David Obey

really in one sense, it does not matter how people vote on this resolution because it has no effect, but some things need to be said about it. Every Member here supports the troops. Every Member here applauds the sacrifices the men and…

this bill certainly is fine, as far as it goes, but the fact is that higher fines are going to do nothing to mitigate the real problem, which is the concentration of power in the hands of a limited number of large corporations that believe…

Mr. Speaker, only a few weeks after Congress eliminated the guarantee of health care under Medicare for every senior in America, just in time for the holidays we are telling every working person in this country that another guarantee is…

Mr. Speaker, this bill is a pitiful Christmas tree with such a bad smell that it smells more like a garbage truck than something appropriate to Christmas. It spectacularly insults the judgment of both the House and the Senate on a number…

Mr. Speaker, as this joint resolution demonstrates, we are in another year that simply refuses to end. Last year we did not see this Congress finish the work that was supposed to be done by October 1 until well into the winter of the next…

The problem is, as the gentleman indicated, that there are many other issues that are being drug into the appropriations process. And we also see the situation complicated by the fact that the House Republican leadership, despite votes to…

Madam Speaker, this motion is an effort to prevent this Congress from giving to the drug companies two early Christmas presents. Let me put it this way: this Congress is about to tell the drug companies that they will have carte blanche to…

Yet, through stealth maneuvers, the Republican majority, under pressure from the pharmaceutical industry and the White House, is going to close the border. They are about to say, to quote the FDA Commissioner, the FDA cannot guarantee the…

I want to stipulate that, in this instance, I think the gentleman from Ohio (Chairman Hobson) has done a wonderful job in seeing to it that the Congress addresses its institutional responsibilities in the areas under the energy and water…

I think that what the distinguished minority whip has just told the House is right on the button; and I want to emphasize, I do not believe these decisions, I do not believe that these practices, are being imposed upon the House and the…

what the previous Member said was not in any way directed at the Committee on Appropriations. The Member was pointing out in a number of the authorizing committee conferences, that Members of the minority were excluded; and I might point…

I do not believe that either the chairman of the committee, and I certainly know that the ranking Democrat on the committee is not comfortable with this process, not comfortable with the allocations that have been put forward for crucial…

I think this bill is a mixed bag. There is much in it to commend it, and I especially want to express my appreciation to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Taylor) for the way that he has fairly involved the majority and minority in…

Mr. Speaker, as everyone knows, we are supposed to have our appropriation bills done by the beginning of the fiscal year on October 1. Right now, even if we pass the Interior bill today, the bill to which the distinguished gentleman from…

Our target has never been this bill; our target has been the constraints on our committee imposed by the budget that mean that we will be providing an ever-smaller increase in funding for education at a time when we need to be providing…

I sincerely hope that by Thanksgiving there will be no need for additional CRs, but I am very skeptical that that will be the case. I am afraid that it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas. I hope that that is not true, but I suspect…

I simply want to observe, as I think the gentleman from Maryland indicated this morning, that last year when we had so many appropriation bills not passed until the next session of Congress, the cry we frequently heard on the majority side…

once again we are being asked to pass a resolution that keeps the government open because Congress has not finished its work on appropriation bills. That is not unprecedented. Many times in the past we have faced this situation. But I do…

Mr. Speaker, we are about to go to conference on a bill which spends $87 billion. It is the second installment of what will be many installment payments to deal with the consequences of the war in Iraq. This motion to instruct attempts to…

this legislation before us provides $87 billion to pay for the consequences of our war against Iraq, and the $20 billion reconstruction section provides $872 per capita aid to every single person in Iraq; 872 bucks. That is the size of…

we have previously appropriated almost $80 billion to deal with the problems in Iraq and now we are being asked to provide $87 billion more. We have had no real accounting of how that previously appropriated money has been spent, and we…

Mr. Chairman, I stand behind our men and women in uniform who are sacrificing so much for their country in Iraq. Most importantly, I want to ensure that our troops receive the resources they need. In my view, this bill underfunds the…

I do not even know what the content of most of these amendments is, but what is going on here is that the staff has been attempting to work out understandings under which a huge number of amendments can be disposed of in the most efficient…

I just must respond to the comments made about the necessity to leave maximum flexibility with the Pentagon. I would simply observe that we did that with the last $60 billion that we gave them, and that is, I guess, how we came up with…

Mr. Chairman, once you fire the bullet, you do have an obligation to clean up the mess; and that is why I certainly agree with virtually every task in Iraq that the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young) just described. I do not agree with…