David Obey: “Mr. Chairman, the gentleman who is offering this amendment has just said that what he is doing is to apply to existing…”

“Mr. Chairman, the gentleman who is offering this amendment has just said that what he is doing is to apply to existing law with respect to the Immigration Act as a new set of sanctions. And what that means is that none of the funds provided in this bill can go to any locality that is violating that law which means they get no fire grants, they get no port security money, they get no money for their Office of Domestic Preparedness. It applies to FEMA. How many of you want to have a disaster and find out because of some technicality your State is not eligible for any money? How would you like that if it happened to fire funds, for instance? So I would say that it is very clear, you are making a very big change in what localities can receive under this bill. Now, State and localities are already being short-changed and should have received far more than they did in the tax bill because of their budget crunch. This will simply add to their woes and will do so inadvertently if they were simply in violation because of a technicality.”