Tom DeLay

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I offer a resolution (H. Res. 505), and I ask unanimous consent for its immediate consideration.

Mr. DeLAY

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

Mr. DeLAY. The last time I checked, Mr. Speaker, 218 is a majority.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me. Mr. Speaker, the House will convene on Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. for morning hour and 2 p.m. for legislative business. We will consider several measures under suspension of the rules, and a final list of those bills will be sent to Members' offices by the end of this week. Any votes called on these measures will be rolled until 6:30 p.m. On Wednesday, the House will convene at 10 a.m. for legislative business. We plan to consider S. 1920, which extends Chapter 12 of the Federal Bankruptcy Code until July 1, 2004. In addition, we hope to consider S. 610, which would provide some important management reforms at NASA. Finally, it is my understanding that our colleagues in the Senate are likely to pass the omnibus appropriations bill, possibly as early as tomorrow. However, I would like to make all Members aware that if the Senate does not act, we may be forced to move a long-term continuing resolution next week, as the present continuing resolution we are operating on expires at the end of next week. I thank the gentleman for yielding and would be happy to answer any questions he may have.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to yield.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman's yielding to me. As the gentleman knows, he was here last night, the President mentioned last night that the third-quarter economic growth in 2003 was the strongest in 20 years and that housing starts and home ownership rates are up and at an all-time high; that financial markets are growing, after a long contraction; that interest rates are low; that factory orders are up; that unemployment is on the decline. Unemployment benefit claims have decreased actually every month since September, and the unemployment rate today is 5.7 percent, which is almost a full percentage point lower than the rate that we had in 1994 when a Democrat Congress and a Democrat President discontinued an expanded unemployment compensation program. So with a growing economy and a recent precedent for managing these scenarios, it is clear to the majority that the best employment program is to keep growing jobs and paychecks instead of extending and expanding Federal programs.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns on Friday, January 23, 2004, it adjourn to meet at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 27, 2004, for morning hour debate.

Mr. DeLAY

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

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourn to meet at 10 a.m. on Friday, January 23, 2004.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged resolution (H. Res. 486) providing for a committee to notify the President of the assembly of the Congress, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 349) and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged resolution (H. Res. 487) to inform the Senate that a quorum of the House has assembled, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged resolution (H. Res. 488) and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that during the remainder of the 108th Congress: (1) on legislative days of Monday when the House convenes pursuant to House Resolution 488, the House shall convene 90 minutes earlier than the time otherwise established by that resolution solely for the purpose of conducting morning-hour debate; (2) on legislative days of Tuesday when the House convenes pursuant to House Resolution 488: (a) before May 31, 2004, the House shall convene for morning-hour debate 90 minutes earlier than the time otherwise established by that resolution; and (b) after May 31, 2004, the House shall convene for morning-hour debate 1 hour earlier than the time otherwise established by that resolution; (3) on legislative days of Tuesday after May 31, 2004, when the House convenes for morning-hour debate pursuant to a separate order of the House, the House shall resume its session 90 minutes after such convening; (4) the time for morning-hour debate shall be limited to 30 minutes allocated to each party (except that on Tuesdays after May 31, 2004, a 1-hour period shall be limited to 25 minutes allocated to each party and may not continue beyond 10 minutes before the hour appointed for the resumption of the session of the House); and (5) the form of proceeding to morning-hour debate shall be as follows: the prayer by the Chaplain, the approval of the Journal, and the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag shall be postponed until resumption of the session of the House; initial and subsequent recognitions for debate shall alternate between the parties; recognition shall be conferred by the Speaker only pursuant to lists submitted by the Majority leader and by the Minority leader; no Member may address the House for longer than 5 minutes, except the Majority leader, the Minority leader, or the Minority whip; and following morning-hour debate, the Chair shall declare a recess pursuant to clause 12(a) of rule I until the time appointed for the resumption of the session of the House.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that for the remainder of the 108th Congress, all Members be permitted to extend their remarks and to include extraneous material within the permitted limit in that section of the Record entitled ``Extensions of Remarks.''

