David Obey: “Let me simply make a point and ask a question. As the chairman of the Committee on Appropriations just indicated, we…”

“Let me simply make a point and ask a question. As the chairman of the Committee on Appropriations just indicated, we have been working very hard over the last 2 days in conference to try to get a bill that this House can vote on before we adjourn. I had been under the impression that the motion just described by the gentleman from California [Mr. Fazio] was indeed a very real-life option today, so that we could at least deliver small amounts of funds needed to assure that there are no irregularities or problems associated with any of these relief programs. I, for the life of me, do not understand why that motion is not before us now. And I want to stipulate that the chairman of the Committee on Appropriations has conducted himself at all times in an absolutely straightforward manner. He has dealt with this in as nonpolitical fashion as possible, given the circumstances. But I honestly feel, as a member of some experience on the Committee on Appropriations, that once again the regular appropriations process has been victimized by bringing into a bill designed to provide immediate emergency relief, a series of other unrelated items, which represent simply portions of other people's political agendas, people who are not on the Committee on Appropriations. Two years ago, this Congress got into a very big amount of trouble because all kind of extraneous material were dragged into appropriation items, and the result was chaos and the Government shut down.”