David Dreier

Mr. DREIER

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

Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume to enter into a colloquy with the gentleman. I want to simply say once again, Mr. Speaker, that all of the items that he has outlined, whether it is dealing with the issue of a gift ban, greater transparency and accountability, looking at the issue of privately funded travel, all of these are issues, as the gentleman knows and as others know, that Speaker Hastert is committed to addressing in a comprehensive way. And it is our intention, I hope very much that as we craft legislation, that we will be able to do so in a bipartisan way. We felt strongly, Mr. Speaker, that at the outset here, as we begin the second session of the 109th Congress, that this issue which falls within the jurisdiction of the Rules Committee, which I am privileged to chair, could be addressed on the opening day to make it clear that we are committed to comprehensive reform. And so anyone who would lead someone to believe otherwise is just plain wrong. So I would simply say to my colleague that I do look forward to working. He has very, very creative, good, interesting and important ideas in the legislative package that he has put forward, and I am committed to looking at every single one of those as we craft our legislation. I am happy to yield to my friend.

Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Lincoln Diaz-Balart), the distinguished vice chairman of the Committee on Rules, my friend from Miami.

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

Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, as I said at the outset, I thank my friend for yielding, this is the first step in the beginning of the 109th Congress second session in dealing with this issue of reform, and we are open to making any kind of modification. I will tell you the notion of having convicted felons having access to the House floor obviously we find that abhorrent, and so I will just assure my friend that that is an issue that we are more than happy to address.

Mr. DREIER. I do not have any more speakers on this side. We are expecting no requests.

Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I will be happy to yield the gentleman additional time if it is necessary. The gentleman was not here on the floor when I gave my opening statement, and from the private conversation that you and I have had, I would like to again state for the record, Mr. Speaker, that this is simply a first step in dealing with the issue of comprehensive reform of the lobbying and ethics process to which my friend referred. I would like to for the record say that. I thank my friend for yielding.

Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire of the Chair how much time is remaining on both sides?

Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Snyder).

Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H.Res. 648) to eliminate floor privileges and access to Member exercise facilities for registered lobbyists who are former Members or officers of the House.

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

Mr. DREIER

Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged Senate concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 77) and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. DREIER

Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged resolution (H. Res. 651) and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. DREIER

Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the order of the House of January 4, 2005, providing for morning hour debate be extended for the remainder of the 109th Congress except that the date of May 15, 2006, shall be used in lieu of May 16, 2005.

Mr. DREIER

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

Mr. DREIER

Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged resolution (H. Res. 649) providing for a committee to notify the President of the assembly of the Congress, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. DREIER

Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that for the remainder of the 109th 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. DREIER

Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged resolution (H. Res. 650) to inform the Senate that a quorum of the House has assembled, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. DREIER

Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield under his reservation?

Mr. DREIER. Let me just say that this is the conference report that has been out there, has been widely available, and has been written about and addressed by the media and Members. I know that both the minority and the majority are very enthusiastic about the prospect of moving this extraordinarily important defense authorization conference report as expeditiously as possible, and I thank my friend for yielding.

Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that it be in order at any time to consider a conference report to accompany H.R. 1815; that all points of order against the conference report and against its consideration be waived; that the conference report be considered as read; that the conference report be debatable for 40 minutes NOTICE If the 109th Congress, 1st Session, adjourns sine die on or before December 22, 2005, a final issue of the Congressional Record for the 109th Congress, 1st Session, will be published on Friday, December 30, 2005, in order to permit Members to revise and extend their remarks. All material for insertion must be signed by the Member and delivered to the respective offices of the Official Reporters of Debates (Room HT-60 or S-123 of the Capitol), Monday through Friday, between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. through Thursday, December 29. The final issue will be dated Friday, December 30, 2005, and will be delivered on Tuesday, January 3, 2006. Both offices will be closed Monday, December 26, 2005. None of the material printed in the final issue of the Congressional Record may contain subject matter, or relate to any event that occurred after the sine die date. Senators' statements should also be submitted electronically, either on a disk to accompany the signed statement, or by e-mail to the Official Reporters of Debates at ``Record@Sec.Senate.gov''. Members of the House of Representatives' statements may also be submitted electronically by e-mail, to accompany the signed statement, and formatted according to the instructions for the Extensions of Remarks template at http://clerk.house.gov/forms. The Official Reporters will transmit to GPO the template formatted electronic file only after receipt of, and authentication with, the hard copy, and signed manuscript. Deliver statements to the Official Reporters in Room HT-60. Members of Congress desiring to purchase reprints of material submitted for inclusion in the Congressional Record may do so by contacting the Office of Congressional Publishing Services, at the Government Printing Office, on 512-0224, between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. daily. By order of the Joint Committee on Printing. TRENT LOTT, Chairman. equally divided and controlled by the chairman and ranking minority member of the Committee on Armed Services.

Mr. DREIER

Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I thank my very good friend, the chairman of the House Administration Committee, for yielding me time. I was just crossing a television between football games, getting ready to watch the Redskins beat the Cowboys in just a few minutes, and I caught this flower arrangement here, and then started to see these photographs of Helen up, and I said, My gosh, what is going on down here? And it brought back incredible memories for me. As I know my colleagues on this side of the aisle know, I do not know if my colleagues on the other side of the aisle know, this is my 25th year here. I have served exactly half the amount of time that the Dean of the House, John Dingell, has served. So I have to tell about my first term. In my first term, Helen Sewell was in an incredible ceremony that then Speaker Tip O'Neill presided over. She was honored in the Sam Rayburn Room right over there, and she was named the Employee of the Year for the U.S. Capitol. I do not know if it has been stated, but on one of the plaques we have right here out in the hallway, and we do not do this terribly often, we have not done it on an annual basis, and, in fact, after Helen Sewell received that reward, I think we went for a long period of time without honoring another employee of the year. But I listened attentively as my friend from Maryland was talking about Helen making sure that people had enough food and drink in them to be sustained through these long hours of work. I will tell you as I listened to that, I was thinking, a number of us have been working very long hours, and I will tell you I take my hat off especially to the staff, for there has been literally no sleep for a lot of the staff members who are trying to get this very important work that we are proceeding with completed. But Helen would be here ensuring that everyone was very, very healthy; and she was an inspiration to all of us. I heard the bit about the soap operas and all that she followed so attentively. But I thank my colleagues for recognizing Helen, because she was one of the first people I met when I came here a quarter century ago, and she could not have been any nicer to me then, and our thoughts and prayers are with her. I look forward to seeing her cross that Bay Bridge and going to play cards with Wayne Gilchrest. I think that should be an interesting game when she stops by his house. But I thank my colleagues for recognizing Helen, who has been a great friend to so many of us.

Mr. DREIER

Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the House vacate the ordering of the yeas and nays on adoption of House Resolution 632 to the end that the Chair may put the question on the resolution de novo.

Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I will propound the request again. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the House vacate the ordering of the yeas and nays on adoption of House Resolution 632 to the end that the Chair may put the question on the resolution de novo.

Mr. DREIER

Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds, and I do so to simply focus on the issue that is constantly raised here, and that is, the notion that we somehow impose closed rules on every piece of legislation. There have been 113 rules considered on the House floor in the first session of the 109th Congress. With the exception of those rules which by statute or simple resolutions or appropriation continuing resolutions, 10 percent of those 113 rules have been closed rules. We allow for a free floor in debate. More Democratic amendments than Republican amendments have been made in order. So we are enjoying democracy right here in the people's House, and the people of Iraq are enjoying the same. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.