H140 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE January 9, 2009 

Platts, Mr. Duncan, Mr. Turner, Mr. Westmoreland, Mr. McHenry, Ms. Foxx, Mr. 

Bilbray, Mr. Jordan of Ohio, Mr. Flake, Mr. 

Fortenberry, and Mr. Chaffetz. 

COMMITTEE ON RULES—Mr. Lincoln 

Diaz-Balart of Florida and Mr. Sessions. 

COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY—Mr. Sensenbrenner, Mr. Smith of 

Texas, Mr. Rohrabacher, Mr. Bartlett, Mr. 

Ehlers, Mr. Lucas, Mrs. Biggert, Mr. Akin, 

Mr. Neugebauer, Mr. Inglis, Mr. McCaul, Mr. 

Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, Mr. Bilbray, 

Mr. Broun of Georgia, and Mr. Olson. 

COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS—Mr. 

Bartlett, Mr. Akin, Mr. King of Iowa, Mr. 

Westmoreland, Mr. Gohmert, Ms. Fallin, Mr. 

Buchanan, Mr. Luetkemeyer, Mr. Schock, 

and Mr. Thompson of Pennsylvania. 

COMMITTEE ON STANDARDS OF OFFICIAL CONDUCT—Mr. Bonner, Mr. Barrett of 

South Carolina, Mr. Kline of Minnesota, Mr. 

Conaway, and Mr. Dent. 

COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION 

AND INFRASTRUCTURE—Mr. Young of 

Alaska, Mr. Petri, Mr. Coble, Mr. Duncan, 

Mr. Ehlers, Mr. LoBiondo, Mr. Moran of Kansas, Mr. Gary G. Miller of California Mr. 

Brown of South Carolina, Mr. Johnson of Illinois, Mr. Platts, Mr. Graves, Mr. Shuster, 

Mr. Boozman, Mrs. Capito, Mr. Gerlach, Mr. 

Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, Mr. Dent, Mr. 

Mack, Mr. Westmoreland, Mrs. Schmidt, 

Mrs. Miller of Michigan, Ms. Fallin, Mr. Buchanan, Mr. Latta, Mr. Scalise, Mr. Cao, Mr. 

Guthrie, and Mr. Schock. 

COMMITTEE ON VETERANS’ AFFAIRS— 

Mr. Stearns, Mr. Moran of Kansas, Mr. 

Brown of South Carolina, Mr. Miller of Florida, Mr. Boozman, Mr. Turner, Mr. Bilbray, 

Mr. Bilirakis, Mr. Buchanan, and Mr. 

Scalise. 

COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS—Mr. 

Herger, Mr. Sam Johnson of Texas, Mr. 

Brady of Texas, Mr. Ryan of Wisconsin, Mr. 

Cantor, Mr. Linder, Mr. Nunes, Mr. Tiberi, 

Ms. Ginny Brown-Waite of Florida, Mr. Davis 

of Kentucky, Mr. Reichert, Mr. Boustany, 

Mr. Heller, and Mr. Roskam. 

Mr. PENCE (during the reading). 

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be considered 

as read. 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there 

objection to the request of the gentleman from Indiana? 

There was no objection. 

The resolution was agreed to. 

A motion to reconsider was laid on 

the table. 

f 

LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM 

(Mr. CANTOR asked and was given 

permission to address the House for 1 

minute.) 

Mr. CANTOR. Madam Speaker, before I yield to the gentleman from 

Maryland, I’d like to thank him for extending the gratitude he has this week 

to me. I’m very grateful for that, for 

his spirit of bipartisanship and his 

pledge to me to work with us on this 

side of the aisle. I look forward to 

building a constructive working relationship with the gentleman. This is 

our first colloquy together. I look forward to the successive colloquies. And 

at this time, I yield to my friend from 

Maryland, the majority leader, for purposes of announcing next week’s schedule. 

Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman 

for yielding, and before getting into 

the schedule let me follow up on his remarks. 

