Dave Obey

Mr. OBEY

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I withdraw my reservation of objection.

Mr. OBEY. Merry Christmas.

Mr. OBEY. I yield to the gentleman from Florida.

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, further reserving the right to object, let me simply take 10 seconds to thank the staff on both sides of the aisle for all of the work that they have done. Even when that work sometimes produces turkeys as a result, it is not the fault of the staff; it is at the direction of the politicians themselves.

Mr. OBEY. So it is purely technical?

Mr. OBEY. Further reserving the right to object, would the gentleman explain the amendment that strikes November 23 and inserts November 18?

Mr. OBEY. I yield to the gentleman from Florida.

Mr. OBEY

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, in this bill, for instance, they have decided now that they are going to declare Head Start to be an emergency. It has only been on the books since 1965. I guess we just found out that it is an emergency to deal with these kids. What they are really saying is they have a political emergency that requires them to hide the real cost of this bill from their taxpayers. That is the real emergency designation that is going on here. Then they move about $4.2 billion in outlays into different years. That saves no money. It simply hides money. They have miscellaneous spending, accounting gimmicks all told of $45 billion on the outlays side, and $43 billion on the budget authority side. If my colleagues want to go home and explain to their constituents that kind of hide- and-seek attention to fiscal affairs, be my guest. That is not my flavor of ice cream. Let me make one other comment, Mr. Speaker. One of the reasons that I have been so unhappy with this bill, as I said earlier, is that it stands over 1 foot high. I defy anyone to tell me, and I have a ruler to prove it, I defy any of my Republican colleagues, I defy any of my Republican colleagues to tell me what is in these authorization bills that they are asking us to swallow. How much are we going to hear? How much are the reporters in the gallery going to dig out after we have left that we do not know about? I am afraid, a lot. But I have to say that what bothers me more than anything is that these accounting gimmicks may appear to be funny, but in fact, they are not funny at all. I would not laugh too long, because what we are witnessing here is something that is immensely corrosive of democracy and this institution's role in democracy. Mr. Speaker, the primary job that the Congress has each year is to pass a budget. If we cannot be honest with the American people about what we are doing in that budget, I think they have a right to question whether we are being honest with them on anything that we say to them. And the fact is that the list of accounting shell games that are in this bill, not for policy reasons, but for political reasons, I think brings discredit on the entire institution. That is because I guess we are determined to live under a fiction that requires us to pretend that we are spending billions of dollars less than we are actually spending. Frankly, a lot of this spending is perfectly justifiable. I think that the Republican educational priorities are good. I support them as well as our own. But I do not like the fact that we are hiding what we are doing in the process. I will have more to say about this along the line. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Roemer). (Mr. ROEMER asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from North Carolina (Mrs. Clayton).

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton).

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the remainder of the time. Mr. Speaker, as I understand it section 1001 of the omnibus bill effectively waives the pay-as-you-go rules for all of the authorizing legislation included in the omnibus package. It also effectively, as I understand it, waives the pay-as-you-go rules for the outyear effects of other legislation passed this legislation. I would like to ask the leadership of this House why these rules are being waived and how much spending is not being counted as a result of that? We have seen no CBO scoring on the omnibus package. Can anyone tell us the amount of spending covered by these budget waivers? I would also ask why Members' pay was exempted from this across-the- board cut when it was included in the previous across-the-board cut that was made? I think those are but some of the questions that Members ought to be asking before they vote on the budget that is coming at us later this afternoon. I would also say, Mr. Speaker, I regret the time that we have taken but I think every hour that we spend gives Members an additional opportunity to understand what is in these bills, and I think in the end that serves the interest both of every Member and the taxpayers that they are trying to represent. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I offer a motion to recommit.

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, under these circumstances, regrettably I am.

Mr. OBEY

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Gephardt), the honorable minority leader. (Mr. GEPHARDT asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bonior), the distinguished minority whip.

