House Proceeding 07-24-09 on Jul 24th, 2009 :: 0:46:35 to 0:54:00
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0:46:31 to 0:46:52( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: needs to be done in this area, i'm looking forward to with the chairman -- chairman on this bill next year and hieve those levels. balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman 23r wisconsin. -- the gentleman from wisconsin. mr. obey: did the gentleman yield back? the chair: the gentleman from

0:46:35 to 0:54:00( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: David R. Obey

0:46:53 to 0:47:14( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: kansas yielded back. mr. obey: i recognize myself for the remainder of the time. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. obey: mr. chairman, before i get into the specifics of the bill, i would like to take a couple of minutes to respond to some of the criticisms that process by which this bill has come to the floor.

0:47:15 to 0:47:37( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: much has been made of the fact that this bill did not come to the floor under an open rule. there's nothing really new about that. at least 25 occasions during the republican control of this house appropriation bills came to the floor without being under an open rule. but i want to specifically

0:47:38 to 0:48:00( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: address the so-called outrage that has occurred by our supposedly denying republican amendments the right to get a vote. republican members of the house offered 14 amendments. they filed 14 amendments at the rules committee. four of those amendments were

0:48:01 to 0:48:23( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: not in order u a point of order could have been lodged against all of them, so they were out. three more were on subjects that belong in the health care debate, the health care reform debate, which is now working

0:48:24 to 0:48:44( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: its way through congress. i think that people on the other side of the aisle mistook me for henry waxman. i don't think henry would want to look like me. i don't think i look like him. somehow there's confusion, and so our republican friends have brought a number of amendments,

0:48:45 to 0:49:06( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: three of them, to this bill on subjects such as forbidding us from having a public option in the health care reform bill. that's not under the jurisdiction of this committee. all we would do was add to the confusion. so those amendments were rejected by the rules committee. then, our republican friends

0:49:07 to 0:49:27( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: offered another amendment which dealt with the issue of indirect student loans, whether that program should expire or not. that is an issue which was decided by the education and labor committee earlier this week.

0:49:34 to 0:49:55( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: it is an authorization issue, not an appropriation issue, so it's decided on that bill. so that takes us from the republicans' 14 initial amendments down to five amendments. we made in order four of those five amendments. the one amendment that we did not make in order that was remaing was an amendment that would have added $1 billion to a program that we already added $12 billion to last year -- i

0:49:56 to 0:50:17( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: mean, earlier this year in the recovery package. we put $12 blion in increases into special education. in the 12 years that the republicans controlled this bait in total they only added

0:50:18 to 0:50:39( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: $8.5 billion to that program. so we point of order money into that program -- so we poured money into that program, and given competition on the part of all other programs for taxpayers' money, i think the rules committee jfblely felt that that -- justifiably felt that that amendment was a little outlandish so we didn't vote on it.

0:50:40 to 0:51:00( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: now if people want to make a federal case out of that history, be my guest. the second thing we heard today was considerable bashing in addition to bashing of the majority party in the house, we've heard considerable bashing of president obama. in terms of the bashing of the majority, we were told a bitterlyier by one of the

0:51:01 to 0:51:21( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: speakers over there that we had been partisan in the full committee and had rejected every republican amendment. that's nonsense. we accepted 57 republican amendments on all of the appropriation bills that went through the committee this year. i hardly think that that is being partisan.

0:51:22 to 0:51:42( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: i would also point out that the bailout, which has been so roundly denounced by several speakers today, that bailout was originally proposed and asked for by president bush. it was voted down the first time in this house. it was voted up the second time after credit markets further

0:51:43 to 0:52:06( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: collapsed, and both mr. obama and mr. mccain in an act of patriotism rose above their partisan or political or electoral interests and supported president that issue, even though he was unpopular. enough said on that score. i would also say that for those

0:52:10 to 0:52:30( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: who are screaming about the president's economic recovery efforts, the president has been in office a very few short months. the recovery act passed less than five months ago. it is designed to be a 30-month program to try to limit to some

0:52:31 to 0:52:51( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: degree the job loss in this economy. we were losing 700,000 jobs a month in the last three months of the bush administration. we've now seen that -- that job loss decline to about 400,000 jobs a month. that's not good enough in anybody's eyes, but it is a

0:52:52 to 0:53:12( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: whole lot better than what was happening last year, and it's going to take frankly a long time to repair the damage done by eight years of previous govenment policy. so i would prefer to set those issues aside. i don't think it's particularly productive to engage in

0:53:13 to 0:53:33( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: partisan bashing. i should -- i should correct one statement that i made. i said that we'd accept the 57 amendments in committee. we accepted 257 amendments in committee and on the floor -- 57 amendments in committee and on the floor, let me correct that statement. having gotten rid of that underbrush, i'd like to now turn to what is in this bill

0:53:34 to 0:53:54( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: and why i believe the house ought to support it. as i said earlier, this government, both under president bush and under president obama, lot of money into what i would call the elite sectors of the committee, the financial sectors of the committee, the

0:53:55 to 0:54:01( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: banking system,est and wall street -- etc., and wall street and now this bill is the main