Steny Hoyer

Mr. HOYER

Mr. HOYER. I am informed that Fox News is talking a lot about this, but the fact of the matter is it was open to the public. There were public there, as a matter of fact. If the gentleman's contention is somehow this was walled off or there were people who were prohibiting people from being there in attendance at the rollout of America's health care bill, I was there. I saw nobody turned away. I saw nobody precluded from attending. If the gentleman's contention is that every time he has a press conference he calls me up or somebody else up and says, By the way, I'm having a press conference, if you want to come by, come by, I will check my phone records and my e-mail and any other messages that I have, but the gentleman and I both know that doesn't happen. We have been considering this bill for some period of time. I will go into that a little later. But I think the gentleman's contention that somehow he or any other Republican was precluded from being on the site at the foot of the Capitol steps is incorrect, and I reject it.

Mr. HOYER. Will the gentleman yield before we get to next week?

Mr. HOYER. I would expect the credit card bill to be considered as early as Wednesday; the Chemical Facility Antiterrorism Act to be considered as early as Wednesday or Thursday; and the Affordable Health Care Act as early as Thursday.

Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Madam Speaker, on Monday the House will meet at 12:30 p.m. for morning-hour debate and 2 p.m. for legislative business with votes postponed until 6:30 p.m. On Tuesday, the House will meet at 8 a.m. for morning-hour debate. The House will then meet at 9 a.m. for legislative business and recess immediately. The House will reconvene at approximately 10 a.m. in a joint meeting with the Senate to receive Her Excellency, Dr. Angela Merkel, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany. On Wednesday and Thursday, the House will meet at 10 a.m. for legislative business. On Friday, the House will meet at 9 a.m. for legislative business. We will consider several bills under suspension of the rules. The complete list of suspension bills will be announced by the close of business tomorrow. In addition, Madam Speaker, we will consider the Expedited Card Reform for Consumer Act of 2009; H.R. 2868, the Chemical Facility Antiterrorism Act of 2009; and H.R. 3962, Affordable Health Care for America Act.

Mr. HOYER

Mr. HOYER. Because of our concern about the deficit, which I share.

Mr. HOYER. Given my friend's concern, would the gentleman join me in supporting and getting the votes for a statutory PAYGO on its own? I yield back.

Mr. HOYER. Will my friend yield again?

Mr. HOYER. I would repeat, you know exactly what the options are. As I just told you, they are online. They have been discussed. They were discussed extensively in the committee on television. Surely the gentleman would not want the Speaker or anybody else to be misunderstood as the fact that your party doesn't have discussions among yourselves as to what options you want to pursue. If that's your representation, frankly, I tell my friend, I don't think many people are going to believe that. Are we having discussions? We are. I don't believe either you individually or anybody that I have talked to on your side of the aisle is for a public option. We are discussing how public option ought to be configured. You don't believe there ought to be a public option, period, for the reasons you have stated. We understand that. We have a difference of opinion on that. Now, if you are for public option on some configuration, then if you will submit that to me, I would be glad to talk to you about it.

Mr. HOYER. I agree with that. But it did provide for an option of a public option.

Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for yielding. The gentleman misstates what I said. I said discussion regarding a public option when I had talked to nobody on your side who was for a public option. It seems pointless, from my perspective, to talk to somebody about how a public option ought to be configured if, as you have just stated, you're not for a public option. Therefore, a discussion about a public option does in fact to me seem pointless. Furthermore, let me say this: The gentleman was here when we--I believe you were here--when we adopted the current part D of the Medicare program. The gentleman will recall in that bill you provided for a public option. You provided for a public option to provide competition and availability of a health care prescription-drug coverage. Now, you provided it in the event that there was no private sector, or at least not more than one, available in any one segment of our society. So I tell the gentleman, in your own bill--that I think you supported; I don't know that off the top of my head--but my presumption is you supported it or certainly the overwhelming majority of your party supported with very few Democratic votes, and that provided for an option of a public option.

Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for yielding. It's sort of like your assumptions when we have tax bills on the floor, yes.

Mr. HOYER. The gentleman, of course, knows that if we don't act on the estate tax that there will be a great cost next year. The gentleman's aware of that which will itself exacerbate the budget.

Mr. HOYER. Would the gentleman yield?

