Neil Abercrombie: “it is very difficult to talk about the amendment which we have in front of us when the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner)…”

“it is very difficult to talk about the amendment which we have in front of us when the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner) has brought up an entirely extraneous point. I hope the chairman will recognize this stuff and that this has nothing to do with the amendment. The estate that he is talking about is involved with a private school. We are talking about public funds here that go to public schools. It has absolutely nothing to do with the Bishop estate, with the Kamehameha school. None of this money goes to that school or to the estate. This is a completely extraneous issue, and I beg the Members, please, not to be, I will say misled, because maybe the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner) has a misconception. I would be happy to discuss it with him at some other point. Our amendment has to do with this block grant proposal. I indicated to the chairman yesterday and to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Solomon) that we were not arguing with the block grant proposal. That is an argument for another day. What we are saying is that we will be eliminated. The gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner) himself used the word ``eliminate'' because that was the object. We would be eliminated, as would the native Alaskans. So all we are asking for is consideration, not an exception but consideration to be included.”