C. W. Bill Young: “I rise to not disagree with my friend, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey). This is not the normal procedure. But I…”

“I rise to not disagree with my friend, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey). This is not the normal procedure. But I do rise to tell the Members of the House that no Member of the House is disadvantaged by using this procedure. The conference report on H.R. 4475, and the new bill that is numbered H.R. 5394, are identical. The language of the new bill has been available to the Members at the same time as the conference report on H.R. 4475 because it is printed in the statement of the managers. So no Member of the House has been disadvantaged. As the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) has pointed out, this was done to accommodate the other body. Whether that is the best procedure or not, it has been done before, but it is not really the regular order. The main issue here is Members of the House have not been disadvantaged by this procedure. The words in the copy of the bill in the statement of the managers on the conference report and the new bill are identical and they have been available to the House Members. Members are not disadvantaged because of timing and thus disadvantaged because of the language in the introduced bill. So I think we ought to go ahead and pass this rule, and then I think we ought to go ahead and pass this conference report. As usual, as many Members often say, it is not perfect. There are things in there Members can be opposed to, but there are a lot of good things in there.”