David Obey

let me make perfectly clear to the gentleman from New York, there is nothing wrong with the rule on the military construction bill. The problem is the new budget resolution that my colleagues have slipped into it which allows them to spend…

let me simply say that the assertion of turning down this rule will deny anything to anybody in the military is absolute, total, flat nonsense. This military construction bill is going to pass with bipartisan support. The problem is that…

what needs to be understood is that this is not a rule on the military construction bill. This is a rule which allows this House to totally ignore the budget resolution that just passed 2 weeks ago on this and every another appropriation…

I simply want to make it clear, we have absolutely no criticism of the job the gentleman has done. He has simply run into an accident that started out to happen to somebody else. That is the problem here. I want to make clear that when we…

I defy him to name one year when the Democratic Party, when it was in control, brought to the floor anything but an open rule on the military construction bill.

I have great reverence for this House and great respect for the office of the Speakership. It is, after all, the third highest office in the land, and despite partisan attachment, the Speaker, as the leader of the legislative branch of…

the Republican budget claims to cut $100 billion below last year, and this amendment would add $50 billion to it. Yet I have in my hand a sheet of requests from Members to the Committee on Appropriations asking us to add 7,000 items…

Mr. Speaker, it has been said that this bill has a sense of the Congress resolution that if there is a tobacco settlement, that funds from that settlement should be used to restore benefits for veterans which are being cut in this bill. To…

I have great respect and affection for him. But I stand here today because I believe it is important to recognize that there are certain principles which are being grossly violated by this bill that should not be violated. Mr. Speaker, the…

I know the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Peterson) was thinking of attaching part of Minnesota to Canada, but I did not know it was going to be accompanied by $120 million for a highway for our Canadian friends. You will have to ask…

I intend to oppose the conference report and, if I have the opportunity, I intend to offer a motion to recommit. I do so for the following reasons: Number one, this bill is a budget buster. It is a veritable pork bonanza. It now contains…

the issue that the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Minge) raises tonight is a very simple one. It is one with which many Members on both sides of the aisle are familiar. It is an issue that dominated American politics for most of the last…

Mr. Speaker, this motion to instruct the conferees on the highway bill now pending somewhere in this Capitol is an attempt to put some limits on the pork barrel spending in BESTEA by placing a ceiling on the total number of highway…

Mr. Speaker, I wonder if the gentleman who just spoke approves of the grant to PBS that is in the highway bill? Let me simply say that I must say I find it hard not to chuckle at the observations made by my friend from Kentucky. He…

I think that there are times when it is just as legitimate for the Congress to specify that $5 million will go for a specific highway project as it is for the administration to determine that that is where the money ought to go. But I do…

I really find it incredible that the conferees are going to be bringing back a bill tomorrow which ignores virtually everything that has been promised to the country on this bill over the last month. We had a motion last night, which this…

I certainly do not know of any time in the time that I have been in this Congress when we have even contemplated reducing veterans' benefits by such a large amount, and I would hope that we see nothing like that in the bill that is being…

I believe strongly in additional funds for highway construction. I have led the fight early and often, both in the legislature and in the Congress, for a greater commitment to transportation infrastructure development and certainly to…

I do not intend to use all the time, but let me yield myself such time as I may consume to simply recount what is happening here. When this bill first came to the floor, a number of us warned at the time that if the rule was adopted for…

I will certainly be casting a ``no'' vote, and I think I owe the House an explanation. Some of the items in this bill were requested by the administration more than a year ago. This bill originally was supposed to do basically five major…

I am offering a motion to instruct to the conferees to defend what would have been considered a core Republican value when I first came to this body. When I came to this body, the Republican Party was a very strong internationalist party…

Mr. Speaker, it ought to be understood that we are not limited in debate today because of our choosing. We are limited in debate because we were denied the opportunity on the rule when this bill was considered to have a full-fledged debate…

If my colleagues believe that States can do some things better than the Federal Government, vote for Kasich. If my colleagues want highways off budget, let us really take them off budget, keep the dollars at home and vote for Kasich. There…

I personally have no problem with the action taken by the gentleman in his amendment to provide additional community development block grant assistance in the Northeast. My only problem with this amendment, again, is that I do not like the…

Let us review why we are here. We have this legislation before us today because the President determined that we had an emergency with respect to Iraq; that we have an emergency need for additional funds to support our troops in Bosnia…