Mr. OBEY

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. OBEY

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. OBEY

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. OBEY

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, first of all, before I begin, I simply want to say something about two people. I would like to say that the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young) is one of the most decent human beings I have ever dealt with in the over 30 years I have been a Member of this House. He and I do not share the same political philosophy on many, many issues; and he and I have different institutional responsibilities. We try to meet our institutional responsibilities to this House as one. Mr. Speaker, I want to say with all the sincerity at my command that the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young), in the way that he deals honorably with each and every other Member of this House, is the way every Member of this place ought to deal with each and every Member. I know that if the gentleman promises me something, he will stick to it. And I know that he will do the best job that he can to deal with the concerns of each and every Member of this House. I also want to say that with respect to his counterpart in the other body, Senator Stevens, Senator Stevens and I are both known for our placid temperaments. I simply want to say that I regard Senator Stevens as one of the easiest people to deal with. Not because he is easy in negotiations; he is hard as nails. But one always knows where he is coming from, and he plays it straight; and I, again, appreciate that very much. Mr. Speaker, I want to explain why I called the last motion, and why I will be calling a number of other motions today. I think there are certain requirements that this House ought to meet in dealing with the most basic responsibility it has each year, which is to pass the budget for the coming year. Budgets are not just numbers. They define our priorities. They indicate our values. The budget is the primary document by which Congress tries to influence the future direction of this country. We owe it to the country to consider that budget in a serious, thoughtful, fair-minded and honest way. We are not going to do that today. The gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young) indicated that this rule was put to bed at almost 4 o'clock this morning. It looks like it. I saw Arianna Huffington, again a person with whom I do not share much in common philosophically, but I saw her on a television program on women's issues a few nights ago; and she observed that she was very concerned about politicians who would brag about the fact that they were up until 4 o'clock in the morning making decisions. She said, ``I do not trust any decision that is made at 4 o'clock in the morning,'' and I think she is largely right. My problem, and I have numerous problems with this bill and I will explain more of them in detail when we get to the actual appropriation vehicle later on today or tomorrow, but the fact is that there are two problems that I have that override all others. First of all, we have at least nine separate authorization measures which are being folded into this bill. One of them, a more than 300-page authorization bill which is yet to be conferenced, and yet it is being thrown in here. I defy my colleagues to tell me what is in it, and I urge my colleagues to remember that we will probably be, long after this bill is done, we will be trying to find out what is in it. There are nine separate authorizations. I believe instead of having only 1 hour to debate all of those authorizations, plus the budgetary decisions that were made here in the bill before us today, I believe each of those authorizations should be pulled out of the bill. They should be debated separately and sequentially for at least an hour before we vote on each and every one of them. Secondly, I think we should have had 24 hours to understand what is in this bill. We are going to be haunted by a number of things that are in this bill. Mr. Speaker, among the authorizations that are added to this bill are the Medicare, Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance program, which I probably favor. But I think we ought to know more about how they are being put together. Second, we have the Admiral James W. Nance and Meg Donovan Foreign Relations Authorizations Act. I do not have the foggiest idea what is in that and neither does anybody else on the floor. We have H.R. 3428, which brings several dairy authorization measures to this floor, including the Northeast Compact. That compact was slipped into the law in the first place several years ago without ever having been voted on by either body. It was slipped in by the Senate, and now we are again slipping it in without it ever having been considered by either body. I think that is illegitimate. The Intellectual Property and Communications Omnibus Reform Act. That is the satellite bill. I understand, coming from a rural area, the loan guarantees that are useful in rural areas have been taken out of that bill. I understand there are also patents and trademark items in that bill. I think we ought to know more about that. We have the Superfund Recycling Equity Act. This bill reminds me of what Churchill said about Russia, ``A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.'' We do not have any idea what that bill is really going to do in the fine print. Then we have the Canyon Ferry Reservoir provisions, and international debt relief (again which I favor); but I am concerned, very, very concerned, about one section of that bill, which I think may not in fact deliver what it appears to promise. Then we have a number of private bills which have been attached, one of which I think I would favor and the other which I am concerned about because it only includes a few people out of a much broader class that ought to be included in the kind of relief contemplated by that bill that is going to be given. In my view, every time I make a motion which requires a rollcall before we can proceed to the next stage, that gives Members more time to find out what is in this bill before they actually cast the most important vote of the session. That is why I intend to make numerous motions today, and I most definitely would not count on being out of here by 4 p.m. or 5 p.m., or maybe even today. Announcement by the Speaker pro tempore

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I move to reconsider the vote just taken.

Mr. OBEY. Yes, I did. Motion to Table Offered by Mr. Goss