David Obey: “Mr. Chairman, as we draw to the conclusion of this bill, I just want to remind Members of the shortcomings which will…”

“Mr. Chairman, as we draw to the conclusion of this bill, I just want to remind Members of the shortcomings which will still lead people like me to vote against it on final passage, even though I fully recognize that the gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Skeen) has done everything he could within the totally inadequate allocation provided to him to produce a bill that would be worthy of the House's support. I would point out that in a letter from the Executive Office of the President it is made clear that ``Given the severe underfunding of critical programs and highly objectionable language provisions in the bill, the President's senior advisers would recommend that he veto the bill if it were presented to him in its current form.'' I think it is useful to underline what a few of those reasons are. First of all, with respect to food safety, this bill underfunds the budget request for USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, which inspects meat and poultry, by over $14 million. This bill severely underfunds Department efforts to deal with market concentration and abusive practices within the industry.”