David Obey: “let me simply say that we are being asked to spend about $300 billion. And it seems to me that this is not out of line…”

“let me simply say that we are being asked to spend about $300 billion. And it seems to me that this is not out of line to spend approximately half an hour listening to the arguments against the expenditure of the item under review on this amendment. I would simply say that I know that the manager of this bill would like to see the House finish this bill with very little debate, but the fact is this is an appropriation bill, the Congress is exercising the power of the purse. We may make one decision on an authorization bill when real dollars are not in hand, but when we are on an appropriation bill, this is when we actually get to see what the trade offs are. It seems to me that it is not too much to expect. I mean, as far as I know, there are only about four speakers against this. They are going to win the amendment. But it seems to me that we have a right to have a reasonable amount of time to make the arguments against it. The gentleman from California [Mr. Dellums] is only the ranking member on the authorizing committee. He only knows more about this than probably anyone else on the floor. And given the fact that we have spent hours and hours on the legislative appropriations bill and other appropriation bills, I see no harm in spending less time on this bill in the end than we would have spent on virtually every other appropriations bill.”