David Obey: “I would just like to bring to the House the following facts: We have been at this bill now for the better part of…”

“I would just like to bring to the House the following facts: We have been at this bill now for the better part of yesterday. We have been on this bill since 10:30 this morning, and we have been trying to negotiate a unanimous consent agreement so that Members might be able to leave here tomorrow night. I know there is a CODEL of Members going to Iraq but I want to put them on notice now. I doubt very much that you are going to make it unless you want to miss a lot of votes because as things are developing, I am told that right now, because of the insistence that a number of amendments, which we have heard time and time again, will still be subjected to 40 minutes' debate time even though there are five similar amendments, each of which will take about 40 minutes. When you calculate it all, it comes out to about 800 minutes of debate time. That means roughly 13 hours. By the time you account for slippage, the time it takes for Members to be recognized, the time it takes for them to find their amendments, you have to add about another 5 hours plus your voting time. What that means is that if we continue until 1 o'clock this morning, it will still probably be required for Members to be here until about 8 o'clock or later tomorrow night, which means that we will finish just in time for you to all miss your planes.”