David Obey: “I am confused about that response from the majority leader, because when our staff met with the gentleman from Wisconsin…”

“I am confused about that response from the majority leader, because when our staff met with the gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Neumann] today, he indicated that neither he nor anyone involved in putting that bill together had read the waiver request submitted yesterday and he said he was simply operating on trust. Since my understanding is that the governor himself exercised some 70 item vetoes on the legislation that was passed by the legislature covering some 27 different subjects, whether or not the Congress is going to be allowed to at least fully understand what is in that package, and how those item vetoes have changed the package as it was originally passed by the Wisconsin legislature. Are we going to have adequate understanding of that before we asked to vote? I mean, if this is going to be debated on a day when Members are not even here, and then voted on a subsequent day, I would venture to say that there will not be three Members of the Congress who know what is in the bill which they are passing on to the Senate.”