members will clear the well let's clear the center the middle aisles take your conversations outside the house we will not proceed until we have order in the house gentleman from maryland the majority leader misspeak i ask unanimous consent to speak out of order for one minute that objection i thank you i thank the ladies and gentlemen the house it is thursday and it is a getaway day and i know everybody concerned about about this because you talk to me on both sides of the aisle all the time about it so i'm well aware that people want to get out i will be asking and i that's the why i want to make this now i will be asking the presiding officers  keep our votes to no more than two minutes after the votes are to close whether it's a fifteen minute vote or five minute vote i think that will facilitate hopefully getting our work done now the reason i say it now is because i want everybody to be on notice that we intend to do that so we don't catch you what the pattern has been increasingly is that when we get to zero there are almost invariably more than a hundred and seventy five members who have not voted and i do it i'm sure everybody else does it you look at the screen and you see that there are hundred seventy members haven't voted so i've got plenty of time and i understand that i understand because that's what i do so the only way for us to overcome that is to at the two minute after the vote seventeen minutes we will close the vote that will mean that some of you may miss the votes and you will be angry with me and i just want you to know ahead of time that i understand that you're going to be angry with me but that at least i'm telling you that that's what our intention is to do jim and yield i certainly will mr leader as you are aware many members of the california delegation are in california today as a result of the wildfires i'm aware of that it was very important for them to go back home and to be with their constituents over one million people who have been left homeless at this point been evacuated there was a request that was made to the speaker and of the majority leader to please postpone votes and not to have the boat today those were ques had been made directly to the leadership and i would like it if you could please address that issue at this time i'm pleased that the at the gentlemen will i would yield i thank the gentleman for yielding scheduling the house as my good that require us from time to time to be in our districts all of the california members you talk to me and some on the republican side talk to me and some of the democratic side talk to me i urge them to be in california that's where i would be if i had a wildfire or a flood or a tornado in my district i would be in my district today's vote on the s chip which is the only vote that we will have when we get to it is not in my opinion in doubt and would not be affected by the absences that we may have now on this vote there were fifty five people not voting obviously they're not fifty five people in california we have a number that californians here we believe that there are as i was made representations on your side of the aisle that there were five or six californians who might be there and there are obviously a few californians on our side from southern california who also be there now in the average day we have ten members give or take who are not here some for illness reasons and others for good reasons where they have determined that they need to be someplace else it is obvious that we cannot cancel votes on those days i would tell my friend that everybody knows we're not here tomorrow and we're going to be hopefully through relatively early today i don't know that there is some thing happen today that will be true tomorrow i do know that there is concern about proceeding on the s chip bill i have made it clear in august i made it clear that we have an agenda to accomplish if we were meeting friday that might be a different story but we're not meeting friday so tomorrow was available saturday is available sunday monday available i believe that members ought to be with their constituents i don't believe they're going out there to fight the the objectives of the members who are not here are understandable and appropriate gentlemen you know but what is not appropriate is for me to be put in the position where anybody who schedules on either side of the now to be put in the position of having our legislative the process stopped when we sensually have only a few hours left to go and important legislation to consider you know telling you i thank you gentlemen i don't have the time the to i would like to resubmit a request to the gentleman now i believe that this body is aware that last night we received a two hundred ninety three page document that had not been has not one co sponsor is described as being the senate's bill not the house bill we have not had an opportunity to go through the bill the twenty four hour rule evidently last night rules committee was just completely obliterated you have a request in a collegial request from the republicans who are in this body who recognize and understand the importance of s chip we also recognize we have until november the sixteenth before that deadline approaches both you and i and every member of this body understands that this body would never allow s chip to colla respectfully asking on behalf of the minority and the collegiality of this body for you to please reconsider allowing us to end our business today and to come back and retake up this business on tuesday with not only a renewed spirit from the people who have gone to support the firefighters here right there not fighting the fire but they do have a strong belief that what they have done is the right thing weren't here for the vote that we just had and i want them to know the issue that we're about to debate and vote on is one that's important to people on both side of the eye this is an important vote an important debate and i think people should have the opportunity participate in that all of us have had circumstances where there are disasters in our district and there are times when the leadership determines that the votes that are scheduled program but i am reluctant to do that with so many many members gone and also with our californians dealing with critical problems in their district and i would echo my colleague from texas sentiments and ask that the leadership can to consider delaying this vote and this debate until early next week and i yield back you know the gentleman from mississippi fielding i guess of all the members i have been the closest to the situation with what happen and in the aftermath of hurricane katrina as you know katrina struck during the august recess and shortly after to stay in my district i felt like that was the best thing to do this body overwhelmingly passed the go zone legislation without me to the gentleman's point i have not had one complaint about staying in mississippi and i think you are your colleagues that you concerned about will not get one complain about missing a vote on something that is going to pass anyway and i did not ask to shut down the congress because i needed to be in mississippi and quite frankly i don't think our california colleagues are we speaking to shut down congress what we're attempting to do is to ask if the majority leader from a collegial standpoint of understanding that just i came back to texas to work to make sure that some fifty thousand people from katrina and that effort we're taking care of in dallas texas where i literally helps spearhead our efforts today there are approximately twice as many people who are displaced in california as there were by katrina and i believe it's honorable and respectful to ask that on behalf of my colleagues that we not take up this important legislation today that we allow ourself where speculate to adjourn and then come back on choose day as we normally m to handle this piece of legislation and i will respectfully ask that on behalf of the minority at this time today i want everybody to know we're coming back on monday and i want to anybody to confuse that we're coming back on monday