Dick Gephardt

Mr. GEPHARDT

Mr. GEPHARDT. I yield to the gentleman from Hawaii.

Mr. GEPHARDT. I will.

Mr. GEPHARDT. Mr. Chairman, if I may reclaim my time, and this would be the last statement: I want to commend the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Wolf]. When I was majority leader, he talked to me a lot about his concerns, which are sincere, about family life, personal life in this institution. I want to work, and I believe our Members want to work, with your Members, Mr. Majority Leader, to see if we can do that. Obviously, we have had some bad experiences early here with a lot of amendments, and we are going to go through a shakedown period here. But I think the minority is sincere in wanting to find an accommodation with regard to the kind of amendments, the time limits on amendments, so that we can make a more predictable schedule. Before we leave today, I would like to sit down with the majority leader and chairman of the Committee on Rules and see if we can find a way as a start to begin our meeting on Monday at 5 o'clock and roll vote. I will talk to them in a moment.

Mr. GEPHARDT. I yield to the gentleman from Virginia.

Mr. GEPHARDT. I yield to the gentleman from Missouri.

Mr. GEPHARDT. I yield to the gentleman from New York.

Mr. GEPHARDT. I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts.

Mr. GEPHARDT. I yield to the gentleman from New York.

Mr. GEPHARDT. I yield to the gentleman from New York.

Mr. GEPHARDT. The last question has to do with the corrections. I have read a report that there would be a corrections day, and I would just like to ask under what process would this legislation be considered, and would there be hearings and markups prior to floor consideration of these ideas?

Mr. GEPHARDT. I will be happy to talk further with the gentleman. I yield to the gentleman from Indiana.

Mr. GEPHARDT. I would say to the gentleman we could offer such unanimous-consent requests later today before we finish at 3 o'clock, and I will try to work with the gentleman from New York [Mr. Solomon] and the majority leader in that regard.

Mr. GEPHARDT. It is my understanding that we might entertain an idea of that kind in future rules, and if we are trying to avoid 2 o'clock startups for the rest of February, we would certainly be willing to do that. We could also do it by unanimous consent on Monday, and I do not know whether we could achieve that, but it would be worth a try, and we would offer to try to do that.

Mr. GEPHARDT. I yield to the gentlewoman from California [Ms. Roybal- Allard].

Mr. GEPHARDT. I would like to ask the majority leader another question. There is also a concern on this side, and I assume by many on your side, about the issue of predictability of schedule at night. I know that Members on both sides are sincere about making this a family- friendly Congress, and we have a bipartisan group that is meeting to try to see if we can reach solutions in that area. A couple of times in the last 2 weeks we have thought that we were going to leave by a certain time in the evening, and then it ran well past that. I realize you are trying to get a schedule completed. But do you believe that it might be useful to perhaps reconvene the family-friendly task force with you and myself to see if we can find some solutions to this? Members tell their families they are going to be home by a certain time, are able to meet them at a certain time, and they are not able to do that, and it is causing a good deal of difficulty.

Mr. GEPHARDT. I yield.

Mr. GEPHARDT. There are two questions or concerns that are being expressed by a lot of Members on this side. The first is by Members on the west coast who have been afforded the opportunity in the past to get here by 5 o'clock on Monday, and if the gentleman is saying we are going to be starting at 2 o'clock on every Monday in February, this really is a difficulty for many of them on being able to get here. I was wondering if perhaps we could plan to work later on Monday to accommodate their schedules?

Mr. GEPHARDT. I thank the gentleman. Perhaps I could inquire about next week's schedule.

Mr. GEPHARDT. As I understand it, there is an Obey amendment and an Orton amendment that are likely to come next. Would these two gentleman be assured that if we do not finish their amendment by 3 o'clock that we could finish it when we come back on Monday?

Mr. GEPHARDT. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.

Mr. GEPHARDT. Perhaps, Mr. Majority Leader, I could first ask about the schedule for the rest of today so Members will know when we are probably going to be leaving.

Mr. GEPHARDT

Mr. GEPHARDT. Mr. Speaker, over these past 2 years, President Clinton and the Democratic Party have been fighting for a single fundamental goal: To raise the standard of living of America's working families. Everything else is secondary to that goal. And if you are one of the millions of Americans who try to support a family on the minimum wage, your real wages have plummeted by almost a third since 1979. How can you raise a family on $8,500 a year? That is why it is time to raise the minimum wage by 90 cents to lift up those who have been falling behind, to make work pay more than welfare, because too often that is just not the case today. We know that a minimum it creates jobs. And to the Speaker, who says this will widen the gap between American wages and those in Mexico and the Third World, I say: Do we want to raise the world's wages up or just drag ourselves down? Republican Leader Armey not only opposes the increase, he wants to demolish the minimum wage altogether. To the Republicans lower wages and fewer benefits are just money in the bank for American business. Never mind that people are suffering while profits soar. This should not be a partisan issue. This is about our standard of living. The American people want this increase by an overwhelming margin, and Democrats are going to fight to give it to them because it is right for our economy and it is right for the hard-working families who are the heart of our party and the heart of our country.

Mr. GEPHARDT

Mr. GEPHARDT. I yield to the gentleman from California.

Mr. GEPHARDT. I yield to the gentleman from Michigan.

Mr. GEPHARDT. I would like to ask two other questions. One, I note that we have a number of bills on the schedule for the New Mexico land transfer, Arctic National Park, Butte County, and Robert J. Lagomarsino Visitors Center. In the past I know that we have done these kinds of bills under a suspension calendar and they take less time, and I know that you are trying to get a lot of important work done. These are subject to a rule and will take more time because of that. Can the gentleman tell me why this would be the case?