As all of the Members of this House 

know, Mr. CANTOR’s predecessor, Mr. 

BLUNT, and I are very good friends and 

worked closely together. We often disagree on policy, but we have had a 

long-term ability to work together 

closely on behalf of the institution, on 

behalf of the House. The relationship I 

think was one that was to the benefit 

of the House of Representatives and to 

our Members. 

I want to thank Mr. CANTOR for visiting with me and talking about how 

we go forward working together on behalf of the American people and on behalf of this institution. We know that 

we’ll disagree, perhaps more times 

than not, on major issues, but we also 

know that the objective that he has 

and the objective I have and the Members of this House on both sides of the 

aisle have is a stronger country, with 

greater opportunity for our people. 

b 1345 

I want to congratulate him on his selection as the Republican whip and reiterate his comment that I look forward to working with him in a constructive and positive way. 

Madam Speaker, on Monday the 

House is not in session. On Tuesday the 

House will meet at 12:30 p.m. for morning hour and 2 p.m. for legislative business, with votes postponed until 6:30 

p.m. On Wednesday and Thursday the 

House will meet at 10 a.m. for legislative business. On Friday, no votes are 

expected. 

We will consider several bills under 

suspension of the rules. The complete 

list of suspensions, as is the practice, 

will be announced by the close of business today. 

We will also consider a bill to expand 

the State Children’s Health Insurance 

Program. We will also consider a House 

resolution requiring committees to 

hold hearings upon receipt of certain 

reports from an inspector general or 

the Comptroller General of the United 

States. The President-elect has made it 

very clear he wants to look at programs and ensure that the money is 

being spent effectively and that the 

programs the money supports are effective. 

In addition, we will consider the 

TARP Reform and Accountability Act, 

which we hope will set parameters, accountability, transparency and expectations for help with the mortgages for 

any legislation that might be submitted either by the Bush administration or the Obama administration as it 

relates to the second phase, the second 

$350 billion previously authorized in 

the Troubled Asset Recovery Program. 

I thank the gentleman for yielding. 

Mr. CANTOR. I thank the gentleman. 

I will say to the gentleman that you 

have announced a bill, again, limiting 

the uses of the TARP funds. I know the 

chairman of the Financial Services 

Committee, the gentleman from Massachusetts, has also announced a broad 

outline for his bill and scheduled a 

hearing. I would ask the gentleman 

from Maryland, the majority leader, 

will the bill be marked up prior to 

coming to the floor and what sort of 

rule can we expect? 

Mr. HOYER. I believe we will have a 

rule that will certainly allow amendments. As you know, that’s Mr. 

FRANK’s practice. We believe, I believe, 

it’s a good practice. 

Whether or not he will have a markup will depend upon the timeframe. 

The problem is, as the gentleman probably knows, the American public and 

the Congress on both sides of the aisle 

are very concerned that if we have to 

consider within a constricted timeframe the request, either of the Bush 

administration during the latter days 

of its term, or the beginning of the 

Obama administration, we get to have 

a second request for the second phase 

of the TARP funding. We want to have 

in place conditions for the expenditure 

of that money similar to what we have 

imposed or the administration imposed, but we also legislatively imposed, it didn’t pass, on the automobile 

companies for the receipt of money. 

So the answer to your question is we 

may not have the time to do the markup, because we are not sure when that 

second request is coming down. I don’t 

expect it to come down before we consider this legislation, but it may come 

down shortly thereafter. 

Mr. CANTOR. I thank the gentleman. 

I would like to ask specifically, would 

anything in Chairman FRANK’s bill prevent our Members from having a vote 

to stop the additional $350 billion in 

bailout funds from being spent? 

Mr. HOYER. No, it will not. Obviously the legislation provides for a resolution of disapproval, provides a tight 

timeframe in which that resolution 

should be considered, and nothing in 

this bill will impact on that. 

Mr. CANTOR. I thank the gentleman 

for that. 

