David Obey: “I think this rule is considerably improved from yesterday for the following reasons: First of all, it no longer contains…”

“I think this rule is considerably improved from yesterday for the following reasons: First of all, it no longer contains the extraneous and, in my view, extremely misguided provisions which would have dragged this emergency proposal into a protracted argument on Bosnia and also would have effectively eliminated a very large amount of funding for the Nunn-Lugar program, which has eliminated 4,500 nuclear weapons in the former Soviet Union. I think it is not in the national interests of the United States for us to have bogged this bill down in either debate. The primary purpose of this legislature ought to simply be to get the emergency aid contained in this bill to the people who need it the most, and we should not drag in extraneous issues. I am pleased that as a result of the rule going down yesterday, adjustments have been made to eliminate those two provisions. I am also pleased that we have been told that in conference that the McKeon amendment, which is expected to be added, will be fixed so that we have a more equitably balanced commission to review the question of long-term rises in college tuition costs.”