David Obey: “once again we demonstrate the strangeness of the administration's statement of policy on this bill. This amendment would…”

“once again we demonstrate the strangeness of the administration's statement of policy on this bill. This amendment would add $40 million to TRIO. We have already added $40 million above the amount that the President asked for for that program. It is a worthy program. The President also eliminated the funding for the other account that the gentleman wants to increase in this amendment. The President zeroed out the geriatrics program. The committee restored $32 million. So in both of these accounts, we are significantly above the President's budget; and yet we get another amendment from the other side of the aisle seeking to raise a worthy program. Now he seeks to pay for it by cutting, among other sources, AmeriCorp. I am a little confused by that because just a few minutes ago the distinguished gentleman from Connecticut had an amendment to try to add money for AmeriCorp. The House turned that down. Frankly, had I realized that the gentleman's amendment was going to be offered, in this instance I probably would have accepted the gentleman's amendment from Connecticut because I don't think it makes sense to reduce AmeriCorp, which has already been cut $9.2 million below last year, although I admit they do have carryover funds of $8 million. I guess what I am saying is I don't intend to stand in the way of this amendment, but it once again illustrates that when the administration claims that this bill is profligate, it is in fact far off the mark.”