David Obey

I can recall when a previous President, President Bush, asked for bipartisan help to see to it that they could in fact move events forward in the Middle East by withholding funds for the Israel loan guarantee. That was not a popular…

I would simply suggest that I do not think it is particularly constructive for individual Members of Congress to try to write a record of legislative intent when in fact the record that is being written is probably not accurate nor…

Mr. Speaker, when this bill originally left the House, I voted against it for a number of reasons. First of all, because it took money from domestic programs to pay for some of the additional Pentagon spending in the bill. Second, the bill…

I certainly recognize the value of the program that the Senate is trying to support, but it just seems to me that the worst thing one can do in a situation of tight budgets is to unfairly raise people's expectations about the ability of…

I really do not wish to draw this out. I would like to go home as much as anybody else. But in light of the statement made by the previous gentleman in the well in which he asserted in his advice to the Chair that this was a simple…

let me simply say that I am moving to strike the enacting clause to give the House an opportunity to reconsider what it is about to do on this legislation today. Everyone recognizes in this House that we need to save money. Let me…

This amendment would restore the much needed funding for veterans' health care facilities and equipment. It restores $206 million for veterans' health care and provides for an identical offset in NASA's science, aeronautics, and technology…

Mr. Chairman, I think it is critical that we restore funding for much needed VA outpatient clinics so that I will vote for this outrageous amendment. But I find it unconscionable that this amendment offsets this restored funding by making…

Why do you not tell the whole story? You asked me if I would support the rule if you made my amendments in order. I told you not if you included the other language which was being objected to by 40 Members of your own party.

Mr. Chairman, what I would like to do here is to set the stage and explain why we are here and why we are doing this today. We have heard the gentleman from Louisiana [Mr. Livingston] and a lot of our Republican friends talk to us about…

Mr. Chairman, Frank Luntz, the Republican pollster, sent a memo to the Republican party leaders. In that memo he said: ``Look, whenever you are talking about cuts for these programs, do not talk about the program because programs have…

I rise in opposition. The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Obey] is allocated 15 minutes for debate. The gentleman from Texas [Mr. DeLay] is recognized for 15 minutes. {time} 1915 Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such…

I say to my colleague: Tell the little old lady who I met in Stevens Point who was living in the house that her husband had built for her as a wedding present and who had boarded up every room in the house and was living only in the living…

Mr. Chairman, I simply want to say I think this amendment indicates just how ludicrous the proposal is which is before us. The bill recommended by the Republican majority eliminates $482 million for drug-free schools, and then it tries in…

Mr. Chairman, I guess this amendment is what I would put in the category of ``Thank You for Small Favors.'' What the subcommittee of the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Porter] originally did on this bill is to cut $5.9 billion out of…

Mr. Chairman, in light of the comments of the last speaker, I would simply note that the purpose of the Constitution is not to protect the guilty. The purpose is to protect the innocent. What we are talking about here is the power of…

I rise to support the Orton amendment. Mr. Chairman, I want to make clear from the start that the issue is not whether or not projects being built with contract authority are good ones or bad ones. That is beside the point. Some of them…

it seems to me that anybody who was here at that time ought to admit that it was a failure of both institutions, the Congress and the President. But I would make quite clear, if the gentleman would bear with me, the fact is that since the…

as Members know, what I am doing is trying to ensure that, if we are going to pass this misguided proposal, that at least we will be able to give the President the ability to reach any and all projects in the 13 appropriation bills which…

Amendment offered by Mr. Obey: At the end of section 2, add the following new subsection: (d) Special Rule for FY 1995 Appropriation Measures.-- Notwithstanding subsection (a)(2), in the case of any unobligated discretionary budget…

As I was trying to say, every single earmark, because of the fact that every single subcommittee comes to this floor under a fiscal cap, those earmarks are provided at the expense of other spending, but do not add one dime to the deficit…

it seems to me nonetheless that the record obviously is not perfect. We had to accept many ``suggestions'' from the other body, for instance. So I think if this is going to go into effect, Members ought not to be allowed to assume that…

Mr. Chairman, this issue came up in our committee meeting and at the time I indicated that I have a great deal of sympathy with the problem that was created here or the potential problem that the private sector enterprises would be put at…

Mr. Chairman, I agree with the gentleman. As he knows, we inserted language in our report this year that states that the committee is not at all pleased with the level that AID provided last year. The committee expects AID to be much more…

I cannot think of a worse signal to send the entire continent of Africa than to pass the Burton amendment pending here tonight. That amendment will gut the planned aid program to South Africa. The South African aid program has been planned…