David Obey: “I would simply make two observations. A short while ago I was asked by the majority leadership whether, as the ranking…”

“I would simply make two observations. A short while ago I was asked by the majority leadership whether, as the ranking minority member on the Committee on Appropriations, I would agree to unanimous consent to bring up the legislative appropriation bill and the District of Columbia appropriation bill and one other appropriation bill so that we could finish our work tomorrow, instead of spilling over into Friday. I told them I would try to get that done, at least on two of the three. Now we are being told that we perhaps should not consider that on this side of the aisle because the gentleman is going to offer a motion to instruct on a package which the leadership has already asked me to cooperate with in getting to the floor as soon as possible. We cannot cooperate in both efforts at the same time, because they go in different directions. Second, I would simply say that the cut that was made in the House bill originally averaged about $65,000 for each and every Member's office account. I would simply point out that the result that the gentleman says he is trying to seek, where the House would stick with its numbers and the Senate would stick with its numbers, would continue a practice which has led to a situation in which the average staffer for a Senator, for the same work done by the staffers for people in this House, gets $16,400 more.”