David Obey

the issue here is not Planned Parenthood. The issue is whether women have a right to have full access to family planning. State health departments run 57 percent of the clinics that receive Title X funds. Planned Parenthood affiliates…

Then, what I would simply like to say, Madam Chairman, is that this bill is the product of 5 months work on both sides of the aisle by some very dedicated people. Mr. Walsh is the new ranking member on the subcommittee, but he has…

I would like to again simply walk us through what this cut means in specific terms. This amendment would cut $257 million from the President's No Child Left Behind education flagship program. It would cut $144 million from title I, denying…

I just want to get a few things off my chest with regard to this earmarking issue. I know that policy questions are complicated, and I know that budget questions are complicated. I recognize, therefore, that substantial members of the…

this amendment is not related to abortion. This amendment is a frontal assault on family planning. Make no mistake about it. Whether you are pro-life or whether you are pro-choice or anything in between, you ought to be pro-family…

I wonder how any of us would like to have our future decided by people we have never met or never even seen on the basis of those people having a 10-minute conversation without our being present. I don't think any of us would like that…

But let me simply say, Madam Chairman, these cuts, these will be cuts in terms of the services that we are trying to provide to these people. It is immoral. It is unconscionable that we allow 44 million Americans to go without health…

Yes, this bill spends $10 billion more on our kids, on our workers, on our obligation to provide access to health care to people who don't have it, than the President does. I plead fully double guilty. I would do twice as much if I could…

What we have going on here, in my judgment, is Operation Diversion. You have a bunch of people in this House who are perfectly comfortable with the fact that the tax policies that they have voted for will deliver $57 billion in tax cuts…

I can't believe my ears. I just thought I heard the gentleman say that IDEA was underfunded. I'm shocked. I've never heard the gentleman say that anything was underfunded before.

if you think that there is too much education in this country, then vote for this amendment. If you think that we could use more help to people trying to get an education, then you vote against it. I think that the only thing wrong with…

we have not had enough time to analyze the most recent version of this amendment. Its apparent innocuousness, frankly, raises my suspicions. It would appear to enforce current law for eligibility to enroll in benefits. But for this to be…

this is I guess what I would call a put up or shut up amendment for the House. It is difficult for the press to cover budget stories because they are complicated. It is difficult for the press to cover stories about policy because they are…

as you know, I have been less than enthusiastic about virtually every amendment offered here today, but this is one exception. I want to congratulate the dean of the House. He has been a lion for all of the years he has been here in…

Let me simply say that we sort of feel like we're caught in the middle of this one because Mr. Lewis, the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, gave us a lecture yesterday about how we should avoid duplicative programs. Then…

the amendment offered would not permit the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services or the Social Security Administration to pay a bonus or performance-based cash awards to Presidential appointees who are not eligible for bonuses, or to…

Since its inception in 1935, the National Labor Relations Act has permitted workers to unionize and their union representatives to be recognized by obtaining signatures in support from a majority of workers to be represented. Many large…

Drone on, drone on, O ship of State. That's what I'm tempted to recite when I hear these repetitious dronings on bill after bill after bill. Let me simply say, I think it is legitimate for individual Members of this body to offer…

let me simply say again, as I have several times today, I am sympathetic to the goal of the gentlewoman's amendment, and I appreciate the fact that she did not craft her amendment in a way which would go after general departmental…

This amendment seeks to do a very worthy thing: It seeks to increase support for respite care. God knows, having watched my mother-in-law for 7 years, having watched my father-in-law take care of her every day, God knows that anyone who…

let me simply say that I have only been to Alaska once in my life. I have certainly never been in an Alaskan school. But my grandfather taught me a long time ago, and I'm sure you have heard this many times in your own lives, but he used…

I wonder if anybody remembers these words: ``Whatsoever you do for the least of your brethren, you do for Me.'' I wonder if anybody remembers those words? This amendment is truly amazing to me. This amendment is offered by a Member of the…

I have concluded that we ought to call them the congressional rubber-stamp amendments, because what is happening is we are seeing amendment after amendment offered that would simply return these funding levels to the exact level…

It will give total authority to the executive branch, and that is not a healthy thing.

The purpose of the Energy Employee Occupational Illness Compensation Program is to fairly compensate our Nation's former nuclear workers for illnesses they contracted while serving our country. Former Department of Energy employees who are…