let us pray lord god we thank you for giving us the means to govern ourselves as free people keep us ever mindful of the rights and liberties which how our li watch over and protect all those who serve to defend them we pray especially for our representatives who serve in this chamber in doubt them with your wisdom to choose the issues we must face give them the courage and strength to make the difficult decisions fill them with your charity that they may enter into a spirit of compromise give them the grace to work for the higher good in their deliberations with other bodies in all their efforts may they remember both the rich and the poor whom they are called to serve or shield them from the temptations of chair is exam the journal of the last day's proceedings and announces to the house her approval thereof pursuant to clause a wonderful one the journal stands approved the pledge of allegiance will be read by the  but that objection the gentlewoman from pennsylvania congressman shorts is recognized for one minute thank you madam speaker it's my pleasure to a welcome reverend martin levin good and to thank him for the prayer he just delivered and to welcome his family and many residents of the evangelical manner who are here today reverend lavin good as a long and honorable history of service to the community prior to being ordained in one thousand nine hundred one reading love and good taught high school english in new york shortly after his ordination he studied in jerusalem as a for as a first roberta a rude scholar for jewish christian studies after his experience in israel the reverend returned to the united states and became active in prison ministry while serving in parishes in new york and indiana in two thousand and three reverend levin good move to philadelphia where he became the chaplain the university of pennsylvania hospital while working there he developed an interest in ministering to people of all ages especially the elderly this interest led him to his current position as chaplain the wellesley even jellicoe living at even jellicoe manor in philadelphia where he is honored he says to serve members of the world war two generation i commend reverend levin good for his service to seniors for taking time to come to washington and offering his prayer before the house of representatives and i yield back thank you the chair will entertain up to ten further one minute speeches on each side of the aisle gentleman from jail who who wishes to be recognized here rec nies is the gentleman from maryland with that objection today to salute the house of representatives for passing h r nine eighty the public safety employer employee cooperation act of two thousand and seven now more than ever public safety employees are being stretch capacity with the deployment of our national guard to iraq our local communities are being asked to respond to emergencies with often depleted resources and manpower our local first responders represent the highest in public service by providing them with collective bargaining rights we can help these patriotic men and women secure adequate equipment ensure workplace safety and promote paying benefits that will allow us to recruit the best and brightest to these important professions this legislation represents an effort to put words into action madam speaker our nation's firefighters police officers and e m f personnel do right by the american people every day keeping our families and communities safe it is high time that we honor their service by in acting this legislation and providing them with the federal resources they need to do their but not objection mr speaker i rise today to congratulate shaw farms on their two hundredth anniversary shaw farms located along state route one thirty one in miami township clermont county ohio is home to the region's finest summertime produce it is best known for its sweet corn tomatoes melons beans squash and cucumbers shaw farms began on operating during the tenure of thomas jefferson think about that the tenure of thomas jefferson and has continually operated as a family farm since eighteen zero seven it is one of the oldest family farms in ohio today the family farm is run by jerry and gene shaw with the help of their children and grandchildren through the hard work of the shaw family much of greater cincinnati relies on them for their produce summertime produce is not the only thing the shaw family is known for each october thousands of visitors including many eager schoolchildren come to the family's fall festival which is known for its pumpkins hayrides and farm animals this weekend the shofar hosting a bicentennial bash to help celebrate their amazing accomplishment in the spirit of the shaw family they have invited everyone in the area to enjoy their success of course many of the items for which they are well known will be on their menu the shaw family's fresh for approaches and family entertainment is truly an asset to all the communities in southern ohio mr speaker please join me in wishing the shaw farms a happy two hundredth anniversary continued success and let's wish him at least two hundred more years in ohio thank you thank you for what purpose an agreement to discuss the resolution the bill that this house has already passed similar one today in the war in iraq to redeploy our troops and bring our troops home this house on several occasions has passed bills with benchmarks to respond to the american people's wishes and in this horrific war the senate hasn't been able to do it because they need sixty votes to avoid a filibuster that's what they have going on now and that's the problem mr speaker or is the procedures in the senate that's why we're still in th a war where the prime minister of iraq has said he can provide for the security of his country by january the first need does not need our troops mr speaker i would suggest that emily post rule should be invoked when you're a visitor and your host says you're no longer needed and no longer wanted you pack your bags and you go home i would advise the president mr speaker to listen emily post and be a good visitor and bring our troops mr speaker yesterday morning the national intelligence estimate report was released outlining threats to the united states over the next several years and i'm grateful that cent september the eleventh counterterrorism efforts have stop terrorists from additional attacks on american soil the report confirms that the threat to america is real and our qaida has intensified efforts to attack the united states and i appreciate the brave men and women worldwide in the fight in the global war on terrorism so that we do not face another attack here at home they are fighting to protect american families and their presence in iraq and afghanistan as vital to this effort which al qaida has a den of hide as the central front the report reiterates the threat to united states and the significance of our mission in iraq we must remain on the authentic everywhere and remember that the threat to nation is real al qaida is like a cancer which must be stopped at all sources or it will spread in conclusion god bless our troops never forget september the eleventh for what purposes the gentleman from tenth kentucky rise without objection mr speaker by overwhelming majorities the american people are demanding a change of course in iraq after five years of a failed bush administration strategy to bring peace and stability to iraq the american people are fed up with a way that is jeopardizing our national security our military strength and our nation's fiscal future the american people no longer listen to the president when he says the situation in iraq is improving and they receive more proof last week that the president's new way forward strategy the so called surge is only inflaming iraq's civil war casualties among u s forces of surged and the political process in iraq has halted the president's policy has produced few results on the ground and yet he is asking both the american people and the congress for more time mr speaker president bush has said for years to make his policy work and the situation is not getting any better it's time that we get back to fighting the real global war on terror so that al qaeda does not continue to gain strength in afghanistan and pakistan the senate speaker news from the war in iraq the iraqi interim assessment report of progress states that sectarian murders in baghdad down from what they were in january many iraqis are now coming forward with information to help root out terrorists from their hiding places on the local level citizens are forming neighborhood watch groups and young iraqis are joining the army and the police forces measured progress continues in iraq the surge strategy has only recently big been completely implemented and it seems that we are seeing positive signs a policy of surrender and failure in securing iraq would hold catastrophic consequences for the united states and the iraqi people we should be focus don't victory not pandering to the peace a price crowd those who want retreat defeat and withdrawal law in the midst of this battle for iraq have yet to understand that there are consequences for appeasement and they are bad for the united states in the iraqi people retreat will not bring victory and it will never bring peace and that's just the way it is i yield back for what purpose does the gentleman from new hampshire rise without objection thank you mr speaker mr speaker the set it was in session all night long because senate republicans refused to allow a fair up or down vote on an amendment that would redeploy our troops by april of next year today senate democrats want to vote on an amendment offered by senators levin and reid but republicans are using the filibuster to prevent a fair majority vote to senate republicans really want to obstruct the process on the most critical issue of our time the american people are demanding change in iraq and while a majority of senate republicans refuse to listen nearly a dozen republicans have said the administration must change its strategy in iraq these republicans need to realize that their words are important but they will only have meaning if they choose to act and support the levin reid amendment we all know that president bush has no intention of making any changes in his war policy and so it is up to congress to force that change which is why last night's all night debate in the senate was so important let's hope wayward senate republicans are finally listening thank you mr speaker for what purpose does the gentleman from missouri rise was without objection mr speaker some years ago those story was told about the mean spirited old grinch who tried to steal the joy of christmas well it's not christmas but you might as well almost think it was a christmas present when you take a look at the american economy that's been strengthened by the tax cuts of a number of years ago this boom that the republicans set in place has added forty six months of straight growth in job creation the unemployment rate is at a very low four point five percent the dow has just made all kinds of records at crossing the fourteen thousand mark and the deficit has been cut in half in the face of this good news the democrats of passed three hundred ninety two billion dollar tax increase the biggest tax increase in the history of our country and just like the grinch the democrats seem to be wanting to steal our economic joy we must not allow the democrats to steal the joy of the american families for what purposes the gentleman from kentucky rise without objection mr speaker i rise today to talk about problems that have arisen on the border between egypt and gaza since the hamas military took over all power in gaza there's been a massive smuggling of arms in the gaza long the border with egypt often by the use of tunnels that are proliferating along the border the egyptian government has made efforts to curb the smuggling by closing the border between their country and gaza and by assigning more security personnel to patrol the border however the border remains porous in many areas and weapons continue to find their way across the border and into the hands of hamas fighters with fears of refugees pouring into egypt from gaza and fears that hamas will escalate its attack on israel the situation has become both a security and humanitarian concern egypt has vowed to partner with israel the united states and the european union to work to the solution while part of the solution will be in immediate increases in security forces at the border a long term solution is also needed egypt must take responsibility for the actions of its own people and israel must support egypt's good faith efforts hope that we can come to some resolution of this problem thanks for what purpose does the gentleman from michigan arise one without objection mr speaker today is national ride your motorcycle to work day and just a few minutes ago i probably rode my harley davidson road king to the steps of the capitol building motorcycle riding has been a passion of mine for many years since my twentieth birthday and a proud member of the american motorcyclists association i am as well as the harley owners group i can attest that responsible writing has many unique recreational benefits for millions of americans during this session of congress were looking for ways to break our dependence upon foreign oil develop alternative fuels and increase domestic conservation motorcycles are excellent alternatives to current forms transportation because they offer both fuel efficiency and greater enjoyment for the commuter i encourage all americans to learn more about the recreational and environmental benefits of responsible motorcycle riding by visiting american motorcyclists association website and availing themselves of the motorcycle rider safety training program i yield back general from georgia without objection didn't duster elaborate rose above fourteen thousand for the first time ever what a proud moment for all of us for many of us it's not a surprise this strong economy is a direct result of the pro growth republican policies that we're fighting for every day on this floor the sign of continued and growing investor confidence and it shows that when taxes are low and americans choose how and where to spend more of their money they will choose to invest in america and make a stronger this isn't a victory for wall street or for big business so a victory for americans over half of all americans are invested in the stock market more and more americans want to participate in the strong and growing economy so they need a federal government that respects those wishes not one that will raise their taxes to pay for out of control spending let's keep this economy on the right track let's rein in spending let's focus on growing our economy rather than washington's bureaucracy that's what americans want for what purposes the gentlewoman from michigan rise one minute without objection remark thank you mr speaker the democratic leadership in both this house and the united states senate have made a conscious decision to bankrupt the domestic united states auto industry by forcing an antiquated cafe standard on them and i just want to remind my colleagues what this industry has meant to america over one hundred years ago henry ford built the model t which brought automobiles to the masses created opportunities that created america's middle class and fundamentally changed our nation during world war two michigan was known as the arsenal of democracy because we had the manufacturing capability to build the armament that literally lead the world to peace for two years we didn't even build on will be able because we were building tanks and jeeps and b twenty four bombers and as we surrender our manufacturing capabilities to japan and china we better hope that we never need the ability again to build armaments because we will be at the mercy of these foreign countries after nine eleven when everyone was concerned that our economy would go into a tailspin the american automobile industry the domestic auto industry off with zero interest financing which as g m said kept the america rolling i will never apologize for defending the domestic auto industry again the democratic leadership i yield back for what purpose does the gentlewoman from minnesota rise ri without objection thank you mr speaker mr speaker the minnesota red balls are not an energy drink but let me tell you about whatever amazing energy force they have been for our freedom in united states they are now returning home from the longest continuous deployment of any u s military unit during operation iraqi freedom the red balls hail from the first brigade the thirty fourth infantry division of the minnesota national guard based in bloomington minnesota mr speaker these men and women are true citizen soldiers they have put service to their country ahead of their family of their friends of their careers since september of two thousand and five during their deployment let me tell you what the red bulls have done for our country mr speaker they completed fifty two hundred comeback logistical plan and they secured two thousand two point four million convoy miles and they discovered four hundred sixty two improvise id explosive devices prior to detonation in addition they completed seventeen reconstruction projects and helped start two iraqi newspapers for the local population that covered stories on these reconstruction projects on behalf of a grateful nation and a free world we welcome back the minnesota red balls and we thank you as the gentleman from washington rise wrestles for one minute buys spindler without objection mr speaker as the house continues its consideration of the labor h h s appropriations bill today are urge all my colleagues to support funding for the children's hospital graduate medical education program even though this amount is lower than the amount has suggested by some of us in the hundred ninth congress the three hundred seven million dollar allers in this appropriation bill will go to training and educating graduate medical students who will help our children at our children's hospitals across this nation especially close to my heart is my god son kyle who is eighteen months old was diagnosed with cancer and for the last twelve years has survived and has been helped in aided by these graduate medical students so i urge my colleagues please support this bill it's so critical to the to the health of our children thank you for your back pursuant to house resolution five forty seven and rule eighteen the chair declares the house in the committee of the whole house on the state of the union for the further consideration of h r thirty forty three which the clerk a report by title a bill making appropriations for the departments of labor health and human services and education and related agencies for the fiscal year ending september thirtieth two thousand and eight and for other purposes when the committee of the whole house on tuesday july seventeenth two thousand and seven amendment number five printed in the congressional record by the gentleman from texas mr sessions had been disposed of and the bill had been read three pages page forty two line twenty one what purpose is this gentleman from missouri rise madam chairman i have an member at the desk the clerk reports the m m s amendment offered by mr graves of missouri page forty two line twelve after the dollar amount insert reduced by one hundred twenty five million dollars page forty two line thirteen after the dollar amount insert reduced by one hundred twenty five million dollars page eighty four in line twenty four after the dollar amount in turn increased by one hundred twenty five million dollars the gentleman's missouri is recognized for five minutes thank you madam chairman ben and chairman let me begin by thanking the chairman and ranking member of the appropriations committee for working together in a true bipartisan fashion to begin providing a long overdue downpayment to special education funding in particular i want to thank ranking member wallace for his amendment committee to provide three hundred thirty five million dollar increase in special education funding fiscal year two thousand and eight when the end of the individuals with disabilities act was signed into law more than thirty years ago the federal government committed to pay the state's forty percent of costs of proof providing services to students covered under this act however for three decades the federal government has often provided less than half the money promised what's the shortfall meant for one it's meant higher taxes at the state and local levels and less funding for other education programs at state and as states and local governments struggle to make up the shortfall in federal resources the member i introduced today builds on the bipartisan cooperation of the house appropriations committee by providing a further one hundred twenty five million dollar increase in funding for i d e a part b grants to the states to pay for my member i offset the cost by reducing a portion of u s contribution to the global fund my m m it helps us fulfill our commitment to funding special education while also providing a small increase in funding to the global fund as was provided last year i don't take this money from any domestic program these funds are dedicated to an overseas program and they still see a one million dollar increase over last year my  what purposes the gentleman from wisconsin ri say that i would simply suggest that the gentleman if he thinks this is a good idea that he take this idea up with the president of the united states what this committee has tried to do both on this subcommittee and on the foreign operations subcommittee is to respect and work with the administration in their effort to provide global leadership to deal with the aids epidemic around the world and the fact is that this item in this bill is a critical piece of the president's program given our disarray around the world because of iraq i think it is a wonderful exception when we can be seen to be providing constructive leadership in the world on something and certainly this is one area where though i have many differences with the president this is one area where i think he's exercised significant leadership and i think it would  yet again in the world if we were to withdraw this funding i i just think that we struck a good balance with respect to this program i think both tried to to see to it we meet our international responsibilities you know you and i are very lucky human beings our souls or thanks to god infused in a body  that lives in the united states if they had been infused in a body that was born in africa or in asia or in some of the other hot spots in the world in terms of these diseases i think we take a look at this issue in a quite different way this program provides the only real leadership in the world to attack this for the proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentleman from his henri will be postponed will continue to read the bill page forty two line twenty two national institute of general medical sciences one billion nine hundred  sixty six million one hundred thousand dollars national institute of child health and human development one billion two hundred seventy three million eight hundred sixty three thousand dollars national i institute six hundred seventy seven million thirty nine thousand dollars national institute of environmental health sciences six hundred fifty two million three hundred three thousand dollars national institute on aging one billion sixty two million eight hundred thirty three thousand dollars national institute of arthritis and must go or skeletal and skin diseases this five hundred sixteen million forty four thousand dollars national institute on deafness and other communication disorders four hundred million three hundred five thousand dollars national institute of nursing research one hundred thirty nine million five hundred twenty seven thousand dollars national institute on alcohol abuse and alcoholism four hundred forty two million eight hundred seventy thousand dollars national institute on drug abuse one billion fifteen million five hundred fifty nine thousand dollars national institute of mental health one billion four hundred twenty five million five hundred thirty one thousand dollars national human genome research institute four hundred ninety three million nine hundred ninety six thousand dollars national institute of biomedical imaging and bioengineering three hundred three million three hundred eighteen thousand dollars national center for research resources one billion one hundred seventy one million ninety five thousand dollars national center for complimentary and alternative medicine one hundred  twenty three million three hundred eighty thousand dollars national center on minority health and health disparities two hundred two million six hundred ninety one thousand dollars john e fogarty international center sixty seven million five hundred ninety nine thousand dollars national library of medicine three hundred twenty five million four hundred eighty four thousand dollars office of the director national institutes of health one billion one hundred fourteen million four hundred twenty two thousand dollars buildings and facilities one hundred twenty one million eighty one thousand dollars substance abuse and mental health services administration substance abuse and amendment number twenty eight printed in the congressional record offered by mr wickfield of kentucky jemison kentucky is recognized for five minutes thank you very much in two thousand and five  congress