David Obey: “I rise to urge a vote against this rule. There are a lot of things in this rule that I would like to protect. But not at…”

“I rise to urge a vote against this rule. There are a lot of things in this rule that I would like to protect. But not at the expense of waiving points of order so that the action that Congress took last year on the California Desert Act can be, by fiat of the Committee on Appropriations' will, reversed. I also do not think that we ought to reverse the Outer Banks Protection Act. I just do not think that we ought to be asked to pay the price for being asked to pay in terms of ignoring our responsibilities to the environment in order to pass this rule. I think if Members are genuinely interested in having a bipartisan approach and a bipartisan rule, they will quit using the appropriations process to accomplish an ideological agenda that would not be possible under normal parliamentary circumstances. I would urge strongly a vote against this rule. We can do better.”