C. W. Bill Young: “I rise to applaud Chairman Obey for the statements that he has made since the beginning of this session of Congress that…”

“I rise to applaud Chairman Obey for the statements that he has made since the beginning of this session of Congress that we are going to pass all of the appropriations bills individually, separately, and send them to the President, individually and separately. I think that is a great idea. As a former chairman of this Appropriations Committee, I wish I could have done the same thing. I understand the frustration that Chairman Obey has in not being able to move the bills the way that he wants to move them. I experienced the same frustration. Mr. Obey is right. We did have omnibus bills during the time that we were the majority party. The reason we had the omnibus bills is because our partners in the Senate refused to pass their bills. Now, Chairman Obey has said so many times that we just didn't do our job. In the House, we did our job. In the House we passed our appropriations bills just like Chairman Obey did this year, but it takes two Houses to approve a bill and to send it to the White House. The frustration is that without appropriations bills, the government shuts down. It's pure and simple. Article I of the Constitution of the United States, section 9, says that the administration can't spend any money that has not first been appropriated by Congress.”