John Boehner

Mr. BOEHNER

Mr. BOEHNER. 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.

Mr. BOEHNER. 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.

Mr. BOEHNER

Mr. BOEHNER. I hope so.

Mr. BOEHNER. I do too.

Mr. BOEHNER. 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.

Mr. BOEHNER. The glass is always half full.

Mr. BOEHNER. 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.

Mr. BOEHNER. 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.

Mr. BOEHNER. 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.

Mr. BOEHNER. 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.

Mr. BOEHNER. 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.

Mr. BOEHNER

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

Mr. BOEHNER. 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.

Mr. BOEHNER

Mr. BOEHNER. 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.

Mr. BOEHNER. If the gentleman would yield.

Mr. BOEHNER. 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.

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

Mr. BOEHNER. 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?

Mr. BOEHNER. I am hopeful.

Mr. BOEHNER. Still.

Mr. BOEHNER. 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.

Mr. BOEHNER. It still is.

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

Mr. BOEHNER. I would hope that we would have a budget.

Mr. BOEHNER

Mr. BOEHNER. 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.