Steny Hoyer

Mr. HOYER

Mr. HOYER. I don't want to commit myself to a time frame, but I can tell you, in discussions with the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, he wants a longer term than a shorter term. In other words, I don't think he is looking for a week-to-week. It will be a longer term than that. I don't think I want to prejudge his decision which he may not yet have made, but my expectation is, I tell my friend, that it will be a longer term than shorter term, and by that I mean more than a couple of weeks.

Mr. HOYER. I think you ought to anticipate some Iraq legislation coming to the floor, not necessarily next week, although that is a possibility. But, certainly, within the next couple of weeks or 3 weeks, I would think we will have various components coming forward.

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his question. I know it's a very important one for his Members and ours. We had hoped, as you know, when I inherited or succeeded, however one looks at it, to the scheduling authority from Mr. Boehner, Mr. Boehner had scheduled October 3, I believe, it may have been the 6th, October 3 or 6 as the ending date. I would have hoped Mr. Boehner was accurate in that assessment, but I thought it was not realistic at that point in time. So I was more pessimistic but apparently not pessimistic enough. I scheduled October 26 as our target date for adjournment. It seems that we are not going to make that. I am very hopeful, and I'm not going to bet on it, but I'm going to plan on November 16 being our last day. Senator Reid, the leader of the Senate, has indicated that they will be out the last 2 weeks of November. From my experience serving here, it doesn't get better just because you get into December, that we would be able to adjourn sine die until the second session of the Congress, probably to begin the 3rd week in January, although the Speaker and I need to discuss that, and I want to discuss it also with you and Mr. Boehner. But my thought would be that we would come back the 3rd week in January. In addition to that, because we are not going to adjourn sine die on the 26th of October, which I had hoped but which is not realistic at this point in time, I had scheduled the four Fridays of October to meet. I want all the Members to know, and I discussed this with the whip earlier in the week, that we will not be meeting on the 5th of October, that Friday, nor will we be meeting on the 19th so that, because of Columbus Day, the Members will have from Thursday late afternoon, and I don't commit to any particular time on Thursday, the 4th, until Tuesday the 9th at 6:30 p.m. before we come back.

Mr. HOYER. October 12?

Mr. HOYER. That Friday is currently scheduled. We are obviously in a position where we are not going to hold Members here for Friday simply to be here on Friday. It has been made clear to me that most Members on both sides of the aisle don't think that's a sensible policy. I agree with that. As a matter of fact, I think my friend has made that observation to me as well.

Mr. HOYER. But we have to find out the workload. As you well know, as you get down towards the end, if we are going to have any shot at adjourning on the 16th of November, when the Senate is scheduled to leave for the last 2 weeks, if we have any shot of doing that, it will be because we complete that work which we think must be done, should be done prior to that. And, therefore, I am reserving those Fridays, and if we have work, we will be working. And the logical follow-on is that if we don't have work, although we won't give the kind of notice we are giving for the 5th and 19th, we will try not to have Members here simply watching the other body.

Mr. HOYER. Will my friend yield?

Mr. HOYER. As someone who has served here a long time and who has, unfortunately, been here on the 23rd and 24th, I believe, at least 1 year, I hesitate to say that. But my Members will be very unhappy with me if we are here Christmas week. I will tell you we have 233 Members, and if we meet on Christmas, I will guarantee you there are 233 Members on this side who will be very unhappy with me, and I will be in that rank.

Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I don't want to be specific on that because I don't want to anticipate where the Senate might be at that point in time. The leader in the Senate, although he had represented that they perhaps might be there in December, he has indicated now that his hope and plan is that they will not be there in December so that hopefully he is focused as well and the Senate is focused as well on the 16th of November as the adjournment date. If that is not and we have not done what we need to do by that time, hopefully we will be able to accommodate that certainly by late October and letting the Members know what we are going to do. We will not be here, clearly, the week of Thanksgiving. That is a guarantee. I would not want at this juncture, because there is still a lot to happen over the next 6 weeks, to be definitive about what other weeks we would not be here.

Mr. HOYER. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. HOYER. We are notifying Members now that they will not be in session on those days, voting sessions.

Mr. HOYER. I understand your angst because we shared that angst. We had a lot of angst, as you recall, and I asked the majority leader on a number of occasions when they were going to have conferences that were called, that had conferees, to which our conferees were never invited, some the most senior Members of this Congress, namely Mr. Dingell and Mr. Rangel, who were not invited to conferences. So I understand the gentleman's angst. I really do. But having said that, I think it is unfair to say a bill that has not been seen. I would again reiterate to my friend that, as I understand it, there will be nothing in the bill that we will hope to consider early next week that was not included in either the Senate bill or the House bill, both of which passed respective bodies. But we haven't been able to get to conference. Meetings have obviously been held. We hope agreements have been reached which would be acceptable to both bodies so that we can move those bills as if a conference had been held. But because a conference hasn't been held, this is the alternative available to us.

Mr. HOYER. I'm not sure I want to encourage the Senate except to do the work that we have sent over to them. They have a lot of work on their table. But I haven't looked at that resolution. I will say to my friend, he has seen me quoted as being not in agreement with and disappointed with the particular ad that appeared. But having said that, I don't have any intent, at this point in time, to bring up that resolution. I haven't seen it, so I have no intention of scheduling that resolution at this point in time.

