David Obey: “I would point out that this is one of those amendments that will determine whether or not this Congress really cares…”

“I would point out that this is one of those amendments that will determine whether or not this Congress really cares about the conditions under which Americans are expected to work. Mr. Chairman, the gentleman is asking us to add $4.3 million to an account that already has a $338 million increase. We already added $25 million to that account in the Goodling amendment last night. And the source that the gentleman chooses to target in order to move that money is, I think, especially outrageous. Mr. Chairman, the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. McIntosh] would remove that money from the wage and hour enforcement division of the Department of Labor. That is the agency that is supposed to enforce the minimum wage. That is the agency that is supposed to enforce the Medical and Family Leave Act. That is the agency which is charged with seeing to it that workers are not asked to work under slave labor conditions. We have just seen some of those stories in newspapers in disgraceful incidents around the country, and this amendment would further cripple the ability of the Department of Labor to deal with those issues.”