David Obey: “The problem has not been him. The problem has been that while he has tried to keep the process open, we have been denied…”

“The problem has not been him. The problem has been that while he has tried to keep the process open, we have been denied our fundamental right as a minority to even offer amendments to the products that your committee has produced, and then all of the deals are made behind closed doors. If anyone attended the conference two nights ago, one of our members asked Senator Stevens, he said, what is the process by which we are going to determine the outcome of the items that are still open in conference? And the response he got from the chairman of the conference was, the same process that was used to consider the items that are already closed. That process was simply a process in private where decisions were made by the majority. Now, in the end, the majority is going to win most of these; I understand that. But we have a right to have honest differences considered, and at least we have the right to have those honest differences addressed in full view of the public and the press so that the public can determine which argument has the better of it, but they have been denied this time and time again, and we are fed up. I am fed up with it.”