adopted the national all schedules prescription electronic reporting act which was signed into law by the president in two thousand and five the amendment at the desk simply provides funding of ten million dollars for this authorized program the ten million dollars is taken from the secretary's management account so the offset is tak care of on march the twenty ninth of this year two thousand and seven chairman dingell ranking member barton and the chairman and ranking member of every  subcommittee of energy and commerce as well as other members sent a letter to chairman o b and ranking member lewis requesting that they consider finding this this program now the appropriations committee in another bill has provided funding for an unauthorized drug monitoring program located at the department of justice that program  primarily based in focused on law enforcement and we do not object to that program in any way but i might say that last year for two thousand and seven in two thousand and six money was made available for both nascar program at h h s and the department of justice  program which is more based on law enforcement the nascar program really addresses the prescription drug addiction problem and helps physicians work with patients and makes it away or makes physicians aware of prescriptions  those patients have so last year we were quite pleased that both programs were funded and we were disappointed that this year's program the authorized program was not funded the unauthorized program was funded and so we can today and asked the chairman of the appropriations committee and the ranking member both of whom have worked diligently on a very complicated bill that provides great services to our country we so we can this morning and ask them to consider funding this this authorized program i might add that secretary leavitt testified for it  had two years of hearings on this program secretary leavitt indorse that former secretary tommy thompson endorse that and as i said we're not asking that they define the unauthorized program because  we know that it's doing a good job but we're simply saying the energy and commerce committee had two years of hearings passed this legislation it passed the senate overwhelmingly the president signed it it was funded last year and we strongly unnecessary and a duplicate swor that the justice department has engaged in under the prescription drug monitoring grant program i understand that primarily as a result of the efforts of mr rogers of kentucky the justice department has been operating for several years running a grant program to assist states in building in exchanging and excuse me enhancing prescription drug monitoring systems facilitating the exchange of information among states and providing technical assistance and training for effective state programs the office of justice programs runs this grant program along with the assistance and technical expertise of the drug enforcement administration and is currently funded at seven point five million dollars from all accounts the justice department effort as well run an effective for that reason i urge members to oppose this amendment which would set up a competing and apparently duplicative program and i  electronic reporting act or nasa for two years ago congress passed an esper and it was signed into law making it the only statutory authorized program to assist states in combat and prescription drug abuse of controlled substances through prescription drug monitoring programs congress realized that more needed to be done to aid states to set up or improve state systems that enable authorities to identify prescription drug abusers as well as the problem doctors who betray their high ethical standards of their fashion by over or incorrectly prescribe me prescription drugs the new law an aspirin law thrice ten million dollars in fiscal year zero eight and ten million dollars each year through this school year old ten although  prescription drug monitoring programs by doing this congress sets a bad precedent in sanctioning the creation and continued operation of federal programs through the appropriation process now asked for was passed with bipartisan support after many years of hard work by many members on both sides of the aisle and those of us who are on the energy and commerce committee this is the only solution naspers the only solution which will assist physicians establish minimum standards for state prescription drug monitoring as was mentioned already this is the authorized program that will deal with this issue and i don't want to get into unnecessarily contrast ing this with the other program that the gentleman from new york mentioned but i do think it's necessary to understand that this program is authorized and it's not funded i mean obviously we should be funding programs that are authorized not those that are not but beyond that the bottom line is that the nasa program mandates that states partizan pate in the program we only have about twenty two states now that are participating so i would i would certainly argue that the status quo with this alternative justice department program simply is not working if we want more states to get involved we need to we need to fund the authorized program during the time since august of two thousand and five when this became law and has not been funded during this time since then prescription drug abuse has reached an all time high with an estimated nine million americans using prescription drugs for non medical purposes the most disturbing is the fact that there is an epidemic of prescription drug abuse among teenagers so if the argument is that the existing justice department program is working and we don't need to fun this authorized program i think the facts show very much the afspa the opposite naspers will ensure the prescription drugs are only being used for medical purposes with better monitoring and tracking systems people will not be able to seek multiple prescriptions or cross state lines to get prescription filled without their provider knowing naspers reaches across state lines with timetables and benchmarks and eliminating the problem of his prescription drug abuse it's a public health program in the department of health and human services where it belongs not in the justice department and most important it is the only statutorily authorized programs to assist states in combating prescription drug use right now a lot of the problems with doctors the justice department program doesn't really help doctors prevent prevent this epidemic also the justice department program is totally focused on enforcement not on trying to get people more involved in states that have preventive level dealing with the doctors  forstmann as well but it's not the only thing so i would simply say you know we made this pledge for a couple of times and you know whether my understanding is that this amendment is going to be withdrawn but i just need to ask the appropriate use please consider the fact that in the future we need to address this this needs to be funded the other program that's in effect now is not doing the job and we simply ask that you collectively take a look at this and figure out how to do it so we can get funding for the nascar program which is the one that the congress authorized and which will address this epidemic effectively we're not having an effective response right now and with that i would yield back to madam speaker the gentleman yes baucus time question question is on the offered by the gentleman from kentucky as in favor say  to force this issue this morning but it is a program that as has been said we spent two years having hearings on this program it mandates states to adopt these programs we feel like a great program that was funded last year we would respectfully request that at conference are as i think maybe the chairman and ranking member would work with us in trying to address the issue yes sir we're caught in the middle on this one of because mr lewis the ranking member of the appropriations committee gave us a lecture yesterday about how we should avoid  and then today this amendment would have the effect of creating in one department a program that is virtually identical to a program that already exists in another department so we can't win no matter how we deal with the issue i don't care which agency this is and i just want to be a war ever it will be run on the most sufficiently and effectively and i'm certainly willing to discuss with anybody involved in the issue of how we resolve this issue we didn't put it in the first place it was put in by but as you know a person from your party from your own state or happy to work with all of you but i don't want to get crosswise between two people from the stadium state and i don't want to be standing here accepting an amendment that creates a duplicate of program so i think the most constructive result would be if the gentleman would withdraw his amendment and we'd try to work this out down the line so that if it's not in the right place we can talk about how to get it in the right place but mr chairman i am going to withdraw but i would like to make this point this is an authorized program that we're talking about we had two years of hearings on this product project and there is some sentiment in the congress i believe today that the appropriators team darfur rise on their appropriations bill when it's convenient for them and that i am going to withdraw the inn and that because the respect that i have for the chairman and the ranking member as well as the member from kentucky that you talked about but i do believe this is an effective program and we look forward to working with you as we continue through the process to try to resolve it and so if i can simply say again on this side of the aisle i feel like i'm being whipsawed because this was in the other bill because we were trying to accommodate a republican member of the house who felt strongly that it ought to be in that bill and now we're being criticized by another republican from the same state because we accommodated the other republicans i can't go in both directions at the same time which is why i i don't seek to have this program in any department i don't care where it is i would just assume that you settle your differences with your colleague from your own state and when you have come and see me and i'll try to work loads it was whoever is the winner of the wrestling match thank you and i'm here today as an advocate for the energy and commerce committee so thank you very centers for medicare and medicaid services grants to states for medicaid one hundred forty one billion six hundred thirty million fifty six thousand dollars for making payments to states under title nineteen of the social security act for the last quarter fiscal year two thousand and eight such sums as may be necessary for making payments to states or in the case of section one hundred twenty eight of the social security act sixty seven billion two hundred ninety two million six hundred sixty nine thousand dollars payments under title nineteen may be made for any quarter with respect to a state plan if submitted in or prior to such quarter and approved payments to health care trust funds one hundred eighty eight billion eight hundred twenty eight million dollars in addition for making matching payments under section eight hundred forty four the social security act such sums as may be necessary program management three million two hundred thirty million one hundred sixty three thousand dollars health care fraud abuse control account three hundred eighty three million dollars administration for children families payments to states for children for child support enforcement and family support programs two billion nine hundred forty nine million seven hundred  thirteen thousand dollars for making payments to each state for carrying out the program of age families with dependent children such sums as may be necessary for making after may thirty first of the current fiscal year payments event at the desk report the amendment read for banking payment page fifty five lines twenty four for making payments under section twenty six zero four each of the low income home energy assistance act of one hundred eighty one six hundred eighty two million dollars refugees and trant assistance six hundred fifty million six hundred thirty thousand dollars payments to states for chuck for the child care and development block grant block grant two billion one hundred thirty seven million eighty one thousand dollars social services block grant one billion seven hundred million dollars children and families services program nine billion one hundred twenty five million one hundred forty thousand dollars so it's purpose is the gentleman from new jersey r the gentleman's amendment is in the current paragraph do you wish to offer the amendment gentleman from new jersey your amendment manager i have an amendment at the desk clerk to report the amendment ok at number thirty four printed in the congressional record offered by mr holt in new jersey page fifty eight line twenty one insert after the dollar amount the following increased by twenty one million dollars page sixty line twelve  protection and advocacy payments was never fully appropriated section two sixty one of hava authorized one hundred million dollars in disability access funding to make polling places accessible to individuals with disabilities and to provide them with information about the accessibility of polling places i'm sure the chair and my colleagues would agree it is important for equality under the law that all voters have good access to voting  in addition section two ninety one authorized ten million dollars annually for fiscal years two thousand and three through two thousand and six and such sums as necessary thereafter to pay for the protection and advocacy systems of each state to ensure full participation in the electoral process for individuals with disabilities including the assess of registering to vote casting a vote and gaining access to polling places to date only fifty five million of those amounts have been appropriated under hava to fund accessibility and only twenty two million dollars have been appropriated to fund protection and advocacy systems voting is indeed the cornerstone of our democracy and unless all eligible voters are insured access to the polls that fundamental right in the integrity of our electoral system generally are severely undermined therefore i seek to amend the bill to provide fifteen million dollars in funding for accessibility under section two sixty one of hava and an additional six million dollars in funding for protection and advocacy systems under section two hundred one of hava for a total of a total increase of twenty one million dollars this would result as you could quickly calculate several hundred thousand dollars per state to assist in voting for voters with it's something we should have done a long time ago and i understand that but having said that i must and i'll make it clear i'm simply tired of having to defend administrative accounts from people on both sides of the aisle and so i'm not going to a to the amendment but i do want to point out to the gentleman as i will point out to many other members who offer similar amendments today that this committee is being with sun we're being told by the white house that there's too much money in this bill in virtually every amendment that has been offered save one has been motivated principly by a desire to increase rather than decrease funds in this bill this is another similar amendment and  government works needs to understand that if it is that if an agency's a grant making agency and if you've got its administrative budget then there will be no body in the accepted when we go to conference we're going to have to make very large adjustments and a lot of what is adopted on the house floor if it is based on some of these let's pretend offsets will in fact wind up on the cutting room floor by the time we get back from conference that's just a practical fact of life so as i say i will not object to the gentleman's  i don't want anyone to be under any illusion that we can fund all these additional wonderful things by simply going to the administrative budgets of the agencies because occasionally you need somebody in that office to turn on yield i'd be happy to i thank the gentleman for his agreement and simply ask that he continue as he always has to stand up for the american ideal of equality for all at the polling can't continue to do that do the nice things on the one hand by looking like we're putting more money into a program and at the same time cutting the fat muscle and limbs of the departments that are supposed to administer done to achieve the very purpose that this and that meant that the gentleman from new jersey has proposed frankly we have this year on july twenty sixth the anniversary of the americans with disability act and frankly we have taken many steps backward as a nation and guaranteeing the civil rights of all americans with disabilities and clearly that means we need to guarantee nothing special for people with disabilities just the same rights and guaranteeing equal access regardless of ability is what we need to do in this country and this this amendment seeks to do that but i might add so does the underlying bill and i hope that the members listening to this debate do not come away with the understanding that it's because of them and it's like this that we're accomplishing at the underlying bill if people were so see it and really look at it does so much to offer independence and hope to people who previous to to this bill were denied many opportunities because of previous budgetary priorities that shut people out in this country so i want to commend the chairman the ranking member for producing a good bill that goes along the same lines as this amendment by opening up the doors of opportunity to all number forty one printed in the congressional record offered by mr hunter wing of texas page fifty eight line twenty one after the dollar amount insert reduced by eight million dollars jemison text recognizer five minutes thank you madam chairman i my ears did not deceive me i think i heard the distinguished chairman of the appropriations committee either observe or lament that with one exception every amendment offered in this bill its purpose was spin less of the people's money and to try to save hardworking american taxpayers more let them keep more of what they earned and now madam chairman this is a very it's a monist  but it represents a very very important principle today right now the federal government is spending twenty three thousand two hundred and eighty nine dollars per family now this is the highest level spent in real inflation adjusted terms since world war two just earlier this year the democrat budget resolution madam chairman included the largest single tax increase in american history which when fully put in place would put three thousand dollars an average of three thousand dollars additional tax burden on the average american family and now saving even if congress were for some reason or to just disband today and add no new government just the government programs we have on automatic pilot threatened to double taxes on the next generation so we need to find every opportunity that we can today to save the poor beleaguered taxpayer even more money now madam chairman i do not myself know exactly how many federal programs exist i've seen one estimate i believe from the heritage foundation that we have over ten thousand federal programs spread across six hundred different agencies i defy any man woman or child to tell me what each and every one of them does now some of them i'm sure do do good things but the question is given the fiscal challenges that we face are they truly a priority madam chair some may have even completed their mission and some perhaps the amendment i'm offering today are actually duplicative now this is a modest amendment that would save the american taxpayer eight million dollars now this particular program ostensibly funding as you for training and technical assistance in developing and managing water facilities but the office of management and budget has allowed has recommended that this particular program be eliminated stating that quote the program is duplicative of other federal entity such as the bureau of reclamation is rural water program which is responsible for water and wastewater treatment facilities that is from the office of management and budget so we want to make sure that we are not simply engaging of legislation by symbolism i know every single program has a lot of the sounding name to help some  constituency that is very important to us but we have to look beyond that in see is it actually achieving its purpose are there other programs that are achieving its purpose is well and according to the office and management budget this program is duplicative of other programs and so we have to ask ourselves a very important question in light of the fact that the federal government has never ever spent since world war two so much money of the american family twenty three thousand two hundred eighty nine dollars given that the democrat budget resolution includes the single largest tax increase in history given that although given that although the national debt would gentlemen help as it has come down with limited time i think the gentleman will have plenty of his own time given that the deficit is coming down not do any duty any spending discipline but do the fact that we're awash in tax revenues we still have a federal deficit so there's a very simple question do we want to find a program that the administration considers duplicative given that if we don't either one the funds are coming from the social security trust fund in many of my colleagues and pledge not to do that if it's not coming from then it's going to add to this three thousand dollars per american family tax burden or more debt will be passed on to our children and i believe we ought to effort to reduce and save the taxpayers i'd like to yield the gentleman a minute just to tell us what his amendment does in this bill and if the gentleman because enough to explain that to us we'd appreciate over here on the majority i give them a minute well i thank the gentleman f if i was not clear this bill would save the american taxpayer eight million dollars it would remove a duplicative program according to o m b the rural community facilities program and i don't need a minute to explain what the amendment does the did and that's it and i certainly apologize to my colleague if i was unclear on either the purpose of the amend then or how it operates i appreciate the gentleman and his  analysis at least as i read page fifty eight line twenty one the gentleman seeks to reduce by eight million dollars section five one of the refugee education assistance act of section of the bill children and families services support program because of its enormous benefit to the american taxpayer and i appreciate the gentleman's effort at fiscal accountability and fiscal  responsibility and the gentleman has clearly led a crusade through every single one of these appropriations bills but i would encourage members of the committee to oppose the hensarling amendment i appreciate his crusade in the speech  a rural part of my state we had a contamination of our well water and it was a contamination because of the m t b e it's the chemical that goes into the gasoline i might add under the republican so that it can clean up its wastewater and make do reparation to my constituents but what they had to do is they had to go down to the local high school to take showers and they had to attach the pump to through the fire department to the next door community now under this section of the bill this is a public health hazard you know why because even at home when they turned on the water they were getting lesions on their skin because the shower water was giving them  even when they turned on the steam that the children were breathing in the steam and we're getting asthma attacks now if you're wondering what the nexus is this is what the nexus is between your amendment and health and why infrastructure makes an enormous difference in providing clean safe drinking water to rural communities and i don't come from a very rural state so you might think that it's kind of interesting that i would come up and speak on behalf of this i would think that your state would probably benefit a lot more from this so i'd wonder why your constituents would be here thinking that you're offering an amendment that may actually benefit your state more than it would bind but frankly this is a very important kind of program if anything in this country we haven't invested enough in infrastructure mr jackson i'm sure has talked to his mayors and local community leaders and they have told him that that their infrastructure is falling apart and i would just to commend all of us to say that if we have to do anything we have to do more in the way of infrastructure not less reclaiming my time and i'm sure that my time is just about expired but i just want to make sure and i certainly appreciate the gentleman from rhode island for thoughts on the subject but i just want to make sure that this amendment is born at the  think chairman and the rise in strong support of the hensarling amendment and i love a good debate it is it is a great privilege for me to be able to come to the floor at a time that that  kennedy mr jackson are here i find them to be the most forceful and effective advocates of their view in the congress in the majority and so i welcome the opportunity