Mr. HOYER. I don't know that I am going to get into a long, extended discussion about the substance of this bill or we could be here until late tonight. I will tell the gentleman, however, that no one ought to be surprised, having watched this bill being considered over the last 6 to 7 months, some 70-plus hearings that have been held over the last 2 years, to know this is a very difficult subject of great magnitude of impact on the American public and the American economy. One-sixth of our economy is health care expenditures. No one should be surprised that it's receiving a lot of discussion and attention. No one should be surprised that there are differences as to how to get from where we are--which is a system that is escalating at a very rapid rate. Family costs are increasing by probably $1,800 a year, families are being forced out of the market, and the uninsured grow. So we are trying to deal with that issue. The fact is that in terms of the public option as has been discussed, there are a number of ways to provide an alternative assurance of coverage to individuals other than simply an exchange, which would be like the Office of Personnel Management's Federal employee health benefit exchange--which is private sector--folks competing for our business and the business of those that are employed by the Federal Government. There is a lot of discussion about that. That discussion continues, and I will tell the gentleman that as the Speaker said and I've said, we will bring the bill to the floor when we think it's ready to come to the floor. And I've further asserted emphatically that we will give the 72-hours notice that we had indicated we would give. I would tell you further that until such time as we've resolved what the bill is going to look like, it is impossible for CBO to give a final score. We had pledged that we're going to be deficit free, that is to say the bill will be paid for, will not add to the deficit. The President indicated that in his speech to the joint session, and we intend to do that. So I tell the gentleman we're having continuing discussions on not just the public option, to which the gentleman refers, and to how that will be configured, but there are other matters as well of concern to the public and to all of us.

Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, on Monday the House will meet at 12:30 p.m. for morning- hour debate and 2 p.m. for legislative business with votes postponed until 6:30 p.m. On Tuesday the House will meet at 10:30 A.M. for morning-hour debate and noon for legislative business. On Wednesday and Thursday the House will meet at 10 a.m. for legislative business, and on Friday the House will meet at 9 a.m. We'll consider several bills under suspension of the rules. The complete list of suspension bills will be announced by the close of business today. In addition, Mr. Speaker, we will consider H.R. 3854, the Small Business Financing and Investment Act of 2009. We also will consider the conference report, H.R. 2996, on the Department of the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, and also a House joint resolution making further appropriations for fiscal year 2010, and for other purposes, otherwise known as a CR. The CR, as the gentleman from Virginia knows, will run out on the 31st of this month. I yield back.

Mr. HOYER. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. HOYER. I didn't say that. The gentleman, as he cited, we had a meeting. Am I incorrect in saying that the gentleman indicated to me he was not for a public option? Is that an accurate statement?

Mr. HOYER. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. HOYER. I reject the gentleman's conclusion, which I think is incorrect, the premise that the public has rejected. In fact, as the gentleman probably knows, hopefully, the polling data indicates that the support for the public option has risen since August--has risen, I tell my friend. And there are a number of different ways to get there. The Senate has one that's on public display, has been on the Internet. The House Education and Labor Committee has one option with Ways and Means that has been on the Internet. It's been on the Internet since July. Energy and Commerce has one--a different correlation of that--and it's been on the Internet since July. There have been a lot of discussions, and I would refer my friend to the Internet, and I am sure he has copies of all of those bills. Nothing is secret, nothing is behind closed doors. Now, are we having discussions with ourselves about how we want to get there and with people who will vote for the bill? The gentleman has made it very clear, I don't think your side is for a public option. We disagree on that. That is a fair disagreement. You're not for a public option, and I haven't talked to anybody on your side that's for a public option. We disagree. We believe that the public option is an option that the public ought to have and not simply be in the sights of insurance companies who may or may not give them the price or the coverage that they could either afford or need. That's the difference. But I haven't talked to anybody on your side who wants a public option no matter how it is configured. So very frankly, I will tell my friend that discussions with your side on a public option seem somewhat pointless.

Mr. HOYER. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. HOYER. We all want that. But I think anyone who has served any time in the House or the Senate knows that as you begin to wind down a session--in this case the first session of this Congress--legislation passing between the two bodies dictates your schedule more than simply arbitrarily saying we'd like to be out on this day. And as a result, we will have to see where we are as we move along. The Interior bill I was hopeful that we would consider 2 weeks ago, it's on the schedule for this coming week. As you know, we were unable to get to agreement. We now appear to have got an agreement in the conference, and we're ready to move forward.

Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman. We're working with the Ways and Means Committee and would like to bring to this floor in the next few weeks, at least, if not next week, a bill to deal with the estate tax issue.

Mr. HOYER. Yes on both questions. We will probably have, either in the bill or by rule, we'll adopt statutory PAYGO, which we pledged to do in our budget, as you know, and it will be compliant.

Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for yielding. As the gentleman will recall, I would remind the House, Mr. Speaker, the budget that we passed provided for baseline spending for four items, that is to say, that the baseline which is, essentially, the premise that I think your party has adopted with respect to tax legislation, that the estate tax, the alternative minimum tax, the middle income tax cuts and the so- called ``doc fix,'' the sustainable growth rates, would be scored at baseline, which means effectively you would not pay for them. And I would expect us to comply with that budget provision, giving those four exceptions of which the estate tax is one.

Mr. HOYER

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourn to meet at 12:30 p.m. on Monday next for morning-hour debate, and further, when the House adjourns on that day, it adjourn to meet at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, October 27, 2009, for morning-hour debate.