[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16562-16563]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



         QUESTIONS REGARDING APPROPRIATIONS SCHEDULE FOR TODAY

  (Mr. OBEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I just would like to make a few observations 
about the announcement just made by the gentleman from Florida (Mr. 
Young). I do not know how to describe the process we are going through, 
except that it looks to me like it was designed by Johnny 
Fumblefingers. We have no idea, Members have no idea of what is in this 
conference report. We are being--could I have some order or has all 
respect gone from that side of the aisle? Too many sore losers from the 
baseball game last night, I guess.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hayes). Does the gentleman wish to be 
recognized to gloat for 2 minutes?
  Mr. OBEY. The point I would like to make, Mr. Speaker, is simply 
this, we are being told that we are going to be voting on a legislative 
appropriations bill today, and now we are being told that when we do 
that that bill will by reference also pass another appropriation bill, 
the Treasury Postal bill, that conference report is quaint, because the 
Senate has not yet even completed action on the bill which is being 
conferenced, and in that bill, we have a variety of interesting 
provisions.
  So far as we know, there is, for instance, apparently a road in that 
bill that GSA is being asked to construct in New Mexico, despite the 
fact GSA has never constructed a road in the history of the operation. 
The funds in the bill we are told are inadequate to allow the IRS to 
meet its modernization requirements, all of the matters relating to 
Cuba and the Cuban embargo, if you come from a farm district and are 
interested in that, I do not see the gentleman from Washington (Mr. 
Nethercutt) anywhere, but my understanding is that that has been 
stripped out of the bill.
  So I would suggest that this is a most strange way to proceed. I do 
not understand why it is necessary to proceed to a conference report on 
a bill which has not yet even been considered by the other body, that 
is an incredibly irregular procedure, and I think it adds further to 
the image of this House as not knowing from one day to the next what it 
is doing.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. OBEY. I yield to the gentleman from Florida.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. I thank my friend for yielding to me, and when 
I made this announcement, I did not intend to start the debate on the 
conference report. I merely wanted to allow the Members to know where 
they could see copies of this bill, so that when we get to that debate, 
no one would have the excuse of, well, I did not have a chance to see 
the bill; that was the only purpose, not to start the debate now, but 
to tell Members where they can see copies of this conference report so 
they can vote intelligently.
  Mr. OBEY. I would simply say to the gentleman, I am not criticizing 
his statement, I am criticizing his actions.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. OBEY. I yield to the gentleman from Maryland.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.
  I would say to the gentleman from Florida (Chairman Young) for whom I 
have, as he knows, great respect and affection, and I share that as 
well for the ranking member.
  I want to tell him, with all due respect, I am the ranking member of 
the Treasury Postal bill, and I am going to have to go to the Web site 
because I have not seen the conference report. There was no conference. 
I would tell my friends, there was no conference on the Treasury Postal 
bill, whatever is in the Treasury Postal bill, we are learning 
secondhand.
  This is not the way my colleagues ought to run this House and respect 
one another as Members. This is a

[[Page 16563]]

wrong way to proceed, and we ought to reject and start back at the very 
beginning. This is not the way to treat one another. If we want 
bipartisanship, if we want to positively represent the citizens of this 
country, if we want to come to this place and be honest with one 
another, this is not the way to do it.
  I am the ranking member. I have not seen this bill, and I must go to 
the Web site to see this bill. Reject this bill.
  Mr. OBEY. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, could I ask the gentleman 
from Florida (Mr. Young) a procedural question?
  The gentleman has indicated we are going to bring up the D.C. bill, 
will we be allowed to bring that bill to final passage, or are we just 
going to debate it further without voting on final passage?
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. If the gentleman would yield, I think he knows 
that under the unanimous consent agreement that we reached yesterday 
that we are close to the end of completion of that bill. So it is 
certainly my hope that we can complete that bill and get it on to the 
Senate. That is the final appropriations bill to leave the House, and 
then we can turn our attention to the conference reports so that we can 
complete the process to send it to the White House.
  Mr. OBEY. There are rumors around here that the bill will be debated, 
but that it will not be allowed to come to final passage. Can the 
gentleman tell us that it will be allowed to come to final passage?
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. I would suggest to the gentleman that I have 
not heard that rumor.

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