to join this debate and i thank the gentleman from texas who is consistently the strongest advocate for fiscal discipline and reform in the house of representatives i just i will leave aside for the moment a whole question of which party forced the requirement of t b e to be added to gasoline and created the regulatory challenges that the gentleman refers to and just get to the larger question here madam chairman we have an eight trillion dollar national debt this is an amendment to cut eight million dollars and it is being forcefully opposed i think for anyone who would be looking in on the people's house today that is a rather dramatic comparison and let me let me repeat that again the hensarling amendment facing the stark reality of a trillion dollars in national debt comes to this floor with an idea to ask the federal government to do without spending  million dollars the new majority and i congratulate them again on securing the majority in the congress the american people spoke but i do remember the new majority pledge no new deficit spending i remembered a promise is in this by this new majority in last year's campaign season that that we would pay as we go in the federal budget that if there was to be spending increases there would be they would be offset by cuts in other areas and yet legislation the bill is seven billion dollars over the two thousand and seven request ten point two billion dollars over the president's request and it follows seven other six pieces of legislation all of which of increased spending and some of which madam chairman i have supported but not all and it does seem to me that as i walked here to this floor i passed one sign after another in front of the offices of many of my most distinguished democrat colleagues that could that bears bears the number eight trillion dollars writ large and if we are to be concerned about a trillion will we not support an effort to cut eight million that's the choice here today and whether the gentleman from illinois who i deeply respect  considers that this eight million dollars to be an enormous benefit might might there not be state and local governments that could make up for that with the recognition that we are burying we're creating a burden for future generations of americans that we ought not to create and so i support the hensarling amendment it is it is the least we can do to take a step backwards and i want to associate myself with the distinguished chairman of this committee who rose earlier to say and i'm quoting now that he was tired of defending administrative accounts close quote with amendments by people who were coming to ask for more spending in other areas it is greatly to the credit of the gentleman from texas that he is coming to this floor simply by saying i think the american people are tired of the national debt i think they're tired of a sea of red ink i think we were tired of it when my party had control of the place and as a gentle lady knows i was one of the strongest opponents of wasteful government spending when my own party was in charge and so i hope i hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle know the gentleman from texas and myself and other colleagues we come to this floor with sincerity of purpose and with consistency that we think government ought to live within its means that government ought to pay its bills we think we ought to balance budgets and the hensarling amendment simply asks that we might a million dollars as a modest response to eight trillion dollars in national debt and i challenge my colleagues in a spirit of goodwill let's make this statement let's start in the direction of fiscal discipline  reform or for heaven's sake madam chairman and i say this with a smile let's take the signs down from the hallway let's stop pretending that we worry about the national debt if we cannot come repetitious droning is on bill after bill after bill let me simply say i think it is legitimate for individual members of this body to offer amendments in order to illustrate their concern about a larger question i've done that many times myself this institution but i think that after three weeks of hearing the same point made again and again we understand that these gentlemen believe that we are putting putting too much money into education and health care and science and other areas that we regard as crucial investments and that's a perfectly legitimate position to have but please spare me the sanctimony spare me the nonsense that somehow these amendments will contribute in any meaningful way to significant deficit reduction let me simply point out if people were interested in significant deficit reduction they would not be supporting in iraq a war which has already spent over four hundred billion dollars and which will spend another one hundred forty billion bucks by the time we pass the president's supplemental they would not be insisting that we provide fifty seven billion dollars in tax cuts to people who make a million bucks a year no they don't argue about those two things what do they do they come to the floor and squawk about an eight million dollar program to help the poorest rural communities in this country get basic services like sewer and water i represent many towns in  district with populations of less than a thousand people at least half of those towns are headed i'm saying that wrong at least half the households in many of those towns are headed either by senior citizens or a woman with low income and that means that when they get hit with the do in our order to clean up their water clean up their sewer they do not have the tax base to proceed and they don't have the technical expertise even know how to begin going about it we've got a three hundred eighty five billion dollar backlog in this country of sewer  water needs and yet we're hearing this these complaints about this tiny little program and what terrible abuse it does to the taxpayer imagine a congressional committee trying to do something to help pork poor communities deal deal with their sewer water problems isn't that awful isn't that wasteful good god almighty we ought to be put that eight million dollars into the pockets of millionaires in additional tax cuts right at least that's what their record shows they believe nonsense i'm stan i'm getting up once on this amendment but i don't intend to continually get up in what is an amendment by filibuster for a filibuster by me me so i wanted to get that off my chest once and then i'm just going to sit back and let people drone drone know ship of state and occasionally i might even listen madam chairman listen intently to the distinguished chairman of the committee as i do whenever he is on the floor apparently he does not like amendments that increased spending in this bill and apparently he doesn't like amendments that decreased spending in the bill so apparently he'd done like amendment so that much is clear second of all madam chairman when i come down to the floor  and efforts to try to say tax payers money let them keep more money for their education programs their health care programs their energy programs sometimes we're told that well this is this is so  draconian you know to try to save this much money and then other times we're told no this is just a piddly little amount well i'm reminded first of the famous quote from the late senator everett dirksen billion here a billion pretty soon we're talking about real money i'm even talking about more modest amounts today but there's a fundamental principle involved here in the fundamental principle is that we have a federal budget growing way beyond the ability of the family budget to pay for it and make no mistake about it madam chairman government will be paid for it's either going to be paid for in the short term by continuing to raid the social security trust fund which is what's going to happen if this protect killer amendment fails it'll be funded by the single largest tax increase in american history which my friends on the other side of the aisle the democrat majority has done in their budget are perhaps it may even be funded by sending more debt to our children and grandchildren i think we should look for every opportunity given the challenges that we face the comptroller general of america has said we are on the verge of being the first generation in america's history to leave the next generation with a lower standard of living never happened before in the history of america so madam apologies for to use the distinguished chairman's germ droning on about what fiscal perils lay in wait for future generations if we don't start now i mean again it's a little bit  like goldilocks in the three bears either the porridge is too hot or the porridge is too cold when is the porridge just right to try to save the family budget from the onslaught of the federal budget and so when we have the office of management and budget single out a number of different programs and i certainly think that their expertise in this area is great to single out certain programs that either one have outlived their usefulness number two had are not meeting their objective or number three or duplicative i think amendments are in order for the people's house to say the people money we have to quit engaging again in the fact of legislation by symbolism well it has a lofty name or it has a lofty purpose well let's look at what's actually happening to the money and so this is a modest i'm in and i've made it's modest i've tried to save big chunks of money and to have been terribly successful there so we're going to  and budget has said quote does not have performance standards they do not have performance standards to assess their impact or too narrowly focused to have a major benefit they duplicate other federal programs in award grants on a noncompetitive basis not students ability this just this program is a job opportunities program for low income individuals but i happen to note that practically every single one of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle voted against the tax relief that has created eight million new jobs in our economy which is an undeniable fact that's truly the best job opportunity program for low income individuals and i know that this body recently voted against the maximum opportunity to create a artificial wage deny some people their opportunity to get on the lowest rung of the economic ladder ladder there's a lot of ways that we can help low income people with job opportunities but one more duplicative program that awards grants on a noncompetitive basis is not yet let's not r going to classics of relay team for the proceedings on the moment offered by the gentleman from texas will be postponed to you to read page sixty one line twenty one promoting safe and stable families eighty nine million one hundred thousand dollars payments to states for foster care and adoption assistance five million eighty two million dollars for making payments to states under title for any of the social security act for first quarter fiscal year two thousand and nine one billion seven hundred seventy million dollars for making payments to states in the current fiscal year for unanticipated cost  some as may be necessary administration on aging aging services programs one billion four hundred seventeen million one hundred eighty nine thousand dollars the purpose is the gentleman from texas r we have another modest a minute and saving the american taxpayer in this particular case twenty one point four million dollars again we have a program that has a very lofty name preventative health under the administration of aging but i think that again the program needs to be put in the larger context and we're being asked now to provide in this particular appropriations bill one hundred and fifty two billion dollars in discretionary funding one of the largest bills that will come to the people's house it has i believe a four point eight percent increase over last year when i sure you american families who are being asked to pay for this did not enjoy it a four point eight percent increase we once again have another portion of the federal budget growing beyond the ability of the family budget to pay for this and so we all know that this is a part of a plan that will increase to an inquiry an additional twenty six billion dollars for domestic programs and or the budget resolution of the democrat majority on top of the six billion dollars that has been added to the current year on the bus on top of the seventeen billion in non war emergency spending they have added to the iraq war supplemental again i recall the words of the distinguished chairman of the appropriations committee referring to those of us who may drone on about attempting to save the federal taxpayer money but there  those who seemingly use the same old argument that government knows how to spend money better than the american family and somehow if we take money away from american families that's an investment but if they somehow keep it well that's waste or somehow that's going to bring down the government to its knees and madam chairman i just don't buy that argument that somehow we're supposed to believe that in the roughly ten thousand federal program spread across six hundred different agencies growing at roughly twice the rate of inflation going beyond the ability of the family budget to pay for that somehow somehow every single penny of federal expenditures is sacrosanct and yet there's nothing sacrosanct about the money we take away from the american people to pay for that now the funds in this particular program are awarded to states in territories that supposedly educate older americans about the importance of healthy lifestyles a very noble purpose but i would note that with the exception of i think two maybe three states every single one of them is running a surplus so we're granting money to ninety five ninety eight percent of the states that are running a surplus while the federal government continues to run a deficit and although that deficit is coming down because we're awash in tax revenues it certainly hadn't been for many spending discipline the bottom line is we're running a deficit and we're handing out money to states that are running surpluses again this is a program that the office of management and budget says should not be funded quotas duplicative of services that states can envisions integrating prevention is an underlying principle in its core programs and that that is better than versus the current mechanism of providing small funding stream of unfocused seed money through the preventative health services program again i feel we have too much legislation by symbolism and we should never forget when we're talking about the lofty purposes that this will provide in vital  health care let's remember the violin vestments and health care that the american people have i mean they're going to have to pay for this and again i often hear from my constituents like joyce in tennessee colony texas says please do what you can to stop the wasteful spending i'm retired and disabled i'm raising my three grandchildren and now my one grandchild i sometimes can't afford my own medicine so here we have a choice we can take money away from joyce in tennessee colony to money away from her health care program to engage in this particular program which o m b says is duplicative i've heard from the david in the city of garland much the same back with her from the gentleman from rhode island right to strike the last word tenements recognize the fact that i think this amendment is just a perfect perfect example of a gentleman offering an amendment where he knows the cost of something but the value of nothing if he were to visit any congregate meal site in his district or whether to visit any of the meals on wheels programs in this country and we're sable to see what a difference those programs make in people's lives he would understand that it was these kinds of programs that save the taxpayer money i guess by this amendment he's saying what a waste it is for us to pay for someone's illness let's put off paying for their illness until they get really sick and then they have to get hospitalized and then let's pay for it through medicare frankly the former speaker newt gingrich every modern health care magazine republican presidential contender tommy thompson former h h s director and every leader  studied health care knows we ought to be going in the opposite direction it's all about health in case anybody has not been looking our health care system is an acute care system it's a sick care system we need to be going preventive care we need to be going health care we need to be going chronic care management what in the war old are we thinking by considering that we're going to actually go back to the dark days where we're going to actually spend more money on the back door to wait until people get sick as opposed to trying to prevent people from coming in and getting sick in the first place i find this amendment absolutely mind boggling that it would even be offered as an excuse for saving money quite frankly it'll end up costing the taxpayer money and tragically more than costing us money it'll cost us lives it will cost us lives and it cost us misery amongst those senior citizens who are going to have to suffer the consequences of the of the cutbacks that this amendment will propose and i think that's a very unfortunate thing and i would be happy to yield goes at the heart of the administration on aging section two zero four of the report and these programs including supportive service centers preventive health protection for vulnerable and older are americans are at the heart of the bill it's clear to me that according to the health and human services budget in brief that consumer empowerment healthy lifestyles community  living incentives are critical part of taking care of families and their caregivers and i just don't know where the gentleman arrived at the numbers that he seeks to cut in the bill the committee level of bond of the program in the committees mark both democrat and republican in a bipartisan way a sought to increase the program and so we're going to stick with this number i want to thank the gentleman from rhode island for yielding me the time and i'm encouraging members of the committee amendment and i thank the gentleman for yielding take back by the time i please in other bills that we are going to be taking up this year we're going to be offering as democrats medical home legislation that allow us to invest in preventive medicine because we have democrats believe we need to not rearrange the deck chairs on this titanic of our healthcare system we need to reinvent our health care system and invest in health care which is is broken in this country and start investing in prevention and not go down this road that got innocent so much trouble to begin with and that is try to take care of the problem after it's already broken let's take care of people first and  part mental management office for the secretary general departmental management three hundred sixty three million two hundred twenty four billion dollars for new jersey right  offered by mr ferguson new jersey paid sixty three line for after the first dollar amounts are reduced by ten million dollars increase by ten million dollars gentlemen from new jersey is recognized for five minutes and i'm chairman i appreciate the recognition and i rise in strong support of the ferguson lands of an amendment that will set aside ten million dollars for implementation and to fund the lifespan respite care act i know the gentleman from rhode island mr landsman will be speaking on this amendment as well and i really want to praise him and thank him for his great leadership on this issue over the years he and i have worked together as friends and partners on this issue in particular and i have great respect and admiration for the work that he has done on this issue and together we've worked to to pass the lifespan respite care act that was unanimously approved by this chamber in the senate last congress that deserves the funding necessary to launch this critically important program funding the lifespan respite care act will for the first time establish a national policy to help our nation's fifty million family caregivers who provide daily care for their loved ones with disabilities or chronic conditions or illnesses this program allows families to care a home for their loved ones instead of in an institutionalized setting in a home family caregivers provide minute by minute special assistance to their loved ones with a disability or critical illness or a chronic condition madam chair family caregivers are remarkable people they make extraordinary sacrifices to help those who they love so dearly i saw an example of this firsthand in my own family ten years ago my mom was diagnosed with cancer and for six years i got to watch my dad as he cared for my mom through this very difficult struggle with cancer four years ago yesterday she lost that battle with cancer but it was a great example to our family and so many others that we know of a great example of a family caregiver who made extraordinary sacrifices there are some fifty the million people just like my dad who provide care for a loved one in their own family you know these are folks who you know may not be so blessed with the support structure that we had in our family we had my siblings and me and others in our family were able to give my dad a break when he needed a break from that family caregiving there are many people in our country who are not fortunate to have that support structure around them and they are desperately in need of a break from time to time while the benefits that come from in home care can be enormous for caregivers and for that loved one who is ill the cost for the family caregiver from emotional to financial can really be overwhelming lifespan respite care w provide much needed breaks for caregivers who are providing intense and exhaustive care twenty four hours a day and occasional break can literally be a lifesaver i had a conversation with a constituent from my district ms pinto who told me that caring for her special needs child can be a very joyful but also can be a very challenging experience you know if she's exactly right two thirds of caregivers report physical or mental health problems linked to their own caregiving recent studies have found that family caregivers suffer poor health or even higher mortality rates than non family caregivers currently our nation lacks a coordinated approach between different levels of government or advocacy advocacy groups to aid those who are in need of respite care respite care can is in short supply or doesn't exist at all in some areas of our country this legislation and these funds would change that funding the lifespan respite care act would improve coordination and access for respite care to recruit and train respite care providers with aide family caregivers regardless of age or disability or their family situation find them help them to find and pay for respite services through competitive grants states would get funding to make quality rest care available and accessible regardless of age or disability or family situation respite care improves the health and the wellbeing of caregivers and reduces the risk of abuse or neglect importantly it also delays or even avoids more costly hospitalizations or placements in nursing homes or in foster care i want to thank all of the fair family caregivers in our nation who provide tireless care for their loved ones and i also want to extend my thanks to the numerous groups and organizations around this country and their exhaustive effort to establish this lifespan respite care program providing relief to our nation's family caregivers is long overdue i urge my colleagues to support this amendment and once again i'm pleased and honored to have to have worked with the gentleman from rhode island mr landon on this important legislation i yield back the gentleman from new jersey alpaca time for what purpose does the gentleman from close who's mr ferguson to ensure the passage of the lifespan respite care act which will offer relief to so many family caregivers across the country and i had the privilege of traveling with mr ferguson to iraq going back a couple of years now and i know of his personal commitment to this issue and he shared the story with me about as his mom so i know like for as with in my case as well as with mr ferguson this is certainly a very personal issue that we have personal knowledge about and we care passionately about so i'm pleased to join him today and in the effort to direct funding now for this important program as a mentioned i know firsthand what a difference a dedicated can get we can make in the life of a person with a disability or a chronic condition family caregiving is an essential yet often overlooked aspect of our nation's health care system the ability to live at and remain part of one's community can make a tremendous difference in a person achieving independent recovery or treatment and whether they are caring for a child with a behavioral disorder or a parent with a o spouse with multiple sclerosis but we all know someone who has a family caregiver live in all of our communities and they are often silent heroes ensuring family stability and helping those who struggle with disease or disability to avoid more costly out of home placements and we were so excited last year when this congress really took a bold initiative in acting the lifespan respite care act and it gave hope to so many families across america well today this amendment that we're proposing direct ten million dollars for the lifespan respite care