Dave Obey

Mr. OBEY

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Hoyer].

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I have another unanimous-consent request.

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Rhode Island [Mr. Kennedy]. (Mr. KENNEDY of Rhode Island asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California [Ms. Lofgren].

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Florida [Mrs. Thurman].

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, I simply want to make certain that the comments of the gentleman from Louisiana [Mr. Livingston] did not confuse the facts. What this language does on abortion is to remove all of the limitations above last year's law, which the majority party insisted in putting into the Labor, HEW bill when that bill was before us. I am not going to argue about whether that is wise or not. But I would observe that if you vote for this tonight, you are voting to remove the limitations which you insisted on placing in that legislation just a few months ago.

Mr. OBEY

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to call up for immediate consideration House Joint Resolution 131, continuing funding for many critical Federal departments through January 29, 1996, authorizing a 2.4-percent pay raise for the Armed Forces of the United States, and waiving all points of order against such an amendment.

Mr. OBEY

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take from the Speaker's table the bill (H.R. 1643), with the Senate amendment thereto, and concur in the Senate amendment, the Dole proposal, to open the Government, and that a motion to reconsider be laid on the table.

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, the leadership on this side of the aisle has authorized me to make the motion I just did. Can we have any indication at all from the majority side as to whether or not there is any plan at all for them to allow the Dole proposal to be brought before us?

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I have a parliamentary inquiry.

Mr. OBEY

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take from the Speaker's table the bill (H.R. 1643) to authorize the extension of nondiscriminatory treatment--most-favored-nation treatment--to the products of Bulgaria, with the Senate amendment thereto, and concur in the Senate amendment, the Dole proposal to open the Government, and that a motion to reconsider be considered as laid on the table.

Mr. OBEY

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I am simply stuck here, forced to repeat much of what I said yesterday on two previous veto overrides. Nothing real is happening here today. There is no real legislation which is being pursued here today. Everybody knew the President was going to veto this bill. He made it quite clear. He indicated he was not going to sign a bill which has a huge increase in logging in the Tongass, one of the few temperate rain forests left in the world. He made it quite clear that he was not going to accept the reversal of the California Desert Protection Act, which passed last year. He made it quite clear he was not going to support other provisions, including major reductions in weatherization programs for low-income people trying to stay warm in a cold winter. But this is not about the veto. Everybody knows this veto is not going to be overridden. The only reason we are having this silly debate on the floor here today is because the majority party is trying to keep off the floor any effort to open up the entire Government. So this is a time filler. We are going to waste 2 hours on something which is going nowhere. Now, I would simply point out, in contrast to what my good friend from Ohio has said, the President did not shut down the Government. Presidents have for time immemorial vetoed legislation which they thought was out of whack. Those vetoes did not shut down the Government because previous Congresses were responsible enough to pass continuing resolutions so that the Government remained open. This Congress has refused to do that because there is a strategic decision which has been made by Mr. Gingrich and his clones. That decision has been that unless the President is going to accept their reductions in Medicare, their reductions in Medicaid, their reductions in education, and their other demands in the 7-year budget negotiations going on in another room on other subjects--unless the President is going to cave on that collection of issues, that in order to put the squeeze on the President--they are going to keep the Government closed. That is the decision that my colleagues on that side of the aisle have decided that they are going to make. They are apparently willing to take all the heat from the public that is going to be generated in order to get their way. Collectively, they are holding their breath and turning blue until the President caves. That is what is going on. Now, it seems to me that that is not what the public sent us here to do. I want to congratulate the action taken by the Senate majority leader, Senator Dole. I think that action has defined the difference between fighting for principles within a rational construct and simply behaving like nihilists, pretending that you are principled. I really believe that the only way we are going to get out of this impasse is for our moderate friends on the Republican side of the aisle to recognize that sooner or later they are going to have to make a choice between following the rational leadership of someone like Bob Dole or following the irrational leadership, in my view, of someone like Mr. Gingrich. Until my colleagues make that choice, the taxpayers are going to be stuck with the incredible spectacle of first seeing Government workers prevented from doing the work that they are being paid for and then later on seeing the spectacle of workers being required to work for which they are not getting paid. It is really an Alice-in-Wonderland world. What ought to happen is very simple. My colleagues ought to stop this 2-hour charade. They ought to bring to the floor legislation which opens up the Government and allows everyone to go back to work. But that is not going to happen. The chairman of this committee summarized several weeks ago why it is not going to happen. He held a press conference after the President signed the defense appropriations bill and then said the following: If the Government shuts down on December 15 and 300,000 people are again out of work, most of the people going out will be his people; I think he is going to care more than we do. That was said by the distinguished chairman and my good friend, the distinguished chairman of this committee, Mr. Livingston. Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, the truth of this statement has been demonstrated. It is apparent that there is very little concern on that side of the aisle for the 300,000 Government workers who are being forced into these silly circumstances, and there is very little concern for the taxpayers who have a right to get the services for which they have already paid taxes. They have a right. The Congress ought to quit this silly game. My colleagues ought to follow the lead of Senator Dole. They ought to bring up that clean continuing resolution to open the Government so that we can continue to discuss our other differences like adults, without shooting innocent people in the process. Until they face up to their responsibilities and open up the Government, that is exactly what is happening. All my colleagues are doing is shooting the innocent because of incredible arrogance that some people in this House have, the incredible arrogance to think that their political ideology is more important than the service we are supposed to provide our constituents. That is outrageous.

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I demand that the gentleman's words be taken down.

Mr. OBEY. Yes, I withdraw my objection, in light of the apology.

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I am reserving the right to object because, in my view, when a Member accuses another Member of purposely misleading the House, he owes it to the House to apologize. I will be happy to withdraw my objection if the gentleman apologizes to the gentleman from Illinois.

Mr. OBEY. No, I did not object.

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, how do I make certain that the words which are going to be read back are the words to which I was objecting? Because the words to which I was objecting were the words that indicated that the gentleman from Illinois had uttered mistruths and had known that. Those are the words that I am specifically addressing.

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, parliamentary inquiry.

Mr. OBEY

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, let me simply say, it is my understanding that rule IX of the House allows for privileged resolutions to be considered by the House when actions have been taken which affect the rights of the House collectively, its safety, its dignity, and its integrity. It seems to me that that is certainly the situation at this moment, because we have a fundamental misuse of taxpayers' money appropriated by this House. It seems to me, Mr. Speaker, that it is a fundamental misuse of taxpayers' dollars, which are appropriated by this House, when we have a situation in which workers are being paid----

Mr. OBEY. I do, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. OBEY

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, if I could ask the gentleman, then, is it correct to say this allows only the use of District funds?

Mr. OBEY. And that even if this passes, the District will not have received any Federal payment since, I believe, December 15?

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I would simply like to point out that despite all of the rhetoric that we have heard on this floor today, there are three appropriations bills which have still not even made it to the President, the first being the District of Columbia bill which we are discussing right now; the second being the Foreign Operations bill which is hung up because of differences between Republicans in the Senate and Republicans in the House on the issue of family planning and abortion; and third, the Labor, Health, Education and Social Services appropriations bill, a huge share of the Federal Government. All of those programs at this point are in limbo because we still have not had resolutions worked out between the House and the Senate. So it seems to me that there is a high degree of congressional culpability for the fact that this Government is not operating under regular appropriations bills; and it also seems to me that it comes with considerable ill grace to blame the President for the fact that he has not even been able to consider whether to veto bills, because three of them have not gotten to him yet.

Mr. OBEY. Reserving the right to object, Mr. Speaker, under my reservation of objection, I would first ask the gentleman to explain the motion before the House, before I ask a couple of questions about it.