C. W. Bill Young: “Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to my friend from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), the ranking member on the Committee…”

“Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to my friend from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), the ranking member on the Committee on Appropriations, and I agree with him that the wholesale use of the emergency designation would not be too smart, but then this is not the smartest place in the world. The emergency designation in our budget process was created in 1990. That was a long time before the Republicans became the majority party in the Congress. Since 1990, when the Democrats created this emergency provision, it has been used many times, not necessarily by the Republican majority that exists today. I would be happy to provide for the record and for Members who would like to see it, a very long list of times and events when the emergency designation was actually used. Now, let me say something about the census, which is the issue before us today that the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) mentioned. The problem here is we are dealing with the 1997 balanced budget agreement. I am not sure who the players were at that time, but when that decision was made, when those conferences were held, when the give and take was over, there was no money in the 1997 balanced budget agreement for the census, although everybody knows that the Constitution says there shall be a census every 10 years.”