I would ask the gentleman, Madam 

Speaker, regarding the SCHIP bill, 

does the Energy and Commerce Committee or the Ways and Means Committee plan on holding a hearing or 

markup on that bill? 

Mr. HOYER. The answer to that is I 

think not. The bill, however, will be 

very, very much like, perhaps not exactly, because some of the costs have 

changed and some of the numbers may 

need to be adjusted, but very much like 

the bill that we passed, in a bipartisan 

way, with very substantial votes, I 

think somewhere in the neighborhood 

of 270 votes through this House, just 

some 6, 7 months ago. We believe the 

President-elect is very concerned that, 

particularly as the economic times 

confront us, we saw another 525,000 jobs 

lost this past month. That’s more than 

1 million jobs lost over the last 60 days. 

Obviously we all know that one of 

the aspects of losing a job is, in many 

instances, losing your health insurance 

as well. We are very concerned that we 

will have a lot of children vulnerable in 

America. 


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January 9, 2009 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H141 

I think there is certainly a majority 

opinion. Indeed, President Bush expressed his own thoughts on that as to 

wanting to include children. So we 

think this is another matter that we 

need to move very quickly. But it will 

be almost exactly like, not exactly 

like, but very, very much like, very, 

from a substantive standpoint, very little different than the bill that we 

passed overwhelmingly in the House. 

And, of course, two-thirds of the Senate voted for it as well. 

Mr. CANTOR. I would ask, Madam 

Speaker, along those lines, if nothing 

else, the budget window has changed, 

as the gentleman recognized, and the 

costs will likely be more substantial. 

We do have, obviously, 55 new Members 

of this Congress that have not had a 

chance to vote on this bill or even be a 

part of the discussion, may not have 

any experience on this issue. 

While we have very little time to review a multibillion dollar authorization, I would ask the gentleman if the 

bill is coming to the floor in the form 

of a suspension. He noted, Madam 

Speaker, that it was a bipartisan vote. 

It was maybe 40 Members on our side. 

I think the majority of those Members on our side support the extension 

of the existing SCHIP program. I was 

wondering, again, if the bill is coming 

to the floor as a suspension, or will we 

have an opportunity to offer our 

amendments and suggestions under a 

rule? 

Mr. HOYER. The bill will come under 

a rule. That rule, I haven’t talked to 

the committee Chair, I haven’t talked 

to Mr. WAXMAN, nor have I talked to 

Ms. SLAUGHTER about the rule, so I 

don’t want to represent what form the 

rule will be in. But it will not be a suspension bill. 

Furthermore, I think the gentleman’s observation is a valid observation. We have many new Members who 

did not consider it. We are hopeful and 

working towards having that bill online available on Monday for a full 48 

hours before we would bring it forward 

on the floor for Members to see and the 

public to see and all the Members of 

the House to see. 

Mr. CANTOR. I thank the gentleman 

for that. 

The Republicans under the leadership 

of our leader, JOHN BOEHNER, will be 

sending a letter later today outlining 

our ideas for improving the SCHIP program. I am hopeful that under the rule 

that we will have the ability to have 

those ideas considered on the House 

floor, just as President-elect Obama 

has advised us to proceed when the 

gentleman and I and several others met 

with him earlier this week. 

Madam Speaker, I would now like 

just to make one additional inquiry to 

the gentleman that three suspensions 

were considered on Wednesday. I would 

say to the gentleman votes were over 

by 1 p.m. 

Yesterday we counted electoral ballots for the historical election of 

Barack Obama. We were finished by 2 

p.m. 

Since no legislative business was conducted and no votes were taken after 

that, can we expect this to be the manner in which the floor will be scheduled 

each week? 

Mr. HOYER. It’s hard to predict what 

every week will look like, as the gentleman will soon find out. If you talk 

to your leaders and the majority, they 

will tell you it is more daunting than 

it first appears. 

Having said that, obviously, the 

schedule has been submitted to all the 

Members, all the Members know what 

we have scheduled in terms of days to 

be in session. Hopefully they have notice of that, they are cognizant of that, 

particularly their schedulers are cognizant of that. 

