David Obey

Mr. Speaker, the House will recall that when the House passed the military construction bill, it included added projects for high-priority quality-of-life projects such as barracks, child care centers, family housing, and medical…

I do support the cuts in this bill, but I do not believe that Congress ought to be exempted from the negotiating squeeze if, in fact, the entire national budget is headed for a train wreck. The President has indicated that, if we send this…

Mr. Chairman, yesterday we talked about the implications of this bill for working Americans. Today we are moving to the portion of the bill that attacks our most vulnerable citizens. This is really the second stage of a three-stage attack…

The fact remains you are cutting $9.5 billion out of education, health and job programs. It is true that a few programs managed to escape your ax. Big deal. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

the Perkins Loan Program began in 1958 in response to the Russian Sputnik program. It was part of the National Defense Education Act. I would not be here in Congress today if it were not for that National Defense Education Act. That is…

if the gentleman will look on page 1079 of the hearings, part 5, you will find absolutely no question this is a Washington-based activity.

This bill is the anti-education appropriation act of 1995, pure and simple. It cuts 18 percent out of what we appropriated just last year for Federal education programs. That means almost one out of every 5 dollars that was there a year…

By all means, cut the deficit. By all means, for the 105th time we say: ``We agree, cut duplicative programs and cut waste.'' But you cannot have it both ways. You cannot say to the American people, ``Oh, we are going to have sweeping…

Mr. Chairman, the idea behind the lockbox is that, supposedly, when savings are made on the floor in bills that are brought out of the Appropriations Committee, that that money, instead of being used for another purpose, is locked up in a…

I was most reluctant to agree to it because I think it can put them procedurally in the driver's seat, but in the end I was persuaded to accept it on two grounds.

I am of a split mind on this rule because this bill is so bad. But I guess what I would say is I would like us to pass this rule so that we can just as quickly as possible get to a vote on final passage so we can vote ``no.'' I said…

Let me point out that the language on that was specifically requested by the gentleman's party leadership.

As the gentleman knows, Will Rogers said once that when two people agree on everything, one of them is unnecessary.

I rise because of the statement just made by the last speaker to simply point out that the lockbox provision being attached to this bill is a king-size joke. All year we have tried to defend the right of Members to offer an amendment on…

Mr. Chairman, just very briefly to respond to the previous two gentlemen, I would say first to the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Porter], he suggests that our tax charts are not accurate. Is the gentleman truly suggesting that the…

I would simply say that I did not see that side of the aisle getting any double hernias trying to do heavy lifting in order to get the lockbox adopted on the rescissions bill. In fact, I saw them after they accepted the Brewster amendment…

Mr. Chairman, working people pay most of the taxes to support the activities of Government. Yet the activities of Government that are most being chopped by this bill are those that help workers, that help the children and the families of…

I know that there is a drive here to provide a great deal of de-regulation in order to provide much more freedom in this society. That may very well be legitimate, but I think we ought to ask who is going to be free, what will they be free…

Mr. Chairman, I have often had constituents ask me the following question: Why does Congress always seem to have so many riders attached to bills that have nothing whatsoever to do with what those bills are supposed to accomplish? If this…

I would also like to express appreciation to Keith Jewell for the wonderful service that he has provided this House through the years. Many a time constituents have come to the Capitol, they have come to the Capitol steps. They wanted to…

it is always risky to try to compare activities of government with activities in the private sector, especially when you are dealing with military requirements. But nonetheless, this amendment is offered to try to bring attention to the…

I simply want to say there are two things wrong in general with the budget under which the Congress is now proceeding. One of them is a lot of the items that wind up being cut, and the other thing wrong with the budget is a lot of items…

Let me simply say that I would very much like to see something worked out, as a representative of a rural area myself. My concern, however, is that I would like to avoid a repeat of what we had on the rescissions bill where we were…

Mr. Speaker, I come from a district that has a lot of farmers. I come from a district that has a lot of small towns. I also come from a district that has had direct recent experience with E. coli. In my hometown just this weekend, for…

I just heard the gentleman from California somehow talk about unionization in this effort. Is the gentlewoman aware of any effort that she knows of to unionize birds?