David Obey: “Mr. Chairman, if I understand this correctly, this is what I refer to as a holy-picture amendment. The administration…”

“Mr. Chairman, if I understand this correctly, this is what I refer to as a holy-picture amendment. The administration asked for 200-and-some million dollars for the Coast Guard. The bill before us cut it by $58 million. I tried earlier today to defeat the rule under which this bill is being considered so that we could add not just the $60 million that the gentleman is asking to be added to the Coast Guard's budget, but $223 million so that we could fully finance the increased pace of Coast Guard operations to combat terrorism for an entire year rather than the 6 months that is in the bill. I find it interesting that the gentleman voted against our efforts to in fact make in order the amendment which the House could under the rules have adopted, and yet is pursuing today an amendment which is clearly going to be ruled out of order. I find that effort enough to give inconsistency a bad name. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.”