David Obey: “the gentleman from New York just said that this is about saving taxpayers money. That is not what it is about at all.…”

“the gentleman from New York just said that this is about saving taxpayers money. That is not what it is about at all. Just last week, I would point out, this House voted for enough B-2 bombers, which the Pentagon did not want, to pay for the National Endowment for the Arts for 108 years. In my judgment this rule, Mr. Speaker, is a sham and a fraud. It is a cynical abuse of power to prevent Members of both parties from voting to save the National Endowment for the Arts. That is all it is. The rule prevents the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Yates] from offering a simple amendment to restore funding for the NEA on the grounds that it is not authorized, and then it allows an amendment which is 28 pages long which, in essence, is a complete and total rewrite of the NEA: No hearings, no public comment and not produced by any committee that I know. It is not a legislative product; it is a political product. It is a device which was designed by the committee simply to allow Congress to assassinate the NEA behind the smokescreen of this substitute amendment. It is a procedural power play to prevent Members of both parties who went up in the Committee on Rules yesterday asking for the simple right to vote to continue the NEA as is. And it ought to be turned down because it is a smokescreen. Mr. Speaker, it is a sham substitute.”