David Obey: “continuing my reservation, I have been told by several people that they do not want me to pursue this because ``the…”

“continuing my reservation, I have been told by several people that they do not want me to pursue this because ``the Senate is going out of session and it will be hard to get an amended version considered by the Senate.'' Heaven forbid that we should ask the Senate to come back and work on something of this urgency. This is the same Senate that did not hesitate to come back in order to tell one American family, the Schiavo family, how they should deal with an end-of-life issue for one of their family members, and yet we are told that we should not build in this protection for the taxpayer because it might inconvenience the other body. I am very reluctant to agree to proceeding with this legislation without this reporting requirement because, as we have just discovered under the previous $50 billion that we provided to FEMA, they have given us a miserable explanation of the money that they have spent so far. They have given us meaningless spreadsheets and money defined in very broad, meaningless categories that tells the Congress nothing that will enable us to exercise our responsibilities as watchdogs of the public purse. So, I guess my question is, if I withdraw my reservation, how soon can we expect to have this kind of reporting requirement brought to the House so that we know that in fact the money which is being provided will be used only for the purpose for which it is described today?”