David Obey: “we now have 8 million people out of work. There are 3 million people that have been out of work so long that they have…”

“we now have 8 million people out of work. There are 3 million people that have been out of work so long that they have lost their unemployment benefits, and the majority party in this Congress has steadfastly refused to allow us to do something about that by providing extended unemployment benefits for those workers. At the same time, for people who are working and people who are not, we have a resurrection of inflation. Inflation is running at twice the rate this year that it ran last year. That means it cost families more to pay for gas, more to pay for health care, more to pay for college costs, and it will continue to rise. Working families need every dollar in their take-home pay that they can possibly get, and yet the administration has chosen this time to institute new regulations which for the first time in 50 years scaled back workers' entitlement to overtime pay for overtime worked. Mr. Chairman, this amendment attempts to do two things. It is a very simple amendment. It simply precludes the agency from using any funds in this bill to implement those limiting regulations.”