act which would authorize grants to make quality respite care available and accessible to family caregivers regardless of age or disability so it's exciting the if we can if we can actually put now the funding into the vice van respite care act that we so desperately need to help america's families who are who are providing these type of this amendment seeks to do a very worthy thing it seeks to increase support for respite care god knows having watched my mother in law for seven years having watched my father in law take care of her every day god knows that anyone who's ever seen something like that understands that we need a lot more respite care but having said that i want again to use this amendment to illustrate what's happening on this bill because here's what the amendment says page sixty three line four after the first dollar amount insert reduce by twenty million increased by twenty million now what the amendment really does is simply to serve as a vehicle by which these two were the members can raise the issue that there's not enough money in this bill for respite care and you know what there isn't and there isn't enough money in this bill for c there isn't enough money in this bill for and i there is enough money in this bill for education there is enough money in this bill for pell for pell grants there's not enough money in this built to sufficiently reduce the social security backlog there's not enough money in this bill to keep all the social security offices open that are closing around the country and yet the administration is sending out a letter telling members of congress that they ought to vote against this bill because there's too much money no i don't fault the two gentlemen at all for using this device in order to raise their concern it's about the only thing they can do but the fact is as chairman of this committee i have an obligation to point out to the to the house and to the occasional other person who might be listening i have an obligation to point out that members are being forced to go through these kinds of machinations because instead of meeting our obligations to the most needy people the most vulnerable people in this society we're instead squirting away billions of dollars on an iraq war and billions more dollars in tax cuts for persons who make over a million bucks a year and the day that we decide not to do that the day that we decide that we're not going to spend one hundred fifty billion dollars more in iraq this year the day that we decide that we're not going to put tax cuts for millionaires i head of the needs of our of our disabled and ahead of the needs of our isolated seniors then that's the day when amendments like this will be real because then it will be sufficient room in the budget to do what we ought to be doing on these programs so again i will not stand in the way amendment because it's a worthy cause but understand this is not a real offset it doesn't add any new money to this account and when we go to conference we're going to have to jettison much of what is adopted on the floor because like this amendment in reality because the budget constraints it ain't real telling us back in time the question is on a man offered by the gentleman from new ker page sixty three line twenty four offices of medicare hearing and appeals sixty five million dollars office of the national coordinator coordinator for health information technology thirty million three hundred two thousand dollars office of inspector general forty four million six hundred eighty seven thousand dollars office for civil rights thirty three million seven hundred forty eight thousand dollars retirement pay and medical benefits for commissioned officers for retirement pay and medical benefits authorized by law such amounts as may be required during the current fiscal year public health and social services emergency fund seven hundred fifty seven million two hundred ninety one thousand dollars of which not to exceed twenty two million three hundred sixty three thousand dollars remain available until september thirtieth two thousand and nine for expenses necessary to prepare and respond to an influenza pandemic one hundred forty eight million one hundred one thousand dollars covered countermeasure process fun five million dollars general provisions section two zero one fund shall be available not to exceed fifty thousand dollars for official reception and representation expenses when approved by the secretary section two o two the secretary shall make available through assignment not more than sixty employees to assist in child survival activities section two zero three one of the funds for the national institutes of health shall be used to pay the salary of an individual through a grant or extramural mechanism at the rate in excess of executive level one section two zero four one of the funds for headstart shall be used to pay the compensation of an individual either as direct costs or any  ration as an indirect cost section two zero five one the funds maybe it bended except for funds specifically provided for in this act or for assessments made by any office located in the department of health and human services prior to preparation of a report by the secretary to the committees detailing the planned use of such funds section two zero six such portion as the secretary shall determine but not more than two point four percent of any amount appropriated for programs authorized shall be made available for the evaluation of the implementation of such programs section two zero seven not to exceed one percent of any discretionary funds which are appropriate for the current fiscal year may be transferred between appropriations section two zero eight the director may transfer up to three percent among institutes for research pertaining to the human immunodeficiency virus section two zero nine of the amounts made available the amount for research related to the human immunodeficiency virus as determined by the director of the national institutes of health shall transfer from such account amounts necessary section to ten none of the funds may be made available to any entity under title ten section two eleven no provider of service under title ten of the public health service act shall be exempt from any state all requiring notification of the reporting of child abuse section two twelve none of the funds may be used to carry out medicare advantage program if the secretary denies participation in such programs section two thirteen one of the funds appropriated may be used to withhold substance abuse funding from the state pursuant to section  twenty six of the public health service act section two fourteen in order for the centers for disease control and prevention to carry out international health activities the secretary may exercise authority equivalent to that available to the secretary of state in section two c of the state department basic authorities act of one nine hundred fifty six section to fifteen authority the director of the national institutes of health may say may use funds available under section two zero four b seven of the public service public health service act to enter trans into or to enter into transactions to carry out research identified pursuant to such section funds to section two sixteen funds which are available for individual learning accounts for employees of the centers for disease control and prevention may be transferred section to seventeen the director of the national institutes of health shall require that all investigators funded by the and i h submits to the national library of medicines pub med central and electronic version of their final manuscripts upon acceptance for publication section two eighteen not to exceed thirty five million dollars of funds approved appropriated by does act may be used for alteration of the syllabus as necessary for the conduct of activities authorized here in section two nineteen none of the funds may be used to administer to any child under three years of age the parent education student assistance and education about emerging needs this program serves ninety seven percent of our nation's schools and it is the only program that provides funding for universal prevention of all of our nation's school aged youth the success of this program has been documented by numerous states and local education agencies is extremely effective and has contributed to twenty three percent decline in drug use among youth over the past five years it is important to keep drug prevention as a priority historically when planning for a drop of interest curb drug use among youth sergers this program also provides coordinated school and community based efforts to target emerging drug trend among community members as a result of this program has made significant contributions to reducing methamphetamine and black tar heroin use among school age youth in many states throughout the country over the past two years in dallas texas we've had twenty three teens di am overdoses of the black tar heroin mixture that is called she's with talon o p m and we work with v a and the local merchants and all around trying to get some handle on it but through the safe and drug free schools and communities program local and tear drop correlations have partnered with schools throughout through the to hold prevention conferences in order to combat this growing epidemic they have targeted both students and parents to raise awareness around this issue and have also held down held town hall meetings for teenagers and i have held one myself without the infrastructure provided by this program the anti drug coalition would use among school age children is a clan emerging drug trends continue to rise we've recently seen new drugs aimed at our children such as they can display but meth and cocaine and many states including texas california are can sell nevada and alabama with that strong and effective prevention program these growing epidemics will have a devastating impact on the educational performance of students nationwide as you are aware drugs evasion is critical to ensuring the overall academic success or value students have found that low or reading and math scores studies have found that lower reading and math scores a link to peer substance abuse and nation cannot afford to see alcohol and drug use are violence whereas above their current levels my colleagues to vote for this amendment to restore the funding for the state and drug free schools and communities program to the two thousand and seven level forty six point five million was reduced and then i'm here i do  have an office the assets of the saide safe and drug free schools and communities program will come from the reading first program the reading first program has been marred by allegations of financial conflicts of interest and cronyism and is currently under investigation by the department of justice the office of inspector general and the u s department of education has found numerous legal and ethical violations  how reading for fifty years on top favorite programs there's been also conflicts of interest in hiring and the promotion of commercial reading materials this mismanagement has already resulted in the program to be cut by more than sixty percent of fiscal year two thousand and eight just a few examples of this mismanagement include the office of inspector general found that the program administrate and improperly promoted commercial reading programs potentially and v federal law the office of inspector general added last hundreds of emails and concluded that in apartments program officials failed to maintain a controlled environment that exemplified management integrity and accountability they found now a rising opposition to this amendment i certainly can't support further cuts to the reading first program it's been cut by six hundred twenty nine million dollars for cutting this bill it's insult to injury there there have been problems with the program there have been abuses in if was have been broken the inspector general will bring charges against those violators but we shouldn't punish small children and their teachers for those abuses this program we have a need in this country to teach children how to read i don't think anyone could deny that so madam chair for that reason i will not support any further cuts to a program that teaches those kids to read and in fact i suspect by the time we get to conference with some of this these issues are clarified we'll be adding money back to this have several times today i am sympathetic to the goal of the gentleman's amendment and i appreciate the fact that she did not craft her a memo in a way which would go after general departmental administrative cos appreciate that concession on behalf of on the part of the gentlewoman but having said that again i will not personally object to the amendment because i understand what she's trying to do but i guess i want to make clear what the gentleman from new york said that there's only so voice so far that you can cut any of these programs i happen to have insisted on a very deep cut in reading first because of the abuse that occurred of the taxpayer funds in that account but having said that it's our hope that but frankly and the house needs to know this it's our hope that by the time we get to conference we will have worked out enough of an understanding with the administration about the corrections that are needed so that we don't have to take the deep cuts that are in the bill now but we are not yet at that point so so i think people who are bringing to these amendments to the floor need to understand that that many of them will not survive simply for the same reason that i said earlier that this bill is still short of the phones necessary to found a deserving program such as that pointed out by the gentlewoman from t and if we could prevent this drug usage it probably will let some of the ability come through and know that it's difficult but this is a very serious  problem and these cuts will hurt very severely in areas primarily in school districts where we've had even young people having the ability to sale drugs to another young person obviously is coming from somewhere else but every in dallas we have not found a single child that is spirit that has experimented with this cheese that has survived and we do hear parents involved will after this continue in this program if we don't have these funds and i would just plead with you to help fan the spawn somewhere if you have a severe  objection to it coming from this area but asael that if the areas funding was not being handled correctly he could be placed in a program that's going very well that is influenced a decrease of twenty three percent drug use among is recognized for five minutes i just want to commend the lady from texas for men and say that i know how many a year she stand before coming to congress dedicated to this issue we had a hearing and heard her district around this issue of mental health and addiction and alcoholism and we heard from the law enforcement communities themselves in her district testified to the fact that over seventy percent of the children in the juvenile justice system where there because of drugs and alcohol and frankly this is a scourge on our schools and we can't just wish it away by saying just say no just say no it won't work we need to employ resources and that's what this bill this what this amendment seeks to do and frankly when you have a twenty million people in this country addicted and you have  nearly ten percent of those people children you have a serious problem in this country and we better get about trying to address that in this amendment seeks to try to do that and i commend the gentle lady for for her amendment and support the department of education from counting test scores for english language learners against school districts until after the student completes three years of english language instruction in our subcommittees hearing with secretary spellings raise some concerns regarding english language arts test that students learning to speak english as a second language were given this year in my home state there are over one hundred ninety two thousand immigrant students learning english the majority of whom are in kindergarten through third grade in the city of syracuse my hometown we have an elementary school in which forty three percent of the kids are english language learners learning english as a second language i recognize that there are benefits to monitoring e l student achievement at an annual basis but school system should not be penalize for student's scores after only one year of instruction i'd like to state adequately we need to make sure that all of our kids speak and read english proficiently it is essential to their ability to compete in a very competitive society in a very competitive world and it is essential to to the long term viability of the american culture that we can all speak to each other in the same tongue but i've learned other languages myself some better than others and it took me more than one year to be considered proficient let's not punish our schools declaring them failing before they spend enough time to teach english thoroughly to our kids so although i intend to withdraw i'll be happy meals of chairman i want to underscore that i agree with my friend from new york and emphasize that in parts of my own state school districts face similar problems in fact i would bet this problem exists all over the country furthermore i understand that school districts face a similar issue with respect to the test scores of students receiving special education services so i'd like to suggest to the gentleman from new york that we sent a joint letter to the authorizing committee requesting that they address a serious issue in the no child left behind reauthorization that they're expected to soon consider i thank the gentleman reclaiming my time i would be pleased to join with my chairman in signing and as a gentleman knows we live on opposite sides of the country un new york and i know arizona but the absence of your amendment says we should not be judging the schools until they have had a chance to in fact educate these children's children in a second language and judging them after only twelve months as the gentleman clearly pointed out is unrealistic and punishing the school which means to punish all the students at that school and all the parents of those students and all of the teachers and administration officials that's at that school by  evaluating those children and holding them accountable after only twelve months is unrealistic i would be happy to join in your letter and i commend the gentleman for offering the amendment i thank the gentleman very much for his is a vote of cabinets in the amendment be happy to work with him on that communication with the authorization committee and i ask unanimous consent that i be permitted to withdraw my  continue to read page seventy eight line for impact aid one billion to literally seventy eight million four hundred fifty three thousand dollars school improvement programs five billion six hundred seventy to the second dollar amount insert reduced by twenty one million dollars page eighty two line six after the first dollar amount and certain crease by twenty one million dollars page eighty two line thirteen after the dollar amount is certain creased prioritize monies between two separate funds that relate to gaining high quality teachers in our nation the teacher incentive fun and the teacher quality state grants teacher incentive fund which my amendment would increase the funding for that by twenty one million dollars when it was when two thousand and seven fiscal year budget was adopted or the appropriations bill adopted received two million dollars the request from the president for this year was one hundred  ninety nine million dollars and the bill before us includes a provision for ninety nine million dollars one hundred million dollars less than the president's request as opposed to the teacher quality state grants which received last year two point eight billion dollars the president's request was for two point seven billion dollars and the bill before us include includes a provision for three point one billion dollars four hundred million dollars more than a request by the department teacher quality  certainly the most important school related factor influencing student achievement the no child left behind act reflects this and one of the central tenets is putting a highly qualified teacher in every classroom congress now has the a greater opportunity to take teacher quality initiatives a step further by increasing funding for the teacher incentive fun a program that rewards highly effective teachers and rewards results the teachers set up on allow states and school districts to apply for federal grants in order to develop and implement performance based compensation systems for both teachers and principals with the teacher incentive on educators who improve student achievement in the classroom are provided with financial rewards such as bonuses and increasing salaries in two thousand six the teacher incentive fine and congress provided one hundred million dollars for the new program however in zero seven it received only two million dollars and this is for a program that is shown very successful and rewarding results there's certainly a need for the fund and today thirty four grantees have received money but the department of education has received nearly one hundred fifty applications more resources would mean more districts would be able to establish performance based compensation systems looking at the workforce estimated that more than two million teachers will need to be hired over the next decade research has shown that performance pay can be effective at recruiting and retaining highly qualified teachers so the teacher incentive fund will encourage a talented pool of individuals to go into the field teaching again this is a reply already zation a movement of twenty one million dollars from the teacher quality state grants which is going is slated to receive three point one billion dollars to the teacher incentive fund which would th receive one hundred twenty million dollars by doing so this money can be directly given to local districts to create compensation systems and therefore recruit and reward outstanding teachers nothing wrong with rewarding the best and brightest when it comes to educating our chairman i rise to support the gentleman from georgia and his amendment and the overall focus of his amendment is to do two things first which is what congress should be asked to do by all of our constituents from all our districts from all across this country and that is to take their hard earned dollars that they send to us in the form of tax revenue and to prioritize them into the most efficient manner and into the most efficient programs and into the most efficient methodology in order to get those programs effectuated for the good of the citizens and that is what this amendment does in accord with the opinion of the administration there are a number of programs attempt attempting to do the same thing here with regard to education essentially try dying to lift up the quality of education in this country a lot of the goal obviously secondly to lift up the quality of teachers in the classroom again a lot of old goal obviously but we are asked to prioritize this to make sure that those dollars actually get to those programs and it's actually down to the teachers where it can do the most good the gentleman from georgia and his amendment would do just that you know one of the fundamental flaws in the no child left behind program is to take away the last issue of authority and local control from the front lines and that is the classroom and that is the teacher and shift it someplace else fundamental flaw with no child left behind is to say that the parents should not be involved in making the decisions where the teacher should not be the from ones making the ultimate decisions on how we run and educate our children but it should be the bureaucrats down in washington and unelected it that we need believe that the focus should be shifted back to the parents back to the teachers and for those of the people who are on the front lines those are the people having the day to day interaction with our children you know when you think about it if you have kids in school or if you have neighbors have kids in schools and if they have a problem in the classroom where is the first place that they go to to try to resolve that problem they go into the into the school house and into the classroom and talk to the teacher they want to get to the bottom of it right then and there and ultimately it's a matter of making sure that that teacher is the best qualified teacher that you can actually have in that classroom parents do not go to washington c and speak with the u s department of education to try to resolve some difficulty they have in their classroom parents do not come down here to speak with the secretary of education to rise to difficult to deal with difficulties they have in their classroom they go to the teacher and tell you to sit down and work things out to try to get to the heart of it and the root of the cause of the problem and the gentleman from georgia eliza's this and he realizes in order to make a better classroom where more learning can occur where we can have better school houses and classrooms where we can raise up the quality of education is to raise up the quality of our teachers gentlemen george's amendment just does that by ending programs that are in effect that ineffectual and don't get the job done and the good republicans