at six thirty  and we will not be here i will be announcing later today the next friday week from tomorrow let me say to my friend that as i said i discussed with your leadership the difficulty of scheduling not not this particular item although i this was discussed in the request was made every member of this body knows that went for in thirty five people as i said everybody has very important things they have to do from time to time and that are appropriate to do on behalf of their constituents behalf of filling their duties we've missed unavoidably to legislative days and as the result of the tragic de of two of our members which was inevitable and we basically appropriately canceled the sessions on those days this bill that we are considering is a very important bill has passed the house the need to pass the senate the need to go to the president needs to come back here and we have three weeks left to go between now on the sixteenth of november to which the gentleman referred the gentleman is well aware i know my republican in leadership are well aware of how long it takes to get things through the senate for reasons that we all understand in terms of their necessity get the appropriate votes as a result the time left to us is very short and to not proceed today and to push this off to next week then pushes off to the week following when the senate can consider this legislation which then pushes off to the last week that will here for presidential action all of that is a constraint on the flexibility of scheduling and again i will say that i understand that absolutely the desire of the californians to be where are where they are i think it's appropriate to be where they are my only point is that we're not meeting all week there was some flexibility that chose to go today i do not criticize that decision on either side of the aisle i simply say that it is not was not in consideration obviously the business that we have to get done and again i reiterate in a collegial body if i thought that the absence of your members or our members would make a difference on the outcome but this bill had an overwhelming vote one initially passed an overwhelming vote not the two thirds but an overwhelming vote so i do not believe the absences yielding talking about procedure today i think probably the easiest way to resolve this is we're going to be be debating the rule in the course of the rule goes down then that would in the business of the day and it would be the preferred option from this members point of view but in the event that doesn't happen and we in fact then debate the s chip bill that we saw last night in rules for the first time i think was filed in seven seventeen but but my point is that we could significant number so i don't diminish the number but i don't want anybody to believe that the fifty five to which i referred who did not vote and i don't know where the other thirty five members were or are i know there's a very  we might as well delay the bill because we will not get it moving towards the senate and allow the senate to act in a timely fashion that's that's the problem well it's a gentleman a good deal i say that's an option i just i would just we're going to have a debate on this and this this would be an option that i would hope that the majority leader at would prefer that i would take it under consideration i think it's a i know the spirit in which it's meant i've talked to the gentleman about trying to facilitate scheduling and and i think the gentleman is going to be plays with what we're going to try to do for next year to facilitate members ability to get back to their districts give you back the balance of my time should not leave the house so that we can have a fifteen minute vote on to this second motion to adjourn on this thursday morning they've been in for about an hour one vote already failed and a motion to adjourn and discussion you just saw between the majority leader standing hoyer mainly with pete sessions of texas but also doc hastings of washington on the sort of the logistics behind the debate upcoming over the children's health insurance bill a bill originally passed by the house in september vetoed by the president october third and then the house last week failed to override the president's veto fell thirteen votes short much of the debate and discussion you had just saw senator around the fact that there are a number of members in california california members obviously back in their home districts because of the the wildfires in california the g o p according to jonathan weisman in this morning's washington post he says the g o p leaders had hoped t showdown would be postponed until next week especially since number of house members will be traveling with bush tomorrow meaning today to tour fired that devastated southern california at a closed door meeting of house republican republicans they democratic leaders for scheduling such an important vote in the midst of a catastrophe that's the writing of jonathan weisman on today's upcoming debate on the children's health insurance bill that's the only legislative business that's set for today here in the house meanwhile over in the senate they are working on reauthorizing amtrak can track funding you can follow that debate on c span two we're also covering today the secretary of state and house oversight hearing looking at the state department role in it in iraq and the use of security forces by the state department state department at the at the compound in baghdad and elsewhere that's live on c span three now the house has been in for one hour the only item on their legislative agenda today is the children's health surance program and that's going to have an hour of general debate under the rule closed rule and we also expect an hour of debate on the rule itself but  that we've had debate on whether they should debate should go on at all this is the second motion to adjourn this morning on the house floor again they've been in for an hour voted once and failed to adjourn and a second vote second motion offered by the the republicans here as they had a back and forth between majority leader hoyer and pete sessions of washington pete sessions of texas doc hastings of washington several other members talking about whether or not this debate on children's health insurance should be what it should be held today in reporting ahead of the debate today the associated press writes that house members are about to learn whether some nips and tucks to children's health insurance will be enough to secure a veto proof margin against a white house that wants major surgery the a p article continues the house plan plan to vote today on a modestly revised version of a bill that president bush vetoed october third last week the house fell thirteen votes short of the two thirds majority needed to override the veto which had been prompted by bush's objections to a major expansion of the state children's health insurance program the bill supporters now hope the revisions will attract seven or more the seven or more republicans needed to change the outcome later this fall g o p leaders urge their colleagues to resist saying the changes are too minor to justify abandoning bush on a high profile issue and the article also says as before the bill would add thirty five billion dollars over five years to the state children's health insurance program the program which now covers six million six million children would enroll four million more the increase would be paid for with a sixty one cent increase in the federal excise tax on a pack of cigarettes which bush opposes that's from the associated press we have several articles linked about this issue on our website capital news dot org so again this first hour just sort of a preliminary ahead of the debate this second motion to adjourn on the house floor over in the senate they're working on amtrak funding you can follow that debate on c span too also today secretary of state condoleezza rice on capitol hill testifying on several issues including iraqi government corruption she's before the house oversight committee that's on c span three it's also live on c span radio