David Obey: “I do support the cuts in this bill, but I do not believe that Congress ought to be exempted from the negotiating squeeze…”

“I do support the cuts in this bill, but I do not believe that Congress ought to be exempted from the negotiating squeeze if, in fact, the entire national budget is headed for a train wreck. The President has indicated that, if we send this bill to him before other issues are resolved, he will veto it. That is not going to be in anybody's interest, so it seems to me what we ought to do is to delay the sending of this bill to the President. That is why the motion to recommit, which I will offer in just a moment, will do just that. It will simply recommit the conference report to the committee with instructions that the conference not meet until subsequently instructed to do so by the House pursuant to clause 1(c) of rule XXVIII. That would simply facilitate the delaying of this bill until other budget issues are worked out in other appropriation bills so that we are not in the unseemly position of appearing to be trying to speed passage through of the bill that funds our agencies while other agencies are going to get caught in the squeeze.”