like block grants and i also had the impression that thoughtful republicans favorite is much local control is possible and yet this amendment would have us running in the opposite direction what this amendment would do is take the dollars in question out of a program which provides aid to all states in the union and instead reserves that money for use in just the few states who have bought into the approach that is supported by these two important to maintain the courage of one's doubts in an age of dangerous certainties and i have to say that i have a lot of dollars about what is the most effective way to teach children i don't think i have all the answers i don't think this house has all the answers and so i don't think we ought to be dictating to states what answers they seek in their teacher quality programs the virtue of the committee approach as opposed to the approach suggested by the amendment is that states can use the money in the block grant as it's provided in the committee bill and they can use it for any variety of tea of techniques including the one that is being promoted by the two gentleman pushing this it seems to me that at a time when we are already questioning the rigidity of no child left behind and i must confess i voted for no child left behind but with serious reservations and i will not vote to renew it unless those various evasions are corrected but it just seems to me that at a time when we are recognizing that no child left behind is needlessly rigid we should not be piling on to that rigidity with additional pieces of our own so with that i would simply urge members to allow states to continue to have the flexibility that they have georgia the sponsor them and i thank the gentleman for yielding and i appreciate the the chairs comments and i agree with him that we don't have all all the answers i would suggest however that what this amendment does is more appropriately prioritize monies based upon the concerns and recommendation of the department of education the difference the fundamental difference between the two programs that take the teacher quality state grants which is  that in many areas gets excellent results the differences are two that this amendment addresses one is that the overwhelming portion of the money that is available has been put into the teacher quality state grants moving from two point eight billion dollars last year to three point one billion dollars this year as opposed to the teacher incentive fund which would move from a high of one hundred million dollars in the last two years to ninety nine million dollars this year and in essence a a flat appropriations the other main difference is that the teacher incentive fun rewards results it rewards performance it rewards teachers and schools who are who are actually gaining those high quality results that we desire for all students across our nation so i would respectfully disagree with the chair that this is this is not prescriptive in its formula and the only rigidity that it has in it is that it requires results so hopefully the house will see that the the sense in looking at performance looking at quality teachers looking at what they're doing in the classroom and the results that they're getting and rewarding that kind of performance makes sense i would suggest that that's what most of us have said at home when we talk to our constituents and that this amendment aligns the actions of this house with what we have told  our constituents we would be supporting here in the house of representatives so i appreciate the time i encourage again the my colleagues to support this amendment and i yield back to the gentleman from texas thank you gentlemen for his leadership i compliment him on the amendment gentleman from ohio is recognized for five minutes first of all i want to express my appreciation to the chairman of the committee for putting in this program it's so vitally important to the inner cities to be able to attract the best teachers too often in the school systems have the best teachers all flee to the suburbs to they flee to the good schools and where we really need to top notch teachers are in the inner cities because our cities are really facing a crisis in the sense that their percentage of those who did not finish high school is growing and is a terrible waste of human tap capital we can't afford that and one of the important things is is to get these students in the early years first grade kindergarten second grade third grade to like school and to like to learn and that takes a quality teacher and this program and thanks to the chairman we have the ninety nine and the proposal for some additional this program and allows schools to give some financial incentives to the really top notch teachers to take on that responsibility i have us instance in my district where a teacher quadriplegic has inspired a class in the in a low income neighborhood and it's made a world of difference in these young people and so i just want to tell the express my again my appreciation of the chairman and the interest of the gentleman from georgia in the teacher incentive program because i think it's one of the vital challenges in addressing the  dropout rate in the big cities to ensure that these students get a taste for education and they enjoy the experience and they stay with it and i'm hopeful that the states will use these funds and in that way to give incentives to the very best teachers to go into the toughest areas and inspire young people i would say the teach for america program does a great job on that in that respect because they send their students are there to teach for america candidates in the very difficult situations and i hope that we can address the dropout rate prospectively when we have a nation where thirty one percent statistically do not finish high school and we know it's much larger in the cities and so there's the challenge and this program which the chairman was gracious enough to include in the original bill is one of the keys i think to addressing that problem so i again command the chairman and also the gentleman from georgia for their concern to inspire and make it attractive for the quality teachers the teacher is where it is if you ask any group as i do and i give a speech how many of you had a teacher maybe two the made a difference in your life and every hand of wop and that's says so eloquently and we want to have teachers in the toughest situations where they their students will at some time in the future say yes i had a teacher that made a difference in my life and that's why i'm here that's why i finished high school that's why i went on i went into a charter school where i was a teach for america and it was one of the toughest parts of the city and the teacher there said as we walk through the door these are fifth graders what do we do in twenty ten or twenty eleven without missing a beat every student said we go to college now fight i've done that five years ago or three i said let's you know what do we do i don't know dropout probably so i want to again commend the chairman for many parts of this bill that are important to giving teachers inspiration and schools better that so that whomever was here twenty five years well now will not be saying at thirty one percent of the students in the united states dropped out we can ill afford that in the competitive world in which we live i chairman i rise today to offer an amendment that mirrors the president's budget request to eliminate funding in the bill for the alaskan native education equity program so doing this will save our nation taxpayers thirty three point nine million dollars now as with many of the programs that you will be hearing us discussing both yesterday and today in the future this program does in fact support a worthwhile goal and that is providing additional educational services and programs to alaska natives the services provided to alaska native their students through this program however redundant many of the other type of programs are provided through various other agencies most notably through the department other education programs to see our funding priorities must be exactly that when we come together as a conference and then as a body to support appropriation bills we are called upon by the american taxpayers to set those things priorities just as the american family budget is created each day each week each month  american families across this country and they sat down at their kitchen table to say what are their priorities when it comes to spending their hard earned dollars they have educational interest at mind as well they have children that they have to decide whether they're going to be sending them to college this year or next to high price college or moderate price college etc they have to set priorities when it comes to how much money will they be able to set aside in their savings accounts for educational purposes or if their kids are in any case through twelve system whether it's public school or private school likewise the american public has to set their own priorities decide how much money they can set aside if they choose to set their or send their kids to a private school or if their kids are going to a public school how much money will they set aside so that they can spend on their children when it comes to educational purposes for extracurricular activities these are supplements to the school program american families are called upon to do this every single day every single week of the year with their budget and all we are asking right now is that the u s congress and then the senate do the exact same thing with their hard earned tax dollars that they entrusted us in this manner what we're doing is saying that we have several programs same laudable goals we're shifting eliminating one and shifting the dollars to the other so the program gets done i would like now to bring my colleagues attention to a recent report by the nonpartisan tax validation this report details how much money each state taxpayers contributes in federal dollars and how much money each state taxpayers receive back this is very interesting especially if you come from the state in new jersey as i do according to this report alaska which is the subject of this amendment ranks second in the nation getting a dollar eighty back for every one dollar that the taxpayers up there pay in federal tax taxes in contrast my good state of new jersey ranks dead last we received back a paltry sixty three cents back for every dollar that a new jersey taxpayer sends to washington and what does that mean that means that new jersey taxpayers working just as hard as the taxpayers up in the great state of alaska are are sending a dollar in with their paycheck each week or multiple dollars as it is but at the end of the day when they see how congress appropriates those dollars new jerseyans find out that they're only getting back sixty three cents on the dollar conversant we look up to alaska the subject of this amendment how much does every taxpayer get back from the dollar that they contribute to the good of the country in the state they get back a dollar eighty a dollar eighty it's a fairness issue quite honestly madam chairman where are dollars going and with the new democrat democratic majority passing the largest tax increase in american history recently and its budget the burden on new jersey taxpayer ours will only continue to rise at the same time we are providing nearly forty million dollars for redundant services in a state that is already nearly on a two to one ratio on every dollar that it sends to washington programs like this come before us we should put ourselves in the shoes of the family in the same situation so do you think do you think the families would go out would you the families from the other side of the aisles would go out and spend their her hard earned tax dollars on a month's worth of groceries the clerk if he had the amendment that the gentleman was speaking about on native alaskans and he said he does not have that amendment so i'm trying to figure out are we responding to the native the native hawaiians language but there are three million nine hundred seven why there are two amendments at the death the amendment that we are i think worth it that i was speaking on is my memo which goes to the issue of native alaskan the gentleman may be referring to another subsequent amendment that will later on refer to native hawaiians it's the same life i've certainly never been in an alaskan school but my grandfather taught me a long time ago and i'm sure you've heard this many times in your own lives but he used to say that nothing is more expensive in the long run than a badly educated child and i don't care if that child comes from new jersey or wisconsin or hawaii or alaska a badly educated child is a menace to society why just imagine a badly educated child could grow up to be elected as a member of congress from new jersey or wisconsin they could come into this chamber filled full of all sorts of half baked ideas and the congress would be plagued with having to spend hours and hours dealing with those ideas i'm sure og presented a few of the bad ideas myself to this house in that time the point is that  may seem remote and far away but the fact is that there are special children who do have special needs i does anyone really believe that we are spending enough on indian education programs around the whole country for instance and yet we're told by the administration that we ought to eliminate the program for alaska native students because they benefit from the indian education programs well i've got tribes in my own state and i know how inadequate some of those schools are though they're trying the best they can i would simply say that if the authorizing committee wants to deal authorize this program then fine but i see no purpose right now in singling out one special group of children's for x kluge and from this bill and this account i can think of a lot of things  that go on in alaska that i would just as soon see stop before i would see them stop educating children with special needs i wish that they would take a different approach for instance on their highly apes i think that their lack of judgment on that score has to embarrass the entire congress but i don't think that the the indian children or the native alaskan children who are educated under this should wind up being the principal victims of that action by the state of alaska i sense in this house that people are touchy about voting for anything for alaska since that happened well i don't want these kids to be unlucky enough to run into accidents it started out to happen to somebody else so it seems to me that the wise course is to is to reject the gentleman's amendment and allow the authorizing committee to determine whether or not this program ought to continue or not with that i yield back the balance chairman's comment as far as whether we should be excluding one set of children from this but that's exactly the point i believe that we should not be excluding any children and the language in the bill that's before us right now excludes the children of forty nine other states as representative of the fifth district of new jersey i'm concerned i come to the floor because that excludes the children underlying bill excludes the children from the state of new jersey with this special extra funding i mean sure the gentleman that there are just children with special needs in the state of new jersey his children has special needs in the state of wisconsin as well they are excluded from the alaskan native student program and i'm trying to bring fairness to the overall program which is was also what the administration is trying to do and let me just make that point i recognize the importance of ensuring that alaska native students receive appropriate educational services and this request this week is consistent with the ministrations policy of increasing resources for high priority program programs by eliminating small category categorical programs that have limited effect such as this in addition the services provided to alaska native students through this program are redundant with many of the programs through the department indian education program already being funded school districts that wish to implement program and services tailored to the educational cultural needs of alaska native students are able to use funds already provided under other federal programs and the  one billion dollars in direct support for the education of indians and alaska natives and in addition to this significant funds that are provided to those students who receive services through broader federal programs grant programs such as title one grants to local educational agencies and special grants for them is point this out as well alaska native students will also benefit in addition to that billion dollars they also already referenced they will also benefit from the department of indian education programs which provide more than one hundred eighteen million dollars hundred eighteen million dollars in formula grants to school districts and competitive grants for demonstration and professional development programs as well as the these programs serves as the department of principal vehicle for addressing those unique educational and cultural related needs which the gentleman from wisconsin is referring to already bottom line is there are already programs established that addresses those concerns that the gentleman from wisconsin raises the administration recognizes this and appropriately already appropriate or requested appropriations of a billion dollars for overall plus the hundred eighteen million dollars in special formula grants so is our present position in line with the administration that we do need to address the specific needs of those children who are in unique circumstances such as we find with native american indians in alaska but we do not need to do it in a redundant manner and finally i would just conclude by saying gemma from wisconsin is correct we do not want to have children not being educated regardless of what state they come from whether it's from  jersey the good state of georgia good state of wisconsin or alaska but we are not doing the children any favor whatsoever if we do not appropriate the dollars in a manner that effectively get that job done this amendment works to effectuate make sure those kids get properly that from my background and i have a high school education attended college for a short period of time proud to be married but let me say this that what i have found is that education is best from the local level and i don't know that the federal government can really take some of these programs and put them down into a local school district and say here's this money use it for this purpose or you don't get the money to meet with me but better some of this money was set down in a block grant to the state and then to stay to dinner the problem and especially the fun and problems that they ha well i'm standing here today madam speaker speaking for young people in alaska i'm sure that when mr young gets the opportunity he'll be down here to speak for him too i wasn't aware of the fact that that young children in alaska needed the tender mercies of the gentleman from new jersey to speak for them i would think that the children in new jersey have all they can deal considering the level of the rhetoric i've heard for the last few minutes to get the best education possible they're the congress is certainly not being well informed about it today and i most certainly agree with the other gentleman who said that education is best left to the local level how about letting the gentleman from alaska or any other place where they understand what the educational needs of their children are handle it at their level that would be the way to take care of it with a gentleman with a gentleman you know i will not yield you had more than enough time to make your case i'm going to make a case for those children and the children in hawaii and the children in every other state an area in this country who deserves the support of this congress i've heard talk already down here today about taxes being paid you don't think taxes are paid in alaska or hawaii or elsewhere when you talk about local programs i have the local programs that we have in hawaii i'm sure mr young has the local programs that we have in alaska i haven't examined in the new jersey but as i say i've heard there rhetoric for the last few minutes maybe i better go up there give them a hand and i respect every member in this floor and i expect to receive the same in return no when the when the state of hawaii came in to the union one of the protocols of the admissions act is a requirement that we recognize and take care of our hawaiian children we have programs that are geared towards that we have a stork early black colleges in this country we have established over the past few decades studies in various backgrounds ethnically culturally racially we have caucuses in this in this congress that recognize the various backgrounds from which our people come but why i can tell you just as alaska is because i've visited alaska and i have been and  had the opportunity to speak and to with the teachers in the school children in alaska we're all multicultural multiracial racial multiethnic country we're a multi racial multi ethnic multi background rainbow state in hawaii and we recognize those backgrounds and we try to take care of it in our educational processes all we're asking for is the opportunity here to fund helped fund local programs that have local assistance as well that's done in program after program after program not of the gentleman does not care to have the federal government fund anything for education in the united states that's his prerogative i recognize that and respected i don't approve of and i hope the congress won't approve of it but they have any member come in and come into another state without any notice to anybody that they're going to do it by the way a courtesy title extend to anybody in here i have to find out about it by osmosis that this is being done it's shameful and it needs to be stopped the need to have an end put to it now of the gentleman has specific objections to anything being done in alaska he should have taken it up with the gentleman from alaska that's minimum courtesy in this body but to come on the floor and they kind of accusations that are made today is an insult to the gentleman from alaska an insult to the appropriations committee and an insult to the house of representatives to anything in the next one that comes up i hope that whoever offers that amendment with the why would have had the courtesy to sit down with me and with representative her ono and specifically state what their objections were so that we might be able to accommodate them had a legitimacy in foundation that's the minimum we can expect from one another this is a shameful process i hadn't realized until right now that we could solve the educational problems of this country if we could just keep those alaskan kids from getting a dime for any program this been put together by representative young and the local educators in alaska   best how we should use our vote to either concur or disagree with the manner in which this body's fans hard work and american taxpayer money and so i don't i don't  wouldn't criticize anybody for coming to the floor and providing their assessment of the priorities as to where they believe hard earned american taxpayer money ought be spent and i'm pleased to yield to my good friend from new jersey for  on alaska does not get a dime as my testimony indicated alaska will continue to get more than a dime as a president's budget request included one billion dollars in direct support for the education of any new alaskan natives that's more than one dime  will also get one hundred eighteen million dollars in formula grants to school districts in competitive grants for demonstration and professional development programs that is more than one dime finally to the gentleman's from hawaii's first point which he agreed with the previous comment that education is best done locally and that the folks of alaska know best about how to educate their children and the folks from hawaii know best how to educate their children and i would presume he would agree that the people from new jersey also know how best to educate their children i would ask the gentleman from hawaii if he truly believes that he support our initiatives that my initiative in the learn act to allow states to opt out of the cumbersome regulations of education from the federal level and keep their dollars in hawaii and keep their dollars in alaska so that they would be in the best position to educate their children and with that yield back to the gentleman i thank my friend for offering them and i thank him for his explanation and and concur that there is no desire to remove all funding in this area that would be a different debate a different discussion that's not the debate that we're having right now i do want to madam chair the point out the larger picture the bigger picture that we're talking about here and that is the issue of fiscal responsibility and the issue of responsibly spending american taxpayer money hard earned american taxpayer money i was pleased to hear the chair of the appropriations committee say to the gentleman from new jersey that that if the committee determined that those funds ought not be authorized that they would be pleased to remove those funds or something like that i would point out to the gentleman and to my colleagues that on page three zero two three zero three three zero four one three zero