David Obey

Mr. Speaker, on Monday, the President will submit to the Congress his new budget. It would be kind of nice if we had disposed of his last year's budget request before the President brings his new budget forward, because I believe that he…

let me simply point out to the gentleman who just spoke that our committee took no action whatsoever on all of the items he just mentioned. They are all mandatory programs. All this resolution does is to carry forward the same limitations…

But the fact is we have not reauthorized expired programs. That is the difference. We do not have the authority to reauthorize a mandatory program. If we did, we would have to find another $320 million, and I would like to know where that…

the fact is that this is simply a nit-picking motion which, if adopted, would kill our chances of passing this resolution in the United States Senate and result in us living on an '06 continuing resolution, which would deny us the ability…

my only response to some of the comments I have heard from the other side of the aisle is, you are really something else. You are really something else. You spent all of the last year trying to pass appropriation bills. You passed all but…

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 yield myself 10 seconds. I, once again, repeat, this bill does not cut BRAC. It adds $1 billion to BRAC. The fiscal 2006 level was $1.5 billion. This bill will have $2.5 billion, and we will be adding more in the emergency supplemental.

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.

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…

I observed that the minority is complaining about the fact that this approach has not been sufficiently bipartisan. As I recall, during the 10 years that the Democrats were in the minority, or more, I asked the Rules Committee almost 100…

The fact is that the 9/11 Commission recognized two problems that in their words rendered congressional oversight of intelligence ``dysfunctional''. The first was that the intelligence authorizing committee was routinely ignored by the…

Let us remember that the Congress has a right to make policy judgments. Indeed, it has an obligation to make policy judgments that direct money -- money to one place or another.

I rise in joining my colleagues tonight in recognizing the service of Lane Evans. Lane is one of those people who came to Congress willing to work and not very interested in getting much attention or claiming much credit. All the work he…

I remember when Martin Sabo first walked into this institution in 1978. He and his wife, Sylvia, epitomize more than any people I know what are regarded as midwestern values, most especially the value of modesty. You will never find Martin…

You can answer on your time. I am answering you on my time. You answer on your time. Now, I would appreciate no further interference from the gentleman. The gentleman wants to brag about the prescription drug proposal in the homeland…

Whatever you do for the least of your brothers, you do unto me.'' That is what someone who was fairly important in the history of the world told us a long time ago. But what has the Congress done for the least of our brothers and sisters…

this rule will allow the House to pass the Department of Defense appropriation bill for the year; and, in addition, it will allow the Congress to move forward with a $70 billion partial payment on the cost of funding the war in Iraq and…

I thank you. Will you tell me how this is going to apply to the defense appropriations bill that will be coming back to us this year from conference?

So none of the Senate earmarks will be included; the Senate will continue to be anonymous?

I agree with the proposition that it makes no sense to allow tribes to establish gambling casinos in territories that have no relationship to the tribe. But, I am voting against this bill because I believe that people who disagree with me…

I regret very much that this legislation is before us this afternoon. In my view, this is a badly conceived and most especially a badly timed action which will weaken the nonproliferation regime over the long haul and, in the end, wind up…

we are being asked why we are raising the issue of the minimum wage on this legislation. The answer to that is very simple: The way this House works, absolutely nothing can be brought to the floor for a House vote unless we have the…

I understand that the rules of the House normally indicate that this legislation would be handled by the authorizing committee, but I would note that on the appropriation conference report just several months ago, the majority leader in…

this amendment simply adds $25 million to the Legal Services Corporation, returning it to the 2003 level from which it has fallen since that time. We have a bipartisan letter to Chairman Wolf from Ranking Member Mollohan signed by 160…

I am urging every Member to vote ``no'' on the rule as a protest against the Rules Committee action in refusing to allow a minimum-wage increase amendment to be attached to this bill. I know that there are some people that say it shouldn't…