David Obey: “Yes. Mr. Chairman, to put that in perspective, the majority party has brought to this floor a bill which cuts the Indian…”

“Yes. Mr. Chairman, to put that in perspective, the majority party has brought to this floor a bill which cuts the Indian Health Service by $507 million, and we objected to that. We objected to that in our minority views. Now we are being asked to believe that their effort to put $22 million from a tiny minuscule portion of the amount that they have already cut from the Indian Health Service, and we are asked to believe that that is somehow going to make a wonderful difference in the lives of Native Americans. It is obvious from the size of the numbers that this is a transparent attempt to block our ability to fund the arts as the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Slaughter) is trying to do. We do not want to deny Native Americans every dollar that they need. But when this amendment passes, it must be clearly understood why it is here. It is here procedurally to block us from fulfilling the clearly stated wishes of the House earlier this evening when they adopted the Slaughter amendment. So the offering of this amendment is simply an effort by the majority party which will be successful in denying the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Slaughter) the opportunity to complete her amendment. So it ought to be seen for what it is. After you have done this tonight, do not go home and brag to your folks about how much you care about the arts because it is clearly transparent that you would do anything possible to deny us the ability to raise the amount of funds for that purpose.”