five of the report of the committee on appropriations there is a paragraph that states appropriation is not authorized by law i would suggest that we revisit these items in require that they be authorized pursuant to clause three f one b of rule thirteen of the rules of the house the following table lists the appropriations in the accompanying bill this bill we're talking about right now which are not authorized by law for the period concerned it may be helpful madam chair for individuals to hear which ones aren't authorized not talking about the quality of those programs or the need for them but the fact that this is a process that has come about where we are appropriating money for many programs which are in fact not authorized department of labor for example training and employment services not authorized since two thousand and three appropriations in this bill three point five billion dollars not authorized in this bill the veterans workforce improvement program not authorized since two thousand and three appropriated in this bill one point six four nine billion dollars national health service corps not authorized since two thousand and two again not talking about the appropriateness of the authorization  appropriations itself but whether or not the process is such that that it ought not be authorized prior to prior to carrying out the appropriation in this bill one hundred thirty one million dollars not authorized in this bill healthy start not authorized since two thousand and five in this bill hundred and twenty million dollars not authorized in this bill rural health outreach grants not authorized since two thousand and six funding in this bill to a level of fifty two point nine million dollars not authorized in this bill cancer registries not authorized since two thousand and three in this bill funded at the rate of forty seven point nine million dollars not authorized  bill oral health promotion not authorized since two thousand and five funding in this bill thirteen point one million dollars not authorized in this bill substance abuse and mental health services programs not authorized since two thousand and three funding in this bill three point two six billion dollars so madam chair and the list goes on and on and i would draw my colleague's attention to it because i would agree with the chairman of the appropriations committee that we ought to be concerned about what's authorized sadness my friends this is a sad day in his body apparently the students in new jersey are trying to take money away from alaskan students clytie state again state a state instead of talking about education i'm a this is a harmful thing to do we are a new state i have poverty's you lean think and yet you say you want my money my money or my students that need to be educated to go to new jersey that's a sad day for this house i want to thank the chairman and ranking member in the preparations for putting this in the bill and if we continue this will be called biting one another very much like the in my state that killed our own there's always another day when those who bite will be killed too and i'm very good at that i just think is this great to have one state the education one state being pitted against another state this is an education these are needy students a minority that has been neglected has not been helped to the degree they should have been over the centuries i can truthfully saying privately say we have been good in the last years last thirty five years i have provided education i have supported education my people have risen and became leaders because this congress all the wisdom abiding this money and now we have an individual from a state that doesn't has a great reputation in the world trying to take money from one state to give them another state and that's the case then let's all just have a big donnybrook right here great i'm really ready because what we're doing is dead wrong i told a gentleman here about two years ago shame on you shame on you shame on each one of you and the guys are trying to not spend money and guys are trying to balance a budget that take an attack education in states why and i left that have the least representation as far as numbers go and if there is a guilt here it's because i have been able to represent my state better than new jersey i suggest new jersey out elect new congressman i would suggest that respect we can do the job i believe that really true if they can't do the job they like somebody new is not why i'm for the rest of you that continue this constant harping on this for about cutting money from elder areas under the guise of balance and budget i say shame when you do i say shame on you because we're not doing the legislative process any good regards losing power in this house democrat or republican we should be leading this nation and we're at a standstill now that's one reason our ratings are very low totally and that is a shame because we do have the work of this nation we should be doing that we should be addressed we should take care of it i don't agree on everything that side does we should not always agree on everything but we should have the ability to get together and solve problems and to legislate and we have not done that so i am a little frustrated and like i rice is that up appropriate political decor and for a member to say that he represents estates in a better manner than the entire delegation of us another state represent their state and their delegation on specific words you know if the demand for a ruling is made in a timely manner and i'm sorry just didn't hear the less she was incapable of ruling on past occurrences if there is an engaged in an harmony in the tax and perhaps could have had their at least one of in their words taken down having served in this body for several years i have yet to discover any direct correlation between the stridency with which one delivers their message and the righteousness behind their cause many have come here to say that somehow house decorum to demand that one speaks to another member before offering an amendment that somehow may be injurious to their districts interest and all the years that i've served in this body i've yet to have somebody come to me and explain to me ahead of time how they're a minute how it impacts the people in the fifth congressional district in texas yet every day we see something like the largest tax increase in history certainly has a terrible impact on the hardworking people  fifth congressional district of texas nobody sought out my permission before they brought that particular piece of legislation to the floor and we have pieces of trade legislation or should we call any trade legislation coming to the floor harming my count calf operators in the fifth district of texas nobody seeks my permission or acquiescence before that legislation is brought to the floor and we've got legislation imposing death taxes on people who work their heart a whole life to build small businesses in the fifth district x is nobody seeks my acquiescence or permission before bringing that legislation to the floor i also notice that an earlier speaker referred to the funds in th amendment as quote unquote my money well isn't that a fascinating concept my money i thought it was the taxpayers money many of whom reside in the state of new jersey and many of whom reside in the state of texas and i'm interested in why why we seem to have on top of all the other cation for education funds we have and it's not exactly like this is an era area federal funding that has gone lacking last  look since nine hundred ninety five the elementary and secondary secondary education budget function is increased one hundred forty seven percent that's about the highest increase of any budget function in that period of time i wonder mr chairman maybe we ought to go out and create a special education fine for new jersey and for taxes and for arkansas on for washington for maine and new hampshire why don't we create one for all fifty states and then what we can do is we can go ahead with the democrats plan for the largest tax increase in history we take all this money away from american families then washington can keep say a third of it and  and inefficiency and then we can design these programs with our state names on them take credit for it and then hand it back to the taxpayers whose money it is in the first place so i want to salute the gentleman from new jersey for his courage for his steadfast leadership on this issue his dedication to education his dedication to fiscal responsibility in for coming and suffering these  attacks that mr chairman that mr chairman is what is truly shameful about this particular moment and i'd be happy to yield to the gentleman from new jersey if you would request more time and i thank the gentleman for from texas for yielding for just a moment as a representative from the fifth district of the state of new jersey i remind the gentleman from alaska that the state of new jersey has thirteen congressional representatives from both sides of the aisle and so when the gentleman from alaska makes reference to hours representatives from the state of new jersey not doing their job and not representing the the people of the state i remind him that it is an accusation again simply this one gentleman who is standing at the microphone right now proposing this one amendment but as an entire body of thirteen gentleman from both sides of the aisle who i say and i commend bo representatives from the from the democrat and republican side of the aisle for appropriately and admirably representing the good citizens of the state of new jersey my colleagues from the other twelve district do not the need to be defended against these rash accusations by the gentleman from from alaska but i do come to the floor now to properly defend them nonetheless i also take up the comment to which is the gentleman from alaska has stated in his statement which was it is my money or it is alaskans money or maybe that's the problem that we've had in this congress for too long even when the republicans were in a majority and now that the democrats are the majority to members too many members of congress these the dollars that we appropriate here are not the taxpayer dollars but see it as their very own personal checking account maybe that is the fundamental problem that we have with why we spend more and more each year and i remember when the democrats were running for office this past election they were railing against the republican party that we were the party out of control spending more and more and more now that they were elected to office that they would come here and rein things in when it came to spending and i served on the budget committee when the democrats were in the when in the minority and how they railed against us from the other side of the aisle and at times i even agreed with them in some of the charges that they made that we were spending too much money and now when the democrats take control what do they do they give us the largest tax increase in us history and they see the spending continue to go through the roof and where it is that where those dollars come from they come from american taxpayers from the family budget from men and women and alaska and new jersey and across this country working hard just to get by and yet they're being forced by the democrats tax increases to send more dollars here to washington and when the when a gentleman from alaska comes forth and says well it's my money well maybe that's why in some respects when there's projects that are appropriated such as bridges to nowhere and the like the american public says that's our dollars going to washington and it shouldn't be looked at to for just such frivolous things as this the amendment that's before us right now is an appropriate amendment to say that that hard earned tax dollars should go to programs that are necessary but be spent in an effective manner members from all fifty states the the need to educate our children members from all fifty states including the state of new jersey see the need to deal with the issue of alaska native students and that is why this administration has already already requested appropriations of a billion dollars for that one hundred eighteen billion dollars another category laden as such as that so all we're doing is saying make sure that those dollars that come from new jersey and elsewhere be spent effectively and finally on the close in this point of my money maybe the gentleman from alaska was not listening at the opening of my comment when i said that new jersey taxpayers send a dollar to washington and only get sixty three cents back on the dollar whereas his his constituents yes they do much better they send a dollar to washington and then they get a dollar eighty back i would ask the gentleman from alaska and other members in the democrat side of the aisle where do they think that other eighty cents on the dollar is coming from i'll tell you it's coming from the good hard working taxpayers from the state in new jersey and connecticut and new york and other states that are donors states to states like alaska that we are subsidizing their programs and i would ask the gentleman from from alaska to refrain from there for referring to it his money it is the taxpayers from the fifth  district and the rest in new jersey where the democrats this trigger republican district who are helping funding these programs and with that you'll back the gentle lady on thank you i appreciate the german yelling back i want to just say that i'm very concerned when there is an attitude here in the congress that it is our money to spend and i want to make sure that nobody ever forget that we are the stewards of money that we legally steal from the people of this country we take it from them under duress and we have a tremendous responsibility to make sure that that money is being spent well there's no such thing as federal dollars it's all money that belongs to the american taxpayers and we're up here confiscating a great deal of their money and deciding how to spend it and it's up to us to make sure that we spend it there either very carefully and very very say or later the constitution provides for no role for the federal government in education we're already overstepping our balance and if we're going to overstep our bounds we better be extraordinarily careful in that respect a member of your of the republican party to get up and defend what has happened here and in the investments that we're making i think exposes what's been going on here for the last several months is that we have a fringe group mr chairman of members of this congress who consistently get up and try to pin members against each other try to find specific programs and somehow expose somebody is somehow being irresponsible and i think it's a for narry what happened here that we have an extreme group in this congress that consistently tries to divide us when we're trying to get the people's work done this is the united states of america and the gentleman from new jersey benefits from the federal court system that helps wall street thrive it's the rule of law in this country that is funded by the taxpayer courts judges buildings the rule of law that allows wall street to benefit that allows citizens in new jersey to earn a good living and to pay taxes and we have members from texas mr chairman the great investments that this country has made in that great state nasa the universities texas has benefited from those investments members from the west where the west wouldn't even exist we have congressional districts that wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the investment of the of the federal government to build dams the colorado river basin project there wouldn't be congressional districts in the west if it wasn't for the federal investment for the united states of america for god's sake and let's stop trying to divide each other let's recognize that this bill that has been supported unanimously from the appropriations committee democrats and republicans and i want to thank the distinguished member from new york who put so much thought and concern into this bill the gentleman from ohio mr regular gentleman from ohio mr hobson who have consistently tried to make investments and recognize that people in alaska kids in alaska need help and i'm ok with that and i've never been to alaska but we have needs let's stop trying to divide each other and stop the lectures of fiscal responsibility the mess we're in is here because a three trillion dollars in debt that our friends have borrowed from china and ship hannon opec countries over the past six years borrowed more money mr chairman from foreign interests than every president and congress before them combined to the lectures on fiscal responsibility we're here now let's make these investments let's compete in a global economy by making these investments we're competing against one point three billion people in china one point two billion people in india we need to make these investments we only have three hundred million people in this country they need to be educated they need to be healthy and they need to live in a clean environment that's what this bill does you know back to bounce my issues the gentleman from new jersey raised i believe a legitimate issue and that is the issue of the equity of people from one state paying in much more money to the federal government than they get back versus people from another state getting much more money back from the federal government than they pay in and questioning a particular program that's the kind of debate that is supposed to occur here it's the kind of debate that should occur here indeed i think everyone on this floor acknowledges we have a problem with having spent too much money with a problem with too much debt and i think the people on this side of the aisle have tried to make the point that at some point we need to stop that spending or slow that spending and i believe the people  forward this discussion at least from this side of the aisle have radically acknowledge that a great deal of that we're spending occurred on our watch we're not trying to point blame but we do have a duty to come here and debate our financial priorities and to debate these programs and with that idea of the gentleman from georgia i think the gentleman for yielding and i want to thank my friend from new jersey for offering this a minute because i did not know that this would open up to this type of discussion that it has but i think this is great for this body and my friend from how mr ryan who madam chairman ass mr chairman i stood up on that podium and listen to many nights with a thirty something group that talked about the spending  republicans i hope you'll come back now and talk about the largest tax increase in the history of this country he talked about dividing members and i stood there mr chairman right where you're at and i listen to the rhetoric that was designed to divide members in talking about a spending and what's good investment i don't know when we were the majority why the things we weren't doing wasn't a good investment now all of a sudden spin in eleven big in dollars more than the president's recommendation is a good investment i'm not go hear is a good investment so spending more money is a good investment in any talking about that we borrow money from foreign countries i don't agree with that but you know what they probably won't borrow money from a foreign country you know what they're going to do mr chairman they're going to go up on your taxes they have passed in our passing appropriations bills other pieces of legislation that's going to call us this country to have the largest tax increase in history so i want to thank him for bringing this up and i want to thank the gentleman from new jersey for bringing this because this is a perfect example that we have to prioritize and we all have different ideas about prioritize we all have different ideas about who's writing a budget if it's a good investment or if his w it so i support the gentleman samina because i don't think that those children in alaska regardless of member of my party says it or not or the children of hawaii need special this by simply noting that no member who brings an amendment to an appropriations bill is criticizing the ranking member of the chairman of that committee indeed i think it's a longstanding tradition and an honorable one in this body that appropriations bills come to the floor under an open rule so that we can have these discussions and the votes reflect the will of the nation as they should so i want to make it clear that i don't believe by the gentleman from new jersey or myself or any other member of this body any member on the minority side offering an amendment and there have been on the majority side there have been a mammoth offered in doing so that they are in any way criticizing the good hard work indeed i think we're honoring the tradition of the appropriations committee in that these are in fact brought to the floor under an open rule and we have full well what purposes you don't arise mr speaker i move to strike the last word for the purpose of engaging in the colloquy the gentleman from was not going to show was right next five minutes for decades during the cold war hundreds of thousands of department of energy employees including thousands of workers at the iowa army in an army ammunition plant in my district worked diligently at our nation's nuclear weapons facilities these men and women worked with radioactive another hazardous materials and some ultimately sacrifice their health for the security of our nation in response congress an act of the energy employees occupational illness compensation program act to provide compensation and medical benefits of these former nuclear employees the intent of this act was to honor and care for cold war veterans who became ill working at the iowa army ammunition plant another deal with the facilities however due to mismanagement and delays the compensation program has only pa eleven thousand eight hundred twenty nine or twenty three percent of the fifty one thousand one hundred eighty eight claims that have been filed nationwide my constituents and thousands of former deal with employees like them have been subjected to bureaucratic red tape and unfair burdens of proof delaying their compensation and even in some cases preventing them from filing claims congress made clear in an acting the compensation program that our nation's cold war heroes should be just compensated for the illnesses they contract did while serving our country sadly the department of labor has failed to ensure that the claims are properly processed and approved mr chairman i respectfully request your assistance in asking the department of labor to report to congress on the administration of the energy employees occupational illness compensation program and specifically i believe it is vital that the secretary provide congress with information concerning first the length time it takes to process and evaluate a claim second the reason behind the reasons behind the current backlog in processing these claims third the staffing of the relevant offices assigned to administer the program fourth the quality of communication with claimants fit the process or which claims are approved or denied as well as the oversight currently in place to assure that claims are proper handled properly and six the possibility providing greater assistance to the department of labor to those wishing to file claims many of whom are elderly and import health our nation's former nuclear workers are truly among the unheralded heroes of the cold war we owe them and their families better than bureaucratic red tape and i would greatly appreciate your assistance in ensuring that the department of labor remains committed to providing these workers with the recognition treatment and compensation they deserve and i yield to the gentleman from wisconsin i thank you gentlemen for raising this important issue the purpose of the energy employee occupation all of this compensation program is to fairly compensate our nation's former nuclear workers for illnesses they contract and while serving our country form an apartment of energy employees who are now elderly and ill have been subjected to bureaucratic runarounds by the agencies responsible for adjudicating their claims the department of labor is responsible for administering compensation for these former nuclear workers and i concur with the gentleman from i was a report from the secretary dealing the minister  detailing given stray ssion of the compensation program would provide congress with highly valuable insight into the agency's implementation of the program streamlining and expediting the method so which claims are processed and compensation carried out with due diligence by the administrate reclaiming my time i thank the chairman for his wehling us address this important issue and look forward to working with him i now yield to the gentleman from the mexico thank you very much and i thank the gentleman i must be justly compensated in a reasonable period of time and as you have said these men and women are american heroes and they really made a difference for our for our country i have been an outspoken critic both on the appropriations subcommittee and in my district of e e o i c p a s lack of removing the bureaucratic hurdles faced by claimants i thank my two colleagues and join them in requesting the department of labor to provide this information and i yield back to the gentleman reclaiming my time i think the gentleman for his support and look forward to working with him on this issue and i yield back the