We have provided, we believe, sufficient days in which to do the work that 

the American public expects us to get 

done and that we expect that needs to 

be done. If there are more days, we will 

add days. 

Having said that, we are in, obviously, the first weeks of the session. A 

lot has been going on, which is not on 

the floor, simply in getting organized, 

the committees getting organized, getting committee members appointed by 

both the Republican and the Democratic sides so that much has been 

going on, notwithstanding the fact 

there have been long days on the floor. 

But in the early days of the session, obviously, much is going on to get ready 

for future floor action. 

Mr. CANTOR. I thank the gentleman. 

I would also like to just point out and 

make a comment and suggestion that 

we do promote the efficient operation 

of this House, because we have new 

Members who have inquired as to why 

we would be finishing up so early each 

day and not working more so that 

maybe we could return to our districts 

and be with our constituents on a day 

that perhaps we could save by working 

more on others. 

There are 5 legislative weeks scheduled between now and President’s Day. 

I would ask the gentleman if he could 

lay out the calendar, the legislative 

calendar for those 5 weeks. 

Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman 

for his question. As you know, the 

President-elect was here this week to 

discuss and has discussed, gave a 

speech regarding the recovery package. 

Obviously that is an important item 

that we will be considering. 

You have heard the agenda for next 

week. We also need to do the omnibus 

at some point in time in the near term. 

We will hopefully do that before the 

President’s break. 

We will have other legislation, but 

they will be the two major items that 

we will be focused on, the recovery 

package and the omnibus appropriation 

bill. Clearly, as you know, there are 

nine appropriation bills which were not 

completed last year that need to be 

completed so that agencies will have 

the funding they need to accomplish 

the objectives we have given them. 

Mr. CANTOR. Madam Speaker, I 

thank the gentleman, the majority 

leader. I look forward to continuing 

this dialogue with him on a weekly 

basis, and I yield back my time. 

f 

ADJOURNMENT TO TUESDAY, 

JANUARY 13, 2009 

Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, I ask 

unanimous consent that when the 

House adjourns today, it adjourn to 

meet at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday next for 

morning-hour debate. 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there 

objection to the request of the gentleman from Maryland? 

There was no objection. 

f 

NATION’S BEST UNDEFEATED 

TEAM 

(Mr. BISHOP of Utah asked and was 

given permission to address the House 

for 1 minute.) 

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Madam Speaker, last night was another BCS bowl 

game. I congratulate two fine educational institutions and football 

teams, Florida and Oklahoma. Florida 

won a hard-fought and deserved victory. However, there is still only one 

ranked undefeated team in the Nation, 

and, yes, I am an alumnus of the University of Utah, the two-time BCS 

buster. 

The problem is clearly the BCS. According to the BCS, a system with one 

too many initials, having a tough competition and going undefeated is not 

good enough. Using the BCS system, 

Germany won World War II, HILLARY

CLINTON is still the leading Presidential candidate and winning all your 

games is apparently not the same thing 

as—winning all your games. 

With no intention of disparaging a 

wonderful Florida football team and 

program, I still have to commend the 

achievements of the University of 

Utah. They are commendable, and I 

wish to recognize the Nation’s best 

undefeated team. Certainly with the 

BCS, this Nation can do a whole lot 

better. 

f 

FOOTBALL BOWL VICTORIES FOR 

RICE UNIVERSITY AND THE UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON 

(Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked 

and was given permission to address 

the House for 1 minute and to revise 

and extend her remarks.) 

Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Madam 

Speaker, well, in talking about bowl 

games, I have certainly got to rise and 

salute the City of Houston, the fourth 

largest city in the Nation. We had two 

universities win their bowl games. 

Rice University and the University of 

Houston proudly won their bowl games 

and showed the world that football is 

played in large cities. Let me congratulate Rice University, which has 

one of the highest academic standards 

and standings in the United States of 

America, along with the proudness of 

their football team, and, yes, the University of Houston that is now reaching 


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