mr. hoyer: i thank my friend, the republican whip, for yielding. on monday the house is not in session. on tuesday the house will meet at 12:30 p.m. for morning hour debate and 2:00 p.m. for legislative business. on wednesday the house will meet at 10:00 a.m. for legislative business and recess at approximately 5:00 p.m., madam speaker, to allow security sweep of the house chamber prior to the president's state of the union address. the house will meet again at approximately 8:35 p.m. in a joint session with the senate for the purpose of receiving an address from the president of the united states. on thursday and friday the house is not in session to give time for the republican issues conference to occur in baltimore, maryland. we will consider several bills under suspension of the rules, a complete list of suspension bills will be announced by close of business tomorrow. in addition, madam speaker, we will consider h.r. 3726, the castle-nugent national historic site act of 2009 and h.r. 4474

cantor: i thank -- mr. hoyer: if i can make another comment. mr. cantor: i yield. mr. hoyer: the gentleman is very happy as i would be with the results of massachusetts, as we were very happy about the results in new york 23 where the health care bill was also at issue, as the gentleman knows, if a district that we haven't won for 150 years a couple months ago and as the gentleman knows we won that district. in a district, as i said, unlike massachusetts that we haven't won in 150 years. but let me say something, your candidate who did win supported the massachusetts plan which has great similarity to the plan that he now opposes. so it's somewhat eye roonic that we would take -- ironic that we would take that as a bell weather. he voted -- bellweather. he voted on a plan much like our plan to try to reach the objective of covering all people. so he's already voted for a plan like that. he's indicated he's not going to vote for this plan. i understand that. it's not like he hasn't got a record of wanting to achieve the objectives that the bills that are under discussion

mr. hoyer spk: mr. speaker.e speaker pro tempore: the chair announces the speaker's appointment of the following members to the committee on the part of the house to join a committee on the part of the senate to inform the president of the united states that a quorum of each house has assembled, the gentleman from maryland, mr. hoyer and the gentleman from ohio, mr. boehner. for what purpose does the gentleman rise? mr. hoyer spk i spend to the -- mr. hoyer: i send to the desk a privileged resolution and ask for its immediate consideration. the speaker pro tempore: will the clerk report the title. the clerk: be it resolved that the house inform the senate that the -- that a quorum of the house is present and the house is ready to resume with business. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the motion is agreed to and laid on the table. mr. hoyer spk i send to the desk another privileged resolution and ask for its immediate consideration. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the resolution. the cle

mr. hoyer: well, i thank the gentleman for his question and all the premises that he adopts in prefacing this question. i don't want my silence to be presumed as agreeing to his premises which i think are inaccurate. having said that, first of all, of course there have been extraordinary exposure of the health care bills both in the house and senate, public discussion, public debate, public information, been online for over four months, five months, really, now. so i would -- an extraordinary number of hearings held on this over the last two years. and as the gentleman well knows, his party's candidate for president and my party's candidate for president, who is of course now the president of the united states, both indicated they thought health reform was necessary. so it received extensive debate by many other candidates as well during the course of the election. the gentleman is well aware because members on his side have talked about it, members on my side have talked about it, about the nu

mr. hoyer: i thank the gentleman for yielding. on monday the house is not in session. on tuesday the house will meet at 12:30 p.m. for morning hour debate, 2:00 p.m. for legislative business with votes postponed until 6:30 p.m. on wednesday and thursday the house will meet at 10:00 a.m. for legislative business. on friday, the house will be in pro forma session at 9:00 a.m. no votes are expected in the house on friday. we will consider several bills under suspension of the rules, a complete list of suspension bills will be announced by the close of business friday. in addition, we will consider h.r. 4061, the cybersecurity enhancement act of 2009, also a possible consideration of senate amendments to h.j.res. 45, to permit continued financing of government operations. yield back. mr. cantor: i thank the gentleman. mr. speaker, as this is the scheduling colloquy, i'd like to follow up with a few questions regarding the schedule. mr. speaker, i'd ask the majority leader if he could tell us what h

