign finance reform on the floor before the end of September.
Mr. BONIOR. Before the end of September.
Mr. Speaker, I regret hearing that once again. I understand that was the Speaker's assurance and the gentleman's assurance, but that seems awfully late in terms of making sure that we have something that can change the law of this country to clean up our campaign finance.
I yield for a comment to my friend and leader on this issue, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer).
Mr. HOYER. I thank the distinguished whip for yielding, and I will say to my friend, the Majority Leader, I quoted him yesterday in hearings that we had in the Committee on House Administration saying that he hoped initially that this would be on the floor in July, campaign finance reform. I also quoted the gentleman from Tennessee
(Mr. Wamp), who indicated that if we delayed until September he was fearful that it would kill campaign finance reform.
As the distinguished Majority Leader knows, we had over 50 hours of debate on the Shays-Meehan bill last Congress and we had 252 Members vote in favor of passing that bill, and frankly with all due respect the hearing that we had yesterday, three good Members of Congress, the gentleman from California (Mr. Calvert), the gentleman from Maryland
(Mr. Gilchrest) and the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Sabo), came and testified, but very frankly, Mr. Leader, they testified on bills they have had in it for at least two congresses. Very little change in their testimony. They indicated to me it was essentially no different than it was before. So I fear that the hearings will simply delay us and will be a device to kill rather than pass campaign finance reform.
I would hope that the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Armey) would consult with his leadership and see if we could accelerate that so we could bring Shays-Meehan to the floor as quickly as possible, and I thank the distinguished gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bonior) for yielding, and I thank the leader for his consideration of that request.
Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, I just have one other request, and I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Farr) for a comment.
Mr. FARR of California. Mr. Speaker, I just have a question for those of us traveling from the West Coast. Is there any possibility that those votes on Tuesday could be rolled until 5 o'clock? If we leave the West Coast first thing early Tuesday morning, the first plane gets in 4 p.m., and we can be on the floor by 5:00. It would be very helpful.
Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his request, and I do understand how important and sensitive that is.
Ordinarily, especially on a Monday, we would almost assuredly give Members a 6 o'clock vote time. We do have again an opportunity to have an orderly week's business, but to begin, being a Tuesday beginning, I just at this point am not comfortable. Should we see a modification in the schedule, we would put out over the whip notice, but I just do not believe we can get there now.
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But I just do not believe we can get there now.
Mr. FARR of California. So the gentleman does not think the votes could be rolled?
Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield, we always look for these opportunities to the best of our ability, but we need to get more quickly than in many weeks to considerations of legislation under rules, and therefore we just simply cannot make that Tuesday accommodation that is so usual and, I think, so necessary and desirable. But we will continue to keep the needs of Members in our planning priorities.
Mr. FARR of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.
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