David Obey: “I feel like the actor Bill Murray in that movie ``Groundhog Day''; we keep doing this again and again and again and…”

“I feel like the actor Bill Murray in that movie ``Groundhog Day''; we keep doing this again and again and again and again. We are 5 months into the fiscal year. We are supposed to have the appropriations bills done. Yet we have a huge portion of the budget still stuck, and this bill represents, in fact, the 10th continuing resolution, the 10th. We tried to do this 10 times to keep the Government open, and a couple of times the Congress has failed and the Government has closed. Mr. Chairman, I have voted for some versions of the lockbox, I have even sponsored some of the versions. But the fact is today that our highest priority ought to be to finally, halfway through the fiscal year, get last year's fiscal business passed. We already have three versions of this amendment sitting in the Senate deader than door nails. Why is it necessary to add a fourth when our principal purpose is simply to get the Government continued for the rest of the fiscal year? I have a very pragmatic reason to suggest my colleagues not vote for this amendment. It is just another item that slows down the process, makes it less likely that this bill is ever going to become law, makes it less likely that we are going to get out of the way and see to it that the local school districts do not have to lay off teachers, that Superfund sites, which are shut down now because of lack of funding, do not continue to stay shut down.”