(Mr. Cantor asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)
Mr. Cantor: Madam Speaker, I yield to my friend from Florida for the purpose of inquiring about next week's schedule.
Ms. Wasserman Schultz: Thank you very much.
Madam Speaker, on Monday, the House will meet at 10:30 a.m. for morning-hour business and noon for legislative business, with votes rolled until 6:30 p.m. In addition to several bills under suspension of the rules, a list of which will be announced by the close of business today, we will consider H.R. 986, the Eightmile Wild and Scenic River Act; and H.R. 2831, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
On Tuesday, the House will meet at 9 a.m. for morning-hour business and 10 a.m. for legislative business. On Wednesday and Thursday the House will meet at 10 a.m. On Friday the House will meet at 9 a.m. We will consider the FY08 Agriculture appropriations bill, the FY08 Department of Defense appropriations bill, the Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act, and energy independence legislation.
Mr. Cantor: I thank the gentlelady from Florida.
I notice the gentlelady indicates that the SCHIP bill will be on the calendar next week. As a member of the Ways and Means Committee, I and others worked until 2 a.m. on the package to increase the taxes to pay for the SCHIP bill supposedly coming out of the Energy and Commerce Committee that was supposed to have scheduled to mark up their bill today.
How do you expect this bill to come to the floor next week, and under what kind of rule from the Energy and Commerce Committee?
Ms. Wasserman Schultz: We do not yet know what the rule will look like. We will be consulting with the Rules Committee and the Chair of the respective committees and we will be able to determine that at that point.
Mr. Cantor: I would ask the gentlelady, is it the intention to bring one package with the bill out of Ways and Means and the not yet marked up bill from the Energy and Commerce Committee?
Ms. Wasserman Schultz: There are various possibilities being considered, and those decisions have not yet been reached.
Mr. Cantor: I thank the gentlelady.
I would also like to ask about the energy bill. Would you expect that the energy bill will come to the floor again in one package? Is there a multiple energy bill still floating out there in the committees?
Ms. Wasserman Schultz: That is also a decision that has not yet been made. The Rules Committee will be consulted as well as the Chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
Mr. Cantor: I would ask the gentlelady, does she expect the energy bill that comes to the floor to contain CAFE standards?
Ms. Wasserman Schultz: We are considering a number of different possibilities, and those decisions, in terms of substance, have not yet been reached.
Mr. Cantor: Further, Madam Speaker, what day do you expect to begin consideration of the energy bill?
Ms. Wasserman Schultz: That decision is still being considered.
Mr. Cantor: Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman.
Next, you mentioned that the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act will be on the floor next week, and I am aware that the Rules Committee met today on this bill. I would remind the gentlewoman that it is very rare for the Rules Committee to meet the week before a bill is on the floor, and in today's case that committee met on not just one bill but on three.
I would ask the gentlewoman, Madam Speaker, will the rule granted be open given that Members were not afforded an amendment deadline and the Rules Committee meeting was not noticed until 9:04 p.m. last night?
Ms. Wasserman Schultz: The rule for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act will be a closed rule.
Mr. Cantor: I thank the gentlewoman. Again, it is very rare for that to happen, especially when there was absolutely no amendment deadline given to the Members and the notice only coming since 9 o'clock last night.
I would ask the gentlewoman further on the DoD approps bill, you have been talking about having an Iraq vote each week before we leave. Do you anticipate a freestanding bill next week, or do you expect legislation to be confined to a DoD approps bill having to do with Iraq?
Ms. Wasserman Schultz: Those decisions have not yet been made, but it is possible that we will consider an Iraq vote sometime during next week.
Mr. Cantor: Again, I know the gentlewoman may not have the information in front of her. We are trying to get as much information as we can, Madam Speaker, for our Members in order to plan their schedules for next week. And along those lines, the schedule is rather heavy.
Should we expect and should our Members be prepared for legislative business next Saturday?
Ms. Wasserman Schultz: In the event that we do not complete the agenda that is ambitious for next week, Members should make plans to possibly be here on Saturday.
Mr. Cantor: I thank the gentlewoman.
Madam Speaker, I would like to ask about a few things that are out there expected to or at least having been reported to come up but are not yet on the schedule. I would ask, do you expect the patent reform legislation to be added to next week's schedule, as it was marked up in committee last week?
Ms. Wasserman Schultz: While that is still under discussion, it is unlikely.
Mr. Cantor: I thank the gentlewoman.
Madam Speaker, I would also like to indicate that the Republicans have repeatedly been trying to close the terrorist loophole in our FISA laws with our previous-question votes over the last several weeks. And I would ask the gentlewoman, first of all, why the fix to the terrorist loophole was not put into the conference report that we just voted on, the 9/11 conference report? And after that, what is preventing this important national security legislation from coming to the floor? And I would ask the gentlewoman if it could be added to next week's schedule.
Ms. Wasserman Schultz: We are looking at various options to address that concern, and it is possible that will occur next week.
Mr. Cantor: Again, I would just like to reiterate the concern to the gentlewoman, Madam Speaker, that it was August of 2001 in which, unfortunately, we had experienced an increase in terrorist chatter, and that was in all the reports, and likely, hopefully, never again will that happen to the United States and its citizens, a terrorist attack at all or, God forbid, on that scale.
Given the reports lately and the fact that there is increasing chatter among the various reports coming out of different sources, I would just like to reiterate the importance of that type of legislation to the gentlewoman and the desire on the part of the Republicans to see that legislation come to the floor.
Ms. Wasserman Schultz: I thank my friend from Virginia for his comments, and we certainly couldn't agree more on the importance of that. We have been looking at various ways that we can address those concerns. The majority is absolutely concerned about addressing the whole issue of terrorism and making sure that we can close every possible loophole that might be slipped through by a terrorist.
Mr. Cantor: Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman and ask one final question.
The House approved legislation earlier this month to reform the activities at the FDA, including reauthorization of the Prescription Drug User Fee Act and the Medical Device User Fee Act. Without reauthorization, the FDA will be forced to send out notices to reduce staffing. In other words, we will have to lay off government employees. It is my understanding that the FDA will send these notices as early as August if Congress fails to reauthorize the user fee programs next week.
I would ask the gentlewoman, how does the majority plan to complete these important bills before we adjourn next week?
Ms. Wasserman Schultz: We think the gentleman's characterization of the timing of that is a bit of a stretch. We do believe that that is an important issue to address. With the ambitious agenda that we have next week and the priorities that have been laid out, it is unlikely that we will get to the FDA issue next week, but we will be dealing with it as soon as possible.
Mr. Cantor: I would just respond, Madam Speaker, that there is a projected over 2,000-employee layoff if we in this Congress do not act to make sure that reauthorization occurs, and that is something that I am sure the gentlewoman will agree we do not want to see happen.
Ms. Wasserman Schultz: We certainly do not, which is why we plan to make that a priority and deal with it as soon as we possibly can.
Mr. Cantor: I thank the gentlewoman.
