David Obey: “let me simply say that I think we need to understand, if I can get the attention of the gentleman from Georgia [Mr.…”

“let me simply say that I think we need to understand, if I can get the attention of the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Kingston], using the term ``administrative uses'' is a very tricky way to go about this. We do not want in any way under the guise of preventing this money from going to bureaucratic convenience, we do not want in any way, and I am sure that Members on both sides of the House will not want in any way, to have a proposition which expresses concern that we do not want money to go to administrative costs to mean that that will get in the way of implementing cost containment to recover $1 billion from infant formula rebates. We do not regard the administrative expenses as items such as blood tests to determine whether a woman is anemic, or we do not believe that it is administrative funding to provide counseling for pregnant women on the dangers of alcohol and drugs to their unborn children. We do not think that it is administrative expenses to promote breast-feeding on the part of new mothers. We certainly do not want to interfere with the printing of vouchers. And the problem is that the way ``administrative expenses'' are defined could very well preclude all of those activities, which would absolutely gut the purposes expressed yesterday. And so we will be very willing to look at the legitimate efforts to see that this goes only to provide needed services or evaluation or needed outreach for and to the populations who were meant to be served.”