David Obey: “Every day we recognize the fact that Congress cannot bind future Congresses in terms of the action that they will take.…”

“Every day we recognize the fact that Congress cannot bind future Congresses in terms of the action that they will take. But if we pass this legislation today, we are enabling future presidents to bind future Congresses, because if we pass this proposal and discover, as we most assuredly will, that it does not work the way we intended, we will not be able to change it without the permission of the President of the United States. That is not a position which any independent legislative body should be in. Secondly, on 2-year budgets, there is a vast difference between multiyear planning and multiyear budgeting. I favor long-term planning. I favor 5- and 10-year planning. But when we go to a 2-year budget, we put the House at a huge disadvantage vis-a-vis the Senate. In the House, we have germaneness rules, so if we pass an Interior supplemental through the place, no one can attach an education item or an agricultural item to it. We stick to the subject. But in a world of 2-year budgeting, we will have constant supplementals.”