David Obey: “Bills which have gone through the Congress this year have cut $33 billion in the nondefense area. They have also added…”

“Bills which have gone through the Congress this year have cut $33 billion in the nondefense area. They have also added $7 billion above the President's request for the defense budget. All the President has wanted to do is to add back $7 billion of the $33 billion in domestic cuts, about 20 percent of the cuts that Congress has made this year, because the President feels, and I agree with him, that we ought not to cut back on education efforts, that we ought not to cut back on environmental enforcement efforts, especially given all the problems we have in both of those areas. Now, this bill comes to the floor and adds $1 billion back out of the $33 billion which had been cut in nondefense spending. It adds $1 billion back, principally for the LIHEAP program. Other than that, there is no real change in dollar terms from the bills as they were constituted when the President vetoed them originally. Mr. Speaker, in fact this bill in some ways goes further away from a compromise than the continuing resolution under which we are now operating.”