David Obey: “I simply would like to do two things: first of all, congratulate the gentleman for the bill he has brought to us. I…”

“I simply would like to do two things: first of all, congratulate the gentleman for the bill he has brought to us. I obviously do not agree with all of it, but I certainly intend to support it unless some surprises occur on the House floor. I think he has done a good job. Having said that, I would like to try to determine whether or not we can reach a reasonable understanding about what our plans are for this evening. The problem we face is that at this point we have some 31 amendments filed, we have other amendments that are being faxed to the leadership on both sides of the aisle, and the longer that this process goes on, the more amendments we are going to have to deal with for the remainder of consideration of this bill. I would simply rise at this point to say that I would like to see us reach an agreement under which we could ask all Members to have their amendments in tonight so that we would be able tomorrow to try to work out time agreements on all these subsequent amendments. And if we can do that, we can have some chance of finishing the bill either tomorrow or early the next day.”