David Obey

let me first address the gentleman's comments about process and time. We have been negotiating with the Senate and with the White House since last Friday. At approximately 12:30 last night, the majority staff on the Appropriations…

let me simply say, in response to the comments from the gentleman, that given what he prefers to see in this bill on this subject, we are very lucky to have the 1-year fix at all because the White House opposed not only the long-term fix…

What the gentleman is telling the House is that he thinks his accounting principles are more important than providing additional veterans medical care. He is saying his accounting principles are more important than providing the funding…

Mr. Speaker, this war is a terrible tragedy, and it is time to bring it to an end. This is a straightforward bill to redeploy our military forces from Iraq and to end the war in Iraq, and I want to thank the leadership for bringing it to…

I do not know why we should be surprised that we are divided as a Nation when in fact we have an administration whose governing principle has been to govern by dividing. I would simply observe that there are some Members of this body…

this recommittal motion is something that we have seen for approximately 5 minutes. I think it is a dubious proposition to be voting on something this serious with less than 10 minutes of consideration. But upon a cursory reading of it, it…

Mr. Speaker, it is not the majority party that is in a hole. It is the U.S. policy toward Iraq that is in a hole. It is not the majority party that is in disarray. Last time I looked, the headlines said that there was a bunch of…

let me simply say that this motion is very simple. It simply removes the provision in this bill which fences almost $50 billion pending the three reports from the President that we have talked about for the last hour. The effect of it is…

Mr. Speaker, with this supplemental appropriations bill, we continue to confront urgent business which the 109th Congress left unfinished last year and which the President continues to want to leave unfinished. Today, that includes an…

Mr. Speaker, in the bill which the President vetoed last week, in addition to funding for the troops in Iraq, we provided funding for a number of other high-priority purposes. We provided additional funding above the President's request…

Let me start by saying what is not in this bill. There is no money in this bill for agriculture, there is no money for western wildfires, there is no money for western schools. All of that will be in the next bill, which will be considered…

this motion is really quite interesting. What it says is that the same folks who want to spend $57 billion on tax cuts on millionaires this year, all paid for with borrowed money, the same folks who are comfortable with the idea that we…

In fact, I would point out that the President himself asked for the antiflu money that we put in this bill. The President himself asked for that money 2 years ago as an emergency request. I would also note, since he has expressed concern…

Mr. Speaker, this bill gives the President the exit strategy from the Iraqi civil war that up until now he has not had. Next Tuesday will be the fourth anniversary of the President's 'Mission Accomplished' landing on that famous aircraft…

Then let me yield myself 2 minutes before the gentleman closes. Mr. Speaker, 2 nights ago I was watching the Public Television series on the Iraq War, and I saw one of the gentlemen who is generally regarded as being one of the…

I have to tell you, some days it is very interesting to watch what happens in a place like this. This is the most serious issue that this Congress will confront this year, and this motion is addressing that issue in the most unserious…

I must say that having gone through this for the last 3 weeks trying to talk to each and every person who I could reach about this measure has given me a profound respect for a good many Members of this institution whom I had not known…

Yesterday, a number of Members on the Republican side of the aisle sought to belittle the legislation before us because, in addition to funding the needs of the troops in Iraq, it contains money to address a number of domestic priorities…

I hope the Democrats under Speaker Nancy Pelosi keep pushing to set a deadline for withdrawal from Iraq because they are providing two patriotic services that the Republicans failed to offer in the previous 4 years. The first is policy…

Mr. Speaker, why are we here? We are here because 4 years ago the President plunged us into a preemptive war in Iraq, a country that had not attacked the United States, and we took that action on the basis of bad information, manipulated…

Again, we can debate yesterday until the cows come home. What Mr. Murtha and I are trying to focus on is what we do in this bill today to make tomorrow better for our servicemen and our country. That is the issue, and that is the issue…

4 years ago this Congress voted to authorize the President to engage in a preemptive attack to Iraq, a country that had not attacked the United States. I supported the military action against Afghanistan because they gave sanctuary to…

My preference is that additional funding would be available for enhancement grants which can be used for hiring. But that final decision will be up to the administration.

Mr. Speaker, it is not correct that we are cutting BRAC. We are increasing BRAC $1 billion above the existing levels in the continuing resolution under which we are operating today. We will deal with the additional requests for BRAC in the…

I won't take the full 4 minutes. Let me simply say that it is necessary for the House to move forward with this legislation. It is easy to nitpick. It is interesting to me that the minority today has chosen to chastise us for decisions…