House Proceeding 02-25-09 on Feb 25th, 2009 :: 0:55:25 to 1:02:30
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0:55:21 to 0:55:41( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: closer to her home, she now serves the senior senator from minnesota. in any event, we on the committee wish her god speed and thank her for her service to the body. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expire. the gentleman from wisconsin. mr. obey: did the gentleman from california yield back? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california, his

0:55:25 to 1:02:30( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: David R. Obey

0:55:42 to 0:56:03( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: time expired. mr. obey: i yield myself the remainder of the time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. obey: i hate to take the time but i do think inight of all that's been said that one last time i need to put in context what it is we're doing with this bill. as indicated

0:56:04 to 0:56:26( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: year we finished our international bills but we reached an impasse with then president bush because the president insisted that he would only sign appropriation bills that fit within his budget recommendations. those budget recommendations

0:56:27 to 0:56:49( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: were some $20 billion short of what the congres determined when it passed the budget resolution that we needed to provide for those programs. if we had simply acquiesced in president bush's program, we would have cut the job corps, we would have eliminated employment servi

0:56:50 to 0:57:11( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: would have cut senior jobs by 172 million, we would have eliminated vocational education programs, we would have eliminated three student aid programs, including the perkins loan program. we would have funded the highway infrastructure at $800 million below the level guaranteed in the authorization.

0:57:12 to 0:57:33( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: we would have cut airport modernization grants by 22%, we service block grants. and we would have cut low-income heating and energy assistance by $570 million and we would have cut health care access programs by $1 billion. as i said many times on this floor, i've never had anybody

0:57:34 to 0:57:54( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: come up to me at home and say, obey, why don't you guys in congress get your act together and cut cancer research? yet that's what the previous president and the previous republican-controlled congress did over a two-year period, they cut over 900 medical research grants out of the national institutes for health.

0:57:55 to 0:58:15( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: we objected to that and said no, we didn't think that ought to happen. so we then offered the president a compromise. i called the white house budget office, i said look, why don't we just at least split the difference between these bills so we can get something done on the domestic side of the ledger. they said no. at that point we had a choice.

0:58:16 to 0:58:39( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: we could acquiesce in these reductions or we could say, no, we're going to bet on the outcome of the election. we did, mr. obama won, we now have a white house which is firm in its beliefs but also one that recognizes that people have to compromise to get things done. this is now a compromise

0:58:40 to 0:59:00( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: package brought to the house. this has been worked out at the staff level between republican and democrats alike in both the senate and the house. and the senate minority leader, senator mcconnell, will -- i suspect he will vote against this package, urged us to take it up three weeks ago because

0:59:01 to 0:59:23( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: he indicated it had been fully vetted by both sides, by both parties and he said in his estimate he thought it would pass with an overwhelming vote. we shall see. but i want to ex things about this bill. what this bill really does, and it's been suggested that this

0:59:24 to 0:59:44( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: bill is not at all coordinated with the stimulus package we passed last week. absolutely false this omnibus bill does two things. it provides base funding for the programs funded in the recovery act, without which those additional recovery funds would not useful. example. the social security ministration, while the

0:59:45 to 1:00:06( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: recovery act provides $1 billion and the social security administration to replace its computer center and to process increased disability retirement requests, this bill provides $10.5 billion f social security operating budgets. it doesn't do any good to have an operating -- to have a computer cent fer you don't

1:00:07 to 1:00:27( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: have an operating budget this bill provides the other half of the funding that's needed to make our promises on pell grants to students around the country a reality. the recovery bill in the a of highways provided $27.5 billion for additional highway construction this bill provides

1:00:28 to 1:00:49( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: $40.7 billion to improve and repair our nation's aging highway infrastructure. the recovery bill was built with this package in mind. the second thing this bill does is to provide basic funding for all kinds of programs that were

1:00:50 to 1:01:10( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: not increased by package. three quarters of the accounts in the federal government did not receive an additional dime in that recovery package. this bill takes care of the base funding for those programs. now, we hear some concerns expressed from the other side of the aisle about the number of earmarks in the bill.

1:01:11 to 1:01:33( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: give me a break. the last time that our party controlled the house of representatives, we had, for instance, in the labor, health, education appropriation bill, depending upon how you define them either ze nine. when the republicans lost control of the congress, they

1:01:34 to 1:01:55( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: were proving over 3,000 earmarks in that subco bill. that's the story. i mean, as a practical matter, the other side didn't just let the cat out of the bag when it came to earmarks, they let out the whole blessed zoo. now we have tried to reform that process at the

1:01:56 to 1:02:17( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: being respectful for congress' right to determine how funding is directed in the budget. so we have a good many earmarks in this bill. those earmarks represent congressional decisions about where dollars ought to be spent. i would point out, virtually every agency secretary has far

1:02:18 to 1:02:31( Edit History Discussion )

David R. Obey: more in discretionary funds than the congress has to distribute in earmarks. in fact, virtually every dollar