David Obey: “Well, I thought you were gritting your teeth; but, nonetheless, that is fine. Mr. Speaker, let me simply say I really…”

“Well, I thought you were gritting your teeth; but, nonetheless, that is fine. Mr. Speaker, let me simply say I really regret days like this in the House because I love this institution, and I love what this institution is supposed to represent to the American people. The public wants us to pass significant House reform. Instead, this legislation before us, in my humble view, constitutes consumer fraud masquerading as lobbying reform, and there are two spectacular examples of that. The most egregious example of the corruption of the process in this House is the way in which conference committees have been substantially corrupted by some of the most powerful people in this body. When you have a package that does not prevent powerful people in this body from adding 30 and 40 pages of new legislation to a conference report without ever having a vote on the conference report, as happened last year on the defense appropriation bill, when you have a reform bill that still allows that to occur, I do not think that is much of a reform bill. This bill ought to require that any time any item is inserted in a conference report, that that cannot be considered by the House unless there is an open public vote of the conferees beforehand. That is the way you prevent the pharmaceutical industry from being shielded from suit, as happened on the defense bill last year at the behest of the majority leader of the other body.…”