David Obey

I hope the House will forgive my laryngitis today. Madam Speaker, I have just heard complaints from the minority side of the aisle about the process by which this proposal is being brought to us. This criticism about process comes from the…

following is an explanation of the amendments of the House of Representatives (relating to supplemental appropriations for fiscal years 2008 and 2009) to the amendment of the Senate to H.R. 2642, the Military Construction and Veterans…

I think those GIs recognize this is supposed to be a seamless society. We're supposed to help take care of the people who are in the most trouble, and I don't apologize for using some of the money that we use for veterans benefits. I don't…

Let me simply say this bill is intended to increase the small business set-aside for these research programs. That does no harm for a large agency whose budget has been rising, such as the Department of Defense, but it can do immeasurable…

I was here for those secret sessions. And I think the great utility of having another one, given the mumbo jumbo that I heard at the last three, is simply to demonstrate the almost total uselessness of secret sessions.

to listen to the last two speakers, one would think that they had Rip Van Winkled their way through the last year in this House. For the Republican Party leadership to belatedly give us lectures on earmarks is, in my view, akin to reformed…

I simply want to express my profound thanks to him for the service he has given the House in general and most specifically the service he has given to the Appropriations Committee. We hate to see him leave, but sometimes even the best of…

The last people I will take any lectures from on earmarking are my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. The last time I chaired the Labor-Health-Education appropriation bill, there were no earmarks. In the last year of the Republican…

But let me simply take this time to bring to the House's attention the fact that Frank Cushing, who is a 23-year Hill veteran, is leaving the Congress at the end of this term. Frank has served as the staff director for the Republican…

even though it's not Halloween, I'm concerned that some Members may be seeing ghosts. So I simply want to say that the gentleman from Florida raised concerns that because this is an amendment between the houses that we might not be fully…

As I said on the floor last week, in November I believe the American people sent two messages to this body and to the White House. Number one, they wanted a change in policy in Iraq; and, number two, they wanted a change in domestic…

I'd like to make a few observations about the White House comments on this bill, because we are told that the White House intends to veto this bill. Let me point out some facts about this bill. This bill spends about $105 billion, all…

the last person in the world I will take lectures from on the appropriations process is the gentleman from California. The fact is that when he was the chairman of the Appropriations Committee last year, they never bothered to send any…

everyone knows that I have a great deal of affection for the gentleman from Florida. I think he makes as good an argument for a bad case as you can possibly find. Let me simply say that this recommittal motion is very easy to understand…

Mr. Speaker, we have heard significant discussion tonight about al Qaeda. And people seem to think that Iraq, the Iraq war was necessary in order to tackle al Qaeda. Well, that's backwards. I can recall being out at CIA headquarters after…

The fact is that they never bothered to send a dime to the needy veterans of the country. And so it was only after the Democrats took control of the House that we added $3.4 billion to the veterans health care budget and sent it to the…

Mr. Speaker, we hear so many voices in this country and in this Chamber who are willing to fight to the last drop of someone else's blood. Those of us who are supporting this resolution today are being accused of being for 'precipitous…

Now that I have the boilerplate out of the way, Madam Speaker, let me simply make a very few observations. Madam Speaker, it is now "put-up or shut up" time in the House. This is a bipartisan bill. When the bill first passed the House, we…

The fact is that last November the public sent two messages to Washington. The first is that they wanted a change in Iraqi policy and the second is that they wanted a change in priorities here at home. The President has decided to stiff…

Let me state once more that I find somewhat disingenuous concerns expressed about the so-called delay that this process will provide for veterans health care. I would like to know where that same concern was when last year the now-minority…

Are you saying that it didn't make sense when your party did what we are doing today 56 times? Is that what you are saying?

Let me simply recite a few facts. If we take a look at the past history to see how these bills have been handled in the past, the gentleman talks about having a separate military construction bill. The fact is, over the last 5 years, when…

We often see politicians try to wrap themselves in the flag, and we often try to see politicians pose for holy pictures every time the issue of veterans comes up. And America's very good at saluting veterans and playing the band when they…

I simply cannot believe that Paul is gone. I first got to know him when we both served on a task force to rewrite the code of ethics in the nineties. That was not an easy job. Paul's performance was solid. It was thoughtful. In all the…

let me simply say that of all people, the gentleman who just spoke is way off base when he cries about being denied an opportunity to deal with an amendment. It was his amendment for $50,000 that this House debated for 4 hours without…