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

Mr. HOYER. I want to say, on behalf of myself and, I believe, the overwhelming majority of my caucus, perhaps every Member of my caucus, we have great respect for General Petraeus. It does not help, in my opinion, the debate to impugn the integrity of those who are serving our country in uniform in harm's way. I believe that General Petraeus is an honorable man of great integrity who has served our country well. I may disagree with him; he may disagree with me on issues. But that does not in any way, any more than you and I might disagree and we are good friends, undermine our respect for each other's opinion. And as I say, I want to articulate, because you bring up the issue, that I believe that that impugning of his integrity and of his patriotism and of his commitment to this country was inappropriate.

Mr. HOYER. The Senate has not gone to conference yet.

Mr. HOYER. If the gentleman would yield, the good news for you is my presumption is they are going to be in the Record. I thank the gentleman.

Mr. HOYER. That's my representation. There will be nothing, I think, in the bill that was not in the House or Senate bills so, to that extent, it will be like a conference. We haven't gone to conference. We are having great difficulty, I'll tell my friend, in getting the minority party in the Senate to vote to go to conference. I regret that, but that's the fact of life; and we can either stop doing business until they agree to do so, or we can try to move forward and try to reach some agreement. I will tell my friend that there were Republican Senators involved in the discussions, as he may know, and he is correct that there will probably be a new bill on the floor, but I tell my friend that that bill will incorporate items that were either in the Senate or House bill and will be items that we believe and hope, as I said, are now agreed between what we hope to be a majority of the House and a majority of the Senate. To that extent, it will be like a conference report because the expectation is it would not be amended in the Senate because, of course, we're facing the September 30 deadline. I thank my friend for yielding.

Mr. HOYER. As you know, the House and Senate have been meeting. The Senate has not gone to conference on this bill. But we all know that on September 30 the authorization for SCHIP expires, so we are hoping to have a bill on the floor early next week. That bill will incorporate what we believe to be, what we hope to be, what we are working to be a consensus which can pass the House and the Senate. I can't give you all the specifics of that because I don't have all the specifics of that.

Mr. HOYER. I'm sure you are.

Mr. HOYER. Because we don't, under the rules, and you didn't either, have to provide that. Sometimes you did; sometimes you didn't. But in any event, as I said, we will be treating this much like a conference report. We regret that we're not in conference; and therefore it will be treated more like a conference report than it will be a new piece of legislation because I would reiterate to my friend, it is, essentially, not a new piece of legislation. It is a compromise that we have tried to reach with bipartisan participation in the Senate side. Unfortunately, notwithstanding invitations, not on the House side. The bill will, hopefully, be a bill, as I have said to my friend, that can be agreed upon and sent to the President so that we can provide for the Children's Health Insurance Program to continue and, obviously, to expand, as we hope it will.

Mr. HOYER. That information is new to me. I am pleased to hear the Senate can pass something.

Mr. HOYER

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

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.

Mr. HOYER

Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize a great patriot, I dedicated public servant, and passionate pioneer whose contributions to scientific discovery and public health have improved the health of millions throughout the world: Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, Director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Yesterday, the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation announced the selection of Dr. Fauci to receive the Mary Woodard Lasker Award for Public Service. Dr. Fauci is being honored in recognition of his leadership in engineering two major U.S. governmental programs addressing HIV and biodefense. The Mary Woodard Lasker Award for Public Service is awarded biannually in recognition of extraordinary achievements. Mary Lasker is widely recognized for her singular contribution to the growth of the National Institutes of Health, and her strong commitment to eradicate disease and disability through medical research. Dr. Fauci's commitment to this Nation through his accomplished career reflects well on this award's namesake. Since coming to the National Institutes of Health in 1968, Dr. Fauci has pushed the frontiers of scientific discovery in the field of immunology. In 1980, Dr. Fauci was named Chief of the Laboratory of Immunoregulation, a position he continues to hold. Four years later, Dr. Fauci was named Director of NIAID, where he oversees an extensive research program to prevent, diagnose, and treat infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted infections, influenza, tuberculosis, malaria, and illnesses from potential agents of bioterrorism. Over the years, Dr. Fauci has been an excellent steward of this multi-billion dollar investment in infectious disease research. Dr. Fauci has served for over 20 years as a key advisor to the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services on global AIDS issues, and on initiatives to bolster medical and public health preparedness to fight against emerging threats of infectious disease. He has assisted four Presidents in shaping the research priorities and public health demands of these formidable challenges. Dr. Fauci has made enormous contributions to basic and clinical research. In 2003, an Institute for Scientific Information study indicated that over 20 years, Dr. Fauci was the 13th most-cited scientist among close to 3 million international authors in all disciplines. He has made seminal contributions to the understanding of the AIDS virus, and he has been instrumental in developing effective therapy strategies for those afflicted with this disease. Madam Speaker, I can think of no individual more deserving of this recognition than Dr. Fauci. I am pleased to join with my colleagues and a grateful Nation in extending congratulations to Dr. Anthony Fauci for this well-deserved honor and thanking him for his unwavering commitment to scientific discovery and his role in spearheading the efforts to combat disease and undermine the threat of bioterrorism.