David Obey: “Mr. Speaker, it has been said that this bill has a sense of the Congress resolution that if there is a tobacco…”

“Mr. Speaker, it has been said that this bill has a sense of the Congress resolution that if there is a tobacco settlement, that funds from that settlement should be used to restore benefits for veterans which are being cut in this bill. To me, that is like promising to bring somebody back to life after you have shot them. It just seems to me that that language is clearly a fig leaf. It is about as useful as the previous sense of Congress resolution which was in the original highway bill when it left the House. That sense of Congress language said that the conferees should not cut veterans, and yet they did. So I think we can see that a new sense of Congress resolution in this proposal is not worth the paper it is printed on. Let me also say that I think we ought to understand that we are about to go home on Memorial Day and rub shoulders with veterans' groups all over the country, and tell them, yes, sirree, boys, we really appreciate what you done for us, and yet, we are about to stick them with a $16 billion reduction in veterans' health care.”