David Obey: “Chairman Knollenberg has done a good job with this bill, and I thank him. He has approved the overall budget for the use…”

“Chairman Knollenberg has done a good job with this bill, and I thank him. He has approved the overall budget for the use of local funds, judiciously used the Federal allocation to fund required services and boost several local initiatives, cut back the number of general provisions, and worked with Mr. Fattah, the ranking member, to restore a lot of the District's specific spending plans. In full Committee, Chairman Young and I presented an amendment to redirect $13 million in Federal funds to help the District prepare and begin to implement a revised Emergency Operations Plan. In the aftermath of September 11th, it became apparent that many government entities--Federal, state and local--were not prepared for the new reality. In the District, the Police said there was no plan. The fire department said it had a plan--but it was over thirty years old. The Federal government never told the city it was sending its workers home for the day--the District had to learn that from the press. So we took this opportunity to help the District make certain that it had an excellent, coordinated Emergency Operations Plan. The bill withholds about $8 million in unrelated Federal funds until the plan is done to make the point that this was a very serious matter.”