mr. hoyer: there are times when you get a call and you're shocked and saddened and stunned.shakespeare said she should have died year after. there was time for such a word. tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. paula will not see those tomorrows, and we are sad, and we share the sadness and loss that her family has experienced. and, john, we share the loss that you've experienced. all of us who have staff know that they've become family, not just staff, not just bureaucrats or somebody that we rely on to do that, this or the other. they become alter egos in many respects. particularly those who leave our offices. paula nowakowski had that relationship to john boehner, and indeed to others as well. since 1995, paula was an important and positive part of leader boehner's team. and in that time she earned respect throughout the congress for her political skill, for her work ethic, and her dedication to her ideals. i particularly remember her kindness and cooperation during the transition from a republican majority to a democratic one in november and december of 2006. clearly a di

we are on the path that we are on, which is -- to reconcile our differences as mr. hoyerays. >> our position is, we have as is always the case, the senate passed a bill we passed a bill and what we're working on is to reconcile the differences between those two bills and place a reconciled in effect, a conference report, it won't be technically a conference report thorninge floor of the house and senate. that's our intent and that's what we're working toward. >> in meetings now or over the last two days, have you discussed the implication of a republican victory for the massachusetts senate? >> regardless of what happens in massachusetts, we have to resolve the differences between our two bills. we still have to communicate with our members about the direction they want us to go in certain particular issues, issues like the commission and the report on what we've heard back now on the excise tax. you know what those are. we have policy issues to deal with we put off for this week because we needed to focus on the c.b.o., what the congressional budget office needed for las

also, mr. hoyernd the republican leadership for working together to put together a very positive, strong, and good resolution that passed on a bipartisan basis. let me ask congressman payne to come forward. he chaired the global and health committee of the foreign commanders -- foreign affairs committee. >> thank you very much. let me thank all of you for being here. today we stand in solidarity with the people of haiti. since the earthquake, the congressional black caucus has held emergency meetings regarding haiti. we are getting a sense of the effort on the ground in order to take this information back to our congressional district and our constituents. there has been activity with in their congressional district. most members -- we are moving expeditiously in making sure that information is disseminated to our people. we want to thank the information disseminated by the department of states. we have been able to hold conference calls and a regular basis. following is a the earthquake, members imm

also mr. hoyer and the republican leadership for working together to put together a positive, strong, and good resolution that passed on a bipartisan basis with one no vote. let me ask congressman payne to come forward. >> thank you very much. let me begin by thanking all of you for being here, and particularly to commend our chair person, congresswoman lee for the immediate action that she took. today we stand in solidarity with the people of haiti and all those affected by the earthquake. since the earthquake, the congressional black caucus has mobilized to hold emergency meetings regarding haiti the state department, the department of defense, ngo's, and other stakeholders in the region to get a sense of the effort on the ground, in order to take this information back to our congressional districts and our constituents. there has been tremendous activity within our congressional districts. most members have task forces and we are really moving expeditiously in making sure that information is diss

say no to whatever bill, understand that the majority leader, mr. hoyer, today, said that the senate bill is better than nothing, so i'm expecting with that comment that they're going to try to force down the throats of this house, the senate bill, i pray and hope to god, lord jesus christ, please help to us not pass that bill. in the name of jesus i pray that. but i just hope and pray that we don't pass any bill that is being presented here. i've challenged democrats, many of them individually, to introduce a bill, i'll give them the legislative language and it's totally constitutional, mr. garrett, mr. speaker. gone from madam speaker to mr. speaker, welcome. we're glad you have to. to do four things. one is have cross-state purchasing of insurance for individuals and businesses which is constitutional under the commerce clause and we should be doing that under the commerce clause. to have associations so that associations can be developed, i'm a rotarian, we could have a rotary in a national pool, i'm a graduate of the university of georgia, medical co

