David Obey: “Mr. Speaker, I thank the Speaker for making my point. The gentleman simply indicated in his remarks that one of the…”

“Mr. Speaker, I thank the Speaker for making my point. The gentleman simply indicated in his remarks that one of the reasons that the Congress has not finished its work is because the President was out of town too often. I would point out that the President is not a Member of this body. The President has no ability to determine whether this House is or is not going to produce its appropriation bills. Under the Constitution, the last time I looked, the only time that a president can affect an appropriation bill is after the Congress gets the bill to the president. The last time I looked, out of the 13 appropriation bills that we are supposed to finish before the end of the fiscal year, only two of those 13 have gotten to the President. So with all due respect to the gentleman's argument, I would suggest it is passing the buck to suggest that somehow the President is at fault for not signing bills that we have not yet sent him. I would simply note that this Congress has worked the least number of work days in decades.”