Mr. DeLAY

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

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, your committee on the part of the House to join a like committee on the part of the Senate to notify the President of the United States that a quorum of each House has been assembled and is ready to receive any communication that he may be pleased to make has performed that duty. The President asked us to report that he will be pleased to deliver his message at 9 p.m. tonight to a joint session of the two Houses.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that for the remainder of the 108th Congress, the Speaker, the Majority Leader, and the Minority Leader be authorized to accept resignations and to make appointments authorized by law or by the House.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that Members may have until publication of the last edition of the Congressional Record authorized for the first session of the 108th Congress by the Joint Committee on Printing to revise and extend their remarks and to include brief, related extraneous material on any matter occurring before the adjournment of the first session sine die.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged resolution (H. Res. 476) and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. The conference report before us, one of the last bills that the House will pass before we recess for the year, in my opinion, is a fitting end to the legislative session. This omnibus represents the values of discipline, innovation, and conviction we all treasure, values also embodied in the man that we have most to thank for it, and that is the gentleman from Florida (Chairman Young) of the Committee on Appropriations. When we pass this bill this afternoon, we will have funded vital priorities, made difficult and important choices, and reaffirmed our commitment to fiscal discipline. For a year that began with a struggling economy and pressing needs at home and abroad, that we have held the growth of discretionary spending to 3 percent is a titanic achievement in fiscal restraint. I know there has been a lot written, most of it false, about the spending habits of this body. But we have to look at what is going on here. Yes, spending has been out of control for a while, but we started ratcheting it down and we have ratcheted down, ratcheted down to where spending for 2004 will have an increase of only 3 percent. That is the lowest increase in spending in the 9 years we have been in the majority. I think that is significant and important, and we have the Committee on Appropriations, the chairman, to thank for that. And as far as the projects and earmarks are concerned, they cannot on the one hand decry the fact that they are not getting projects and earmarks and on the other hand argue that this bill is full of projects and earmarks and urge people to oppose the bill because it has earmarks. There is a fundamental difference in how we approach earmarks that has been going on for the last few years. We learned early on in the majority, when we had a Democratic President, that the Congress, being the third branch of government, had the right to direct spending to our districts, rather than wait on some bureaucrat to decide whether it was a useful project or not. The same is going on now. This Congress can state, through earmarks, the importance of spending in certain parts of the country and in our districts. I will give the Members a perfect example in this bill. There is money that goes to M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston, Texas. Some may call that pork, but I will tell the Members what, the thousands of people that are relying on M.D. Anderson to cure them of their cancer do not think of that earmark as pork. They think it is real, it is important, it is important for their health, and it is important for their family and the length of time that they may be on this earth. It is not pork. It is an earmark. And they do not have to wait around for some bureaucrat to wait around and decide whether it is important or not. It is in the bill. The Congress is stating that that money should go to M.D. Anderson as a vital expenditure of taxpayers' money. There are all kinds of stories like that all over this country. And many Members have stood up for the good spending that they think is important in their districts. So I am not ashamed of the fact that there are earmarks in this bill. Secondly, the real opposition is coming because there is not enough spending, and I say to my colleagues if they want to show real fiscal restraint, we are doing it here in this bill, and we are doing it within the budget that we passed this year. This bill is within the budget we passed. Actually, the Medicare bill, the $400 billion prescription drug benefit, is within the budget that we passed. And it was an agreement between the House and the Senate and the White House to hold the line on spending, and we have done it. Yet opposition is decrying the fact that we are not spending enough. And if they were in charge, they would be spending much more than what we are spending in this omnibus bill. So I am not ashamed of the spending. I think the priorities were set and set well, and I give credit to the appropriators and the hard work that they have done. But this bill is a success for this House and the American people, not only for the money it does not spend, but the money it does spend. Included in all the pages of numbers and dollar signs, there are real programs that will benefit real people. First and foremost, the omnibus includes funding for a school choice initiative in Washington, D.C. Thanks to this program, 1,700 low-income children will be given a chance finally to attend schools that their parents choose, just like children in higher tax brackets always have. District children who have today been held captive by failed schools and bureaucrats will be given a chance to obtain the freedom, hope, and opportunity that a good education provides all of us. This bill also helps America's veterans to the tune of $2.9 billion in a funding increase in veterans medical benefits over last year. I thank the appropriators for working with the veterans community to meet this very fundamental obligation. I also want to thank negotiators for acknowledging and maintaining America's national commitment to defend the dignity of human life with the inclusion of the amendment of the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Weldon) banning the patenting of human organisms. Mr. Speaker, this bill is full of similar provisions, sound, disciplined policies, funded at responsible, reasonable levels. It is a spending bill worthy of the national challenges it meets, and I urge all Members to support its passage today.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, your committee appointed to inform the President that the House is ready to adjourn and to ask him if he has any further communications to make to the House has performed that duty. The President has directed us to say that he has no further communications to make to the House.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentlewoman coming down and holding this Special Order in memory of Joe Skeen, and I appreciate the comments of the gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Pearce). That was a very wonderfully put eulogy for an incredible man. I met Joe Skeen for the first time when I first ran for office in 1984 in a primary. It was a big primary, a lot of Republicans running. Joe Skeen came in on my behalf and really did not know me from Adam. He had heard about me. He loved Texas A&M. I think, with all due respect, he loved Texas as much as he loved New Mexico, because he loved coming to Texas. He came at a particularly tough time in my campaign and just wowed the folks in Houston, Texas. He wowed them through his incredible wit. He was one of the funniest men I knew. In his wit, he always had a point he was trying to make, and somebody ought to really write a book, a compilation of Joe Skeen's speeches, because they were poignant, they were to the point, but, at the same time, they had a wonderful American flavor and an American wit that was so Joe Skeen. From that day forward, Joe Skeen became a very dear friend of mine, as he is a friend to every Member of this House. He never met a person he did not like, and he never met a person he did not make a friend out of. The man was a stalwart in this House. Whenever you needed something, you could always go to Joe Skeen, and he would do everything in his power to see that it was accomplished. Joe Skeen had the incredible character and integrity and moral strength that Members drew from. In his later years, when he got that dreadful Parkinson's disease, he was in here on the floor suffering from that disease and still doing his job to the very last minute. And it shows. The man was committed to his constituency in New Mexico. He loved the people of New Mexico, and I had a great time in going out and campaigning for Joe Skeen, because you could see his real love for the land, for the ranchers and farmers, for New Mexico. He really had a strong, strong feeling for the people that he served, and he had a servant's heart. He was a man that we will sorely miss, and we have already missed him this year. Joe Skeen is one of those very special characters that very seldom come through this House, that has enriched the House, has enriched this Nation. He is a true, true leader that will be sorely missed. So to Mary and his family we give all our sympathy, and hope they will understand how much we miss him and the legacy that he has left by serving in this House. We greatly appreciate the service and character of the man Joe Skeen.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 339), and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take from the Speaker's table the Senate bill (S. 459) to ensure that a public safety officer who suffers a fatal heart attack or stroke while on duty shall be presumed to have died in the line of duty for purposes of public safety officer survivor benefits, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.