i detect frustration among house members -- [inaudible] seems some of that expressed recently by mr. hoyer and some listened to the state of union. >> this is the legislative process. we're responsible in the house of representatives for our work product, what we do for the american people. what is instilled in each one of us is that our work be relevant to improving the lives of the american people and we take responsibility personally and institution alley on the house side to do that. the rules of the house enable more expeditious passage of legislation, the senate takes longer, that's what our founders built into the system. so rather than get into that, i'd just say there's a way we will get it all done, but, again, a natural instinct is to be immediately responsive to the needs of the american people, the senators i'm sure share that view, but their constitutional affords them -- their constitution affords them a longer time to do what they want to do. i don't want to waste any energy on criticizing the senate and i don't want them criticizing how we do things either. we all have our

please heal to the distinguished majority leader, mr. hoyer. >> thank you very much madam speaker.mac john larsen javier becerra who is then it wonderful job in leading this congress. we just heard from bill clinton. i have been here for some years and in the 1980's particularly the middle of 1980, we were talking about whether america could continue to debate the world. with the germans, the japanese and others were moving ahead of us at a very rapid rate. in the 1990's we adopted an economic program and i would remind all of you that we pass that in a partisan fashion with no republican votes. that is not the way we wanted to pass it but that is the way we passed it. and we saw the greatest economic resurgence that i have seen in my lifetime in this country. jobs were created, surpluses were created, the problems were just a few months ago in the beginning of last year we confronted the worst economic crisis since the great depression. we heard from president obama yesterday as we heard from president clinton today. pundits, many of you, have observed that we have just gone throu

mr. hoyer: i thank the gentlelady for yielding and congratulate her for her leadership, of the congressional black caucus, and her service on the appropriations committee and for the focus that she brings to making sure that we do not forget those who are less fortunate than we. we all join together in expressing our sorrow over last week's earthquake which shattered the lives of so many of the people of haiti. and as has been mentioned, of others who were visiting haiti. i do so fully knowing that no words we say here can rebuild a collapsed home or heal the wounds of the living or bury the dead. in times like these we say words fail. they fail to capture the true scope of devastation and suffering and they fail to effect any change for the better. nevertheless, it's still important to express the responsibility we feel to the three million haitians killed, injured or displaced by this disaster. the same responsibility we hope that others would feel toward us in a time of needs. that is why am

mr. cantor pointed out, it is up to speaker pelosi and majority leader hoyer to carry through. with us, having more discussions with us. but there has got to be more than just discussions. >> smf your members have said they felt the president would come here and say you needed to act in a more bipartisan fashion to get beyond the rhetoric, and then turned around and started accusing you of doing that himself. what do you to that? >> it was a candid conversation. as you are well aware, we have been through a pretty difficult year, with a lot of major issues and i am not going to exacerbate the problem that's already out there. i think today was a good first step in having more of a dialogue, and i hope it continues. >> obama did keep talking about how republicans need to stop talking so badly about the democratic party and start these attacks all the time, but wouldn't you say the democrats do the same thing to you? wouldn't you say that is fair? >> li listen, when i have issue with some of their proposals -- listen, i try to be honest about. when i describe their health care bi

mr. kantor pointed out, it is really up to speaker pelosi and majority leader hoyer to carry through.hink the president will carry through in terms of having more meetings with us, having more discussions with us but there has to be more than just discussions. >> the president said jude needed to activate or spiders -- more part bipartisan way and turned around and started re--- accusing the republicans of doing that. >> it was a candid conversation. as you are well aware, we have been through a difficult year. we have had a lot of major issues. i will not exacerbate the problem that is already out there. today was a good first step in having more of a dialogue. i hope it continues. >> obama talked about how republicans were talking badly about the democratic party and there were attacks all the time. he said democrats did the same thing to you. was that fair? >> when i have issue with some of their proposals -- i try to be honest about it. when i described their health care bill and the government take -- takeover of our healthcare system, i truly believe that is the essence of their