balance of my time reserves and then an offered by ms fox of virginia page eighty two line six after the first dollar amount richard reduced by ten million dollars page eighty two line thirteen after the dollar amount insert reduced by ten million dollars eighty four line twenty four after the dollar amount it sir increased by ten million dollars page eighty four line twenty five after the dollar amount is through increased by ten million dollars minor correction i'm from north carolina my mammoth would reduce funding for the fund of the improvement of education by ten million dollars while increasing i d e a state grants by ten million dollars transferring these funds will ensure that congress does not create a new unauthorized ten million dollars grant program for quote full service community schools unquote with the fund for the improvement of education a program which was specifically mentioned in the committee report we should not be using appropriations bills to authorize programs it appears that language in the committee report for this program has been taken from legislation introduced by the house majority leader as well as in the senate by senator nelson their bill would create a two hundred million dollar full service community school grant program what exactly is a full service community school according to the underlying funding bill it's a quote public elementary secondary school that coordinates with community based organizations and public private partnerships to provide students their families and the community access to comprehensive services the language festivus of the grants must be used to provide not fewer than three services selected from a variety of different services including community service service learning opportunities nutrition services job training career counseling primary health and dental care mental health counseling services and adult language including instruction in english of the second language i'm concerned we're moving schools away from focusing on the basics academics our schools still have room for much improvement in ensuring all students are proficient in the basics of math reading writing science and history so why is the federal government sending money to turn schools into social medical educational job training hubs i am also concerned about and the unsettling prospect of having adult non family members of the community regularly visiting school grounds for job training and medical and mental health services when young child children and teenagers are present combining schools with health care and other social services for community residents poses a danger to students that would need to be addressed in any future legislation since nine sixty five congress has increased the role of federal government in primary public public primary and secondary education as well as in higher education if history's taught us anything about education it's that the proliferation of federal programs and regulations  has not improved education in a time where the federal government continues to spend more and more expand its reach with very limited results i question the need for us to meddle in a favor such as this with this in mind my man would transfer ten million dollars from the fund for the improvement of education to id a grants these grants help states and localities pay for the rising cost of special education for six point nine million children with  amount of the state grants any amount is helpful and fully funding congress's commitment to fund forty percent of the average per pupil excess cost of educating students with disabilities i d e a part b grants to states is funded a only eleven point two nine billion which is seven billion or forty one percent below the two thousand and seven authorized level of one thousand nine hundred two billion hours my colleagues to vote for this amendment to ensure that any quote full service community school legislation goes forward through the proper authorizing process not through the appropriations process and we put money which desperately needed as we all know from hearing from schools in our districts and i reserve the we actually would say one million dollars with this amendment and so the c b o t indicate that the amendment is is elaine neutral it didn't hear the last part two fundamental problems that i have with this amendment first of all it seeks to cut ten million dollars from a from an item in the bill which is meant to establish a full service community schools these are supposed to be schools which test the concept of making schools neighborhood centers which include early childhood education remedial education academic enrichment activities of programs that promote parental involvement and family literacy mentoring and othe development programs it's meant to be a much more holistic educational experience than is usually found in in an individual school and we believe that that deserves an opportunity to be tested but secondly i would simply say that less this amendment be portrayed as an amendment that does anything significant for special education i want to point out that this is a specially and especially marginal amendment the damage it does to the neighborhood school concept of that we're trying to explore in the bill is far larger than the negligible impact that it has on the special education program what i mean by that is this special education is an eleven billion dollar program this amendment adds ten million dollars to it it is another one of those symbolic amendments which i i think want to be placed in context the committee has already increased this account by five hundred million dollars it is eight hundred million dollars above the president and it seems to me that by comparison the amendment is demonstrably but a blip on the radar screen in comparison to the funds we've already put in this bill and i know that many of these amendments can be offered and then they can be converted into nice sweetly packaged thirty second t v spots which in libya which tend to leave the impression that a member has done something significant unfortunately this amendment doesn't fit into that category of being significant and it may make a very good television spot but i doubt it's going to be very meaningful in the scheme of things and with that i would simply ask for a no vote and y intended to but i think it's a it's a it's a good amendment partially because it provides additional funds to i d e a we amended in committee we amended the bill to add three hundred thirty five billion dollars more to i a so it's is there was a substantial commit this is a small one but it's helpful but i think more importantly this concept of community schools is a wonderful concept but that's what we have committees for committees of jurisdiction to vet these ideas in my home town of syracuse there's lots of talk about community schools remembering that remembering that primary and secondary secondary education is the responsibility of the municipality the county and the state and not of the federal government is an important thing to consider a community school in syracuse is very different than a community school in maryland or california or arizona but more importantly than all of that is that our schools especially our inner city schools are having a very difficult job graduating the kids now in fact many of our urban schools are even graduating fifty percent of the kids who start in in ninth grade and that's a fact it's no one is comfortable with that fact but it is a fat so why would you put it provide or require or suggest to a school that is already only attaining fifty percent of its responsibility with its primary task why would you give them additional work why would you give them additional responsibilities maybe there's good reason for that but there's certainly a committee structure the education committee has has plenty of experts and staff to try to determine the best way to approach this i admire the author of the concepts  ingenuity but this really needs to go through committee to have proper authorization absent that i think this is a good idea ten million dollars will will go into a program that everyone knows needs more money that we're putting additional burdens i'm those local school districts by not providing this money it would provide some relief to them to meet the primary task of educating our kids and so i think this is a very good amendment i strongly support it and i would yield at this time to the author of the amendment such time as she may consume well thank you  appreciate the the ranking member for wheeling time to me and i want to say that i am very troubled by the fact that the terms that are being he used here that we want to test creating holistic educational experiences that's one of the problems again with our with the federal government being involved in the education process it is not up to us to be doing that the testing needs to be done at the local level there are programs north carolina has a tremendous number of programs where it's working through community centers sometimes at schools most of the time not where they're trying to do these kinds of things we don't need to be funding this  the federal level if the states want to do it they ought to be doing it and i think that calling this a symbolic commandment is a denigration it doesn't deserve this is a serious amendment we are violating our our processes were violating what we say we're going to do here appropriations bills should not be authorizing bills we separate that process i've not been here very long i know i don't know all the rules and the and the way things are done but i notice that the chairman reserved a point of order but they were able to refer to what a points of orders in order to authorize so when the majority wants to break the rules it easily breaks the rules to try to accomplish what it wants to accomplish when it can't accomplish it the other way so i'm very concerned about it and i think this is about there's a very valid amendment done very seriously i haven't said i'll be here for a couple of hours and have worked on this for many hours to think that it is frivolous or simply symbolic it's an important thing and i don't appreciate the m m being denigrated in the white been denigrated by the chairman of the committee concept of community schools mr walsh correctly refers to is a concept that is present in many states many communities my wife judy was a was the supervisor of early childhood education prince george's county maryland just down the road she started a concept in our county full service schools community schools there are now twenty four judy centers in the state of maryland maryland is paid for the start of the problem with a full service community school as judy found out and as all of us know is battles the turf battles are ferocious some people have made fun of the fact that it takes a village to raise a child now obviously hopefully every child has a good parent but we have many services available to make sure that our young people when they get to the ones grade are ready to succeed in the one thousand tenth and eleventh and twelfth grade but those services in many communities are discordant and not coordinated so the concept of a full service or a community school is to bring together services  in a forced way but in a cooperative way now the gentle lady refers to the authorization on appropriation bill i know that the ranking member shocked by that ever happening i remember perhaps for the eighty got here when bill frist added forty pages in the dead of night of authorizing language to an appropriation bill just a few years ago to preclude insurance company liability the fact of the matter is this ten million dollars in an i e d is to encourage facilitate cooperation not to mandate spending more money but to encourage educators social services childcare providers other services as they have in your state of new york i have visited some of them in the city so i would hope that we would not take this ten million dollars and add it to an eleven billion dollar program a critically important program gentle lady is absolutely correct but it is a program that is funded eight hundred million dollars more than president bush asked for by this bill in order to add that ten million dollars to an eleven billion dollars program you will undermine the effort to see if we can create cooperation in effect magnifying the role of each as they cooperate with one another that is the concept and it's a concept that works superintendent grasmick in my state has talked about this concept all over this country i've talked about it to sekai spelling i've talked about it to their predecessors in fact the gen lady there we did pass a bill through the house that didn't make it through conference which lynn woolsey had sponsored which had this concept it is a concept that the education labor committee is now considering they may go much broader than this but this is what in the is all about it's trying to facilitate better ways to deliver education to our children and i remind the gentleman from new york who's my friend and i'm pleased to see him as the ranking member but we do participate significantly in the education of children in this country particularly children at risk  that's what this attempts to do as well to magnify the services available coordinate them bring them together so their excess will by people who can't get in their car three dollars and fifteen cents and drive from this place to that place to the other place to get services for their children so i would hope ladies and gentlemen of this house that we would reject this amendment i thank the chairman for and polluting this provision in the bill say again that i'm sorry that my colleague from maryland is not aware of this really excellent program that exists in north carolina call smart start which did this back in one nine hundred ninety five where we pulled together these different agencies to work together on this very good concept but it's being done in states without federal dollars and i would urge the people in maryland to look at that concept and deal with it  it when i finish the other comments mr majority leader few don't mind thank you i've just a couple more things i want to make sure i say and i'm afraid i might get distracted  to say that i'm very concerned again not by your comments but by the comments of the chairman about the the denigration of the allocation of ten million dollars is negligible that's the attitude of people from washington that adding ten million dollars is is negligible that is that is hard for people in the who are paying their taxes every day to understand that i'm sure that the teachers and parents of special needs students who are getting just a small percentage of money already authorized by this federal government to do what we're demanding that they do they're not getting all their money now  m in the majority party for increasing the spending in this area but it is the biggest complaint that i get when i talk to people about what's happening in education and the federal role so i think we need to put every dime we can possibly find in the authorized programs already that are not spending what they should be spending and i would say i would find it hard to look in the eyes of a special needs parent the parent of a special needs child or the teacher of a contemporary of jim hunt who was a good friend of mine for the last forty five years and you mention the programs do you have a north carolina north carolina has been bobby s which of course of one of the former superintendents of your state system  your state has been an innovative progressive leader in educational issues and jim much been one of the educational leaders in our country i have no doubt because i've worked with him over the last twenty years that i've been in congress on various programs while i was governor and since then that yes you have moved ahead in north carolina but you've also done it in partnership with many federal programs i know that because i've worked with your governor on that i simply want to make that so is this statement by the jelly from california in regards to that event you know it would i would respectfully suggest that we return to the mammoth before we continue conversation another medical aid education program while this amount is less than the three hundred thirty million authorized by congress last year it's obviously a good improvement over the levels proposed by the by the president which is one hundred ten million and the senate appropriations committee which is two hundred million and the reason i wanted to have the colloquy is to go on record urged the chairman to do everything he can to not only maintain the house's funding level when the bill goes to conference and perhaps even be able to do more i think that we all have a a healthy understanding of what the children's hospitals g m a represents it's been an outstanding success it's important to note the children's hospitals receive eighty percent of whatever teaching hospitals receive on average from medicare's graduate medical education program in recent years children's hospitals have been able to sustain and improve they're training programs so that the shortages of pediatric specialists in our country can be addressed the program has also indirectly strengthen the world of children's hospitals as premier  pediatric centers of excellence they are the safety net for low income children in their communities and they're the centers of pediatric research as well so i want to thank the chairman for everything he's done to children's health i certainly will do everything i can to ensure that sufficient funding levels for children gametes are retained in conference i thank the chairman i also want to raise the issue about my strong support for increased funding for health information technology often referred to as health i t the adoption i believe of like tronic health record systems i think will have a profound effect on the health care delivery in our country i believe it will enhance patient safety reduce medical errors improve the quality of care for several years the administration and the congress have not committed enough funds to make this promise a reality in our country i most especially the chairman for weeding through it's really a difficult bill to put together because we're constrained money wise but if there's any opportunity at conference arizona page eighty two line six after the first dollar amount is certain to do so by ten million six hundred ninety five thousand dollars that from arizona's reckon us five minutes thank you very much and i hope this is a simple and straightforward amendment it is premised on the notion not that the program doesn't work but rather that when the task is finished the funding should stop this program the advanced credentialing program was established by the congress to develop teacher standards and have those standards developed by the national board for professional teaching standards or other nationally credentialed organization certification or credentialing organizations that task has in fact been accomplished the national board for professional teaching standards a private body has received more than one hundred eighty million dollars from the department of education center one hundred ninety one these federal funds supported the development and implementation of the certification standards and assessments in twenty four different academic fields that task has now been completed in addition since the legislation called for such standards to be established by other nationally recognized recognized certification or credentialing organizations the department awarded thirty eight point i'm sorry thirty two point eight million dollars in a five year grant to the american board for the certification of teacher excellence that board will receive the final year of its funding in fiscal year two thousand and seven by fiscal two year two thousand and eight the american board for the certification of teacher excellent will have successfully completed the development and implementation of its teacher credential system as a result states and local teaching organizations educational agencies will have not one but two different sets of standards to pick from one developed by the national board for professional teaching standards and one developed by the american board for the certification of teacher excellence i believe when the task has been completed it is important that we stop the funding i want to make clear that the purpose of this amendment is not to eliminate funding for states to encourage teachers to receive advanced degrees or to assist them in that endeavor my wife is a teacher she has a master's degree she received her advance credentialing in order to improve her education and her ability to serve as a teacher but the standards have now been accomplished the department as well supports giving states and district more tools to help them identify and retain effective teachers indeed the two thousand and eight budget requests two point eight billion dollars for improving teacher quality state grants program and an additional one hundred and ninety nine million dollars for the teacher incentive program these programs combine provide flexible sources for states and local education agencies to use to improve their teacher recruitment and retention systems according to their own needs the goal of this amendment is to simply acknowledge that the creation of the standards has been accomplished and accomplished by two different entities the national board for professional teaching standards and the american board for the certification of teacher excellence in addition with regard i would note for anyone concerned about this that the effects of the n b p ts credential system on student student achievement have been somewhat mixed there are studies which show that it has been  somewhat helpful however the studies found the positive spaza facts are very small and that they are neither large enough nor consistent as up to justify further federal funding beyond that which is provided in the existing two point eight billion for improving teacher quality state grants and the one hundred ninety nine million that are already referred to in teacher incentive fund training i do wish at this point that i had allocated the ten point seven million dollars that would be saved by this amendment to i d e a having listen to this question of the last bill i know that i d e s underfunded it has always been underfunded and i wish i had cast this amendment in that fashion i did not do so but i nonetheless would encourage  was underfunded i'm shocked i've never heard a gentleman say that anything was underfunded before but i want to kill him and you know i certainly believe i d e a is underfunded i know in my school districts in my that i would certainly support the gentleman's amendment if i thought that we had all of the excellent teachers in the country that we need but the fact is we don't this is not a program that should be cut back or eliminated this is a program that works this is a program which helps teach trainers to go through a rigorous certification process is they they are star teachers they go back to their school districts they become lead teachers in their schools and i hardly think that that is damaging the national interest and i must also confess a certain amount of confusion because  just about an hour ago we were told by a series of members that we should support the teacher incentive program because we needed to incentivize teachers to be to increase their skills take a look at the way this program has been evaluated the the national board for professional teaching standards tells us that this program raises student achievement it inspires deeper learning it improves teacher practice it creates transform an it professional development and it helps teachers or it helps and the schools to retain teachers let me say that there is a tiny increase in this program that increase is aimed at helping teachers from low income schools get mastered get mad master teacher certification we've been told for years that the toughest thing to do in education is to get your best teachers to go into your poorest schools or the sca schools in your poorest neighborhoods this is a program that's effective in doing that we ought not to throw the baby out with the bathwater i would urge opposition to team for the proceedings of the member not to buy the jump from arizona will be postponed the clock will continue reading eighty q line six after the first dollar amount insert reduced by twenty three million five hundred thirty three thousand dollars mr guests some of us been maybe disingenuous or doing different things with this amendment and general info how talked about a fringe group over here and i'm happy to be part of that fringe group the republican study committee i guess is who he was talking about in that we are trying to look after the taxpayers money for the past twelve years i would have to admit and although i've only been here three of those years that we spent too much money we expanded government too much and we didn't do what we should have been doing but it's good because i think a lot of people woke up after the last election and realize that we had lost our brand of being physical conservatives being responsible with the taxpayers money because it's not our money is their money they work hard for it every day and it we need to be more responsible with it and i think that the president got that message in in this budget he cut the funding for the riding instruction is twenty three point five million dollars or a very very small percentage of the hundred fifty two big and dollar budget that the majority party is offering for this appropriations bill which is a leavened big in more than the president offered and you know it doesn't hurt to zero a program out if it's not working or not doing his job or if the money can better be spent somewhere else in a different program something that has more advantages for more people under titles two three and four of the elementary and secondary education act the federal government provides extensive support to states and operates numerous programs designed to enhance teacher recruiting and training well many of these programs for that important services state would be well served to receive this funding in the form of a block grant when increased flexibility to use these funds on the programs most needed in that state in the chairman i know from talking to my local school board superintendents and school board members that they certainly agree with that no child left behind while working in a lot of situations has cost them more money really to implement those programs and they receive in federal dollars because a lot of that money is has to be spent in a certain area this would be an opportunity that we could take this very very small amount out the president recommended a zero it was funded  at twenty one point seven million last year so been a ten percent increase this year and just zero the program out and so it's a pretty simple amendment it puts back the  iting instruction program back to zero where the president put it and i hope that my colleagues will finally decide let's vote for one thing that actually cut something  appropriations bill mr chairman we were talking about and i believe the chairman of the committee said they cut two hundred fifty programs and i asked for a list of those programs i haven't received it yet so hopefully hopefully this will encourage him to support this amendment because it is the road on a program and also get me the list of the other two hundred fifty programs that this congress has cut so far this year with that m chairman let me assure the gentleman that the his party did not knew lose the last election because they did too much for education rather they lost the last election in my view because the public so clearly understood that they that their party preferred to put spending fifty seven billion dollars in tax cuts for people make over a million dollars to providing decent funding for education in the public understood that the other party preferred to spend six hundred billion dollars in iraq rather than spending a small portion of that at home for science and health care and the like to meet some of the needs of our own people that's why gentlemen's party lost the last election not because they did too much for education but because they were out of touch having said that let me simply say that this phone or this amenity eliminates funding for the national writing project i would simply point out that  this program supports teacher training programs so the teachers can help students write effectively and school districts match those funds dollar for dollar i must say all of us have large turnover of our staff here on capitol hill the number one problem that i have in my office and the number one problem i've heard so many other members comment on is that when you ng people come in and interview for jobs they don't know how to write when both of my sons went away to college at least my oldest son asked me do dad what do you think is the most important thing to learn and i said i think the most important thing to learn is how to write because if you can write clearly it means you're thinking clearly and if you're thinking clearly it means you can communicate and i would say that i don't think that this country is over blessed with a number of great writers ause i'm a say if you listen to some of the congressional speeches written by our staffs it would certainly agree that we need more help in writing in this country so let me simply say that i understand that we're engaged in a little bit of a filibuster by amendment but nonetheless i want to take this time to simply urge members to vote against this amendment if you believe in raising the quality of the discourse in this country you have to start with writing and that's what this program tries to do i would urge a no vote on the amendment yield back the balance this is the hence ruling amendment page eighty three line fourteen and fifteen produced by seventy two million six hundred seventy four thousand dollars for what gentlemen i believe jim has risen too early we have not yet reached that portion stevens who i will aptly name this program because they have dedicated their lives to trying to make this country better inside our schools and now this program provides the funding basically to help schools initiate and expand their physical education programs which is just a great goal in many of the grants been used for playground equipment on schools physical education is important i think we all know that our young people are becoming more and more sedate between video games and television shows and sometimes lack of outdoor recreation we're seeing more obesity it's important that p e be part of an in limb in our schools in fact our state and local districts have targeted p e is an area that they want to reintroduce back to the curriculum for children the only reason i raise this program  is to have some type of thoughtful debate about who should fund p e programs and more importantly what should our federal priorities be i ask that because i know that today we are running a deficit we have a major national debt i know that every dollar that we spend above the deficit and we will run a deficit again with the budget we're discussing today and now with every dollar you know comes out of goes to our inspected by the same children we're trying to help or it will result in a tax increase for families so it seemed right and proper that we scrutinize every program regardless of how much we might admire the person is named after this program has been raided by the program says mint writing tool as results not yet demonstrate or not demonstrate that this point i imagine that's why the president did not request funding for it like the chairman has said who has identified apparently two hundred or more programs for dismissal we have to make tough choices and what we are seeking here is a simple question in my rural schools in our smaller schools they have the money to to buy playground equipment or to build build a swing set for kids what they don't have is money for to hire a special needs teacher what they don't have is money to to help kids read in right a grade level what they don't have is money to help try to prevent the dropouts that are hitting our schools and a case where our nearly half of our minorities in eighth grade are not graduating to twelfth grade and it just seems to me that from the federal funding level our local schools can afford a playground set what we need to help them with is what they can't afford which are teachers to help our special needs kids equipment to help our kids with disabilities teachers in science in math and technology subjects food for kids who come to school hungry those to me despite the merits in the goal which are so a lot of will for this program seems to me that we ought to set our highest priorities to help schools do what they cannot do today which really is to help our kids read and write to help our special needs students reach their potential to try to stop this horrendous dropout rate in america in so i would propose that we as a president suggested not from this program preserve those resources and again these are tough choices your lawyers have to make through the process it's not much fun either way i'm sure the chairman did not the light in cutting any of the programs that he had proposed it is just a way that we we try to to get closer to a balance our children are more complacent than ever sometimes because of video games in some parts of the country it's because the streets are in say another parts of the country is because children are latchkey and mom and dad want to know where they are while they're working so obesity is becoming a huge problem in this country and in order for children to really be ready of prepared to learn they have to be physically fit they go together i taught school they go hand in hand the c d c has made childhood obesity in the obesity that is already occurring with adults a challenge for our country to get a hold of if we're going to be competitive if we're going to have a healthy workforce and if we're going to control our health care costs what has happened with leave no child behind act it was underfunded by this congress that didn't come up with the dollars that the president promised so school district after school district after school districts in order to balance their ledger with this unfunded mandate seven cutting arts and then cutting physical education now i'm pleased to hear that in your district you're able to maintain a by a teacher and you're able to maintain the things that you need to keep your children set but district after district is been cutting fayyad in order to pay for the unfunded test in no child left behind and childhood obesity is a problem this might be the first generation that doesn't not live as long as their parents now my children and the children in my neighborhood i love to see them not only out move me but outlive me and a very very healthy lifestyle and physical education is part of learning mind and body in order to be productive and healthy this is going to keep america healthy but it's also going to keep our bring to the house the following facts we have been at this bill now for of the better part of yesterday we've been on this bill since ten thirty this morning and we have been trying to negotiate a then a miss consent agreement so that the members might be able to leave here tomorrow night i know there's a codel of members going to iraq but i want to put them on notice now i doubt very much that you're going to make it unless you want to miss a lot of votes because as things are developing i'm told that right now because of the insistence that the number of amendments which we have heard time and time again still be subjected to forty minutes debate time even though there are five similar amendments each of which will take about forty minutes when you calculate it all that comes out to about eight hundred minutes of debate time that means roughly thirteen hours by the time you account for slippage the time it takes for members to be recognized the time and it takes for them to find their amendments that you have to add about another five hours plus your voting time what that means is that if we continue until one o'clock this morning it will still probably be required for members to be here until about eight o'clock or more later tomorrow night which means that we will finish just in time for you to all miss your plans i just wanted you to know that so that if you think that it like to see another result it talk to two individuals who right now seem to think that forty minutes time on a repetitive amendment is more important than the ending a filibuster by amendment two years ago when this bill was on the floor it took about twelve hours at this rate it will take about three times that  amount of time so i want members who are coming up to me asking me about what are they going to be able to make their planes or their or their color dels i want them to understand that if they missed them i minutes i thank the chairman and i will not use the whole five five minutes just i just want to make one point that's generally from minnesota i believe who was just speaking i want to concur with a portion of her remarks  with a the remarks with regard to the physical problem of childhood obesity in the country and that is a is of a concern nationally and b of the problem that she set out with regard to and the of the not funding with n c l b not funding to the level necessary so that school districts across the country are put in what you might call a catch twenty two situation and a catch twenty two is ok do we comply with  b in which case we spend a lot of our own money on tests fourth and eighth grade reading a math test or b if we don't comply with it then of course then you get written up in the local newspaper because your school failed your school didn't do very well on the tests and you become an underperforming some school and instead provide the funds where you would like to put them which may well be in physical education programs so i concur with your comments on that and suggest that this solution to the problem may be multifaceted part of it is the gentlemen's amendment right here can be one xpect to address that the general and i can support the gentleman's amendment to make sure that the dollars that are coming from the federal government go to those programs that are effectively getting the job done and diluting the issue physical education and childhood obesity and what have you and just like all the other amendments i'm sure the gentleman would concur that you want to make sure that the money goes to those programs that really accomplish something and not hard to duplicate of the other aspect of the program the problem however is with n c l b in the burden that they put on the schools are saying do i do this or do that to comply with n c l b or do i do what i really want to do locally and i think the answer to that is to say this who are in the u s department of education and all due respect to the secretary of education very nice lady and well intentioned people who really can decide where the dollars should be spent best is the teacher classroom the local school board in conjunction with the parents they know whether their school has more of a problem in the area of childhood obesity than other were other schools i find this from the studies that i've seen that it is in certain areas of states in certain demographic regions as opposed to other ones those are the people who really know how to decide these things and so i would concur with the gentle lady from minnesota and suggest that the solution is a put the money where the dollars should go to effectively and be get out from under the rubric and the l b and just let the gentlemen mr chairman o'connell of the shop floor center in cherokee north carolina has served a vital role in providing opportunity and direction to the young people of western north carolina this center has operated under the control of the national park service along with the harpers ferry job corps center and the great onyx jop for center and mammoth cave kentucky mr chairman all three of the centers face uncertain future earlier this year the department of labor clo management of the other two centers the national park service has stated it is willing to transition these three centers to the forest service the u s forest service has a long standing tradition of quality and service in the appalachian region mr chairman the senate interior appropriations bill contains language directing the park service to trent for control of these three job corps centers to the u s forest service the community surround favor of this transition mr chairman would you be willing to work with me and to enter into this language including the final compromise version of this bill that the gentleman would yield i would like to thank the gentleman for bringing to our tents and the important transfer the three job corps centers currently administered by the national park service to the u s forest service i hope the department of labor will recognize the merits of this approach which i understand was successful in another case involving the mingle job cent the first dollar amount insert reduced by fifty million dollars that's part of the movement we could hear page ninety two line seventeen after the first dollar amount insert reduced by fifty million dollars member for their outstanding efforts to recognize that insufficient funds for special education that are so desperately needed in this country i know that in committee they add an additional three hundred thirty five million dollars to i d e a the individuals with disabilities education act but having talked to and listen to the stories from teachers and educators and parents from my district and elsewhere who work in special education in my home state of new jersey i believe we must try to do even more  and that we can certainly do more to recognize the important needs of these particular students and these particular programs mr chairman congress in one thousand nine hundred five an act of the landmark i d e a the individuals with disabilities education act which mandated that every student including those students who have special needs or disabilities will receive a quality in appropriate public education the laws that also committed the federal government to contribute forty percent of special education costs which are often several times higher than the cost of educating other students washington of course has never met this longstanding but unfulfilled commitment to aid states in paying for special education and as a former teacher i know firsthand the value of education for every student and the importance of suring that every child including those who have disabilities experience the thrill of learning school administrators and teachers and parents all across my district tell me that more special education funding is needed to meet the growing demands in our schools as teachers seek to improve academic standards and accountability increase federal special education funding is critically important to help schools to meet these are important obligations to special education students and their families washington as we know it never met that forty percent funding threshold and while federal education funding has increased by more than two hundred fifty eight percent between one thousand nine hundred five and two thousand and six this year it still only represents seventeen point two percent of the cost of serving students with disabilities my home state of new jersey is a national leader in special education parents with kids who have special needs and disabilities literally move into our state they come to new  jersey particularly parents who have children with autism they literally move to new jersey so their kids can enroll in our state's special education programs this year alone new jersey education officials estimate that they're going to spend more than four billion dollars in combined federal state and local funds to administer special ed programs to almost two hundred fifty thousand students of course there's more than seven million students nationwide who qualify for these programs mr chairman i've been in this house for six and a half years and i know that certain years funding levels for special education have been increased and other other years they have not been increased it can be fairly characterized as kind of going in fits and starts some years we've made big new investments in other years frankly we haven't but six years ago when i first came to this house and into this chamber the first bill i ever introduced in this body was a bill that would fully fund our special education classrooms i did it with the gentleman from rhode island mr kennedy and he and  have worked together i know many others have worked together to work to fully fund our special education classrooms indeed today i remain and i am the lead republican sponsor of legislation right now that would fully fund our special education classrooms but despite many of our best efforts we've not reach that goal yet and i know that the chairman the gentleman from wisconsin the ranking member mr walsh from new york they've made extraordinary efforts toward that goal as well the spirit of this amendment my amendment is to make for this year one additional effort to move us in the right direction like many of you i've been in these classrooms i've observed are some of our special needs kids in action i've seen the heroic efforts of their parents and their teachers and the administrators w so hard to give them the chance at success in life that they really need and deserve we've done some to help them and in this bill today frankly does even more but thanks to the efforts of chairman obie mr walsh and others i really know we're working hard toward this goal but i respectfully ask that we try to do just a little bit more this year and by approving this amendment will be able to do that i asked my colleagues respectfully to support this important amendment so that we can say we did everything we possibly could to help the me simply ask the one question do we really know everything that we need to know about how children learn do we really know enough about how children learn to guarantee that every child will perform to their maximum ability and potential i think the answer and so that is obvious we obviously don't  there is no great political constituency for educational research but you know it's a funny thing in any field of endeavor research is what separates bull gravey from intelligent approaches to issues that's what research does it helps lead one to a right understanding of a problem what this amendment does is frankly it's another television ad what this amendment does is to pretend that it does no damage to education by eliminating fifty million dollars out of the education research budget and then puts it in a special education we have a lot of posing for holy pictures on this floor today by members who are trying to escape the fact that the white house is asking them to to vote against this bill because the white house claims are too much money in the bill when in fact every single one of these amendments demonstrates that that our own republican members know that there is not enough money in this bill to fund programs like special education unless you make damaging cuts to other portions of the bill and i would suggest that we not do that the president already the president cut special education in his budget by two hundred ninety one million we have added eight hundred billion dollars in the committee to that and we're five hundred nine million dollars over last year i would also point out that this is a ten percent cut at this amendment passes in the in the research account and i would point out that this amendment would cut the national center for education statistics which per which is the premier educational statistical operation in the country this amendment would even cut federal research funds for special education do we really know so much about the needs of special education kids and we're going to cut that research i don't think so i think the responsible vote is no and i are  then offered by mr garrett of new jersey age eighty five line nineteen after the dollar now insert reduce by two million two hundred seventy nine thousand dollars bill from jersey's recognize five chairman i rise right now to offer what really is a modest amendment with the hopes of returning some degree of discipline to the annual appropriations process you know when the president submitted his budget request he proposed the elimination of a number of programs that were duplicative and unable to demonstrate a fact in this or otherwise not worthy of the priority of spending americans taxpayers money generally generally speaking with the savings achieved from eliminating ineffective programs we could use it to do as pay off the debt or support programs that have a proven track record of success because that last line as a reader eight to support programs that already have a track record of success as i also often do refer this back and make the analogy back to the american family's budget you know this is really no different than what american families do every month at the proverbial dinner table thing for example when it comes to t v if a family is paying for both cable t v and direct t v or what i have in my house dish t v chances are that they would probably decide which service suits them best as a family and then cut one or both the other services out you only need one service coming into house cable to direct this or what have you that's what a family would do prioritize them as a chairman given the content of our spending bills the federal government was a homeowner and how the federal government operates now well it would pay for both the cable t v but but dish and direct t v and the cable the same time satellite all three or four coming into the house the federal government was a family and they continue to operate as they do right now they would probably decide that they are going to have gas heat in their house and oil heat in the house and electric heat in the house than what he does well and will probably pay you to dig for its own water and have a well in the back yard all the while continuing to pay for city water coming into the house from the front that's unfortunately is how the federal government operates itself and i think it's time to change we do a disservice to the american people by not eliminating duplicative and effective programs it proves that the federal government is unaccountable and by increasing the size of the us budget it takes that money again out of the family budget by sending it to washington as tax dollars so the amendment that i'm  would only reduce this amount this bill out of a six hundred seven billion in appropriation bills by two point three million dollars and just use the paper before i was sitting here to figure out how much a percentage of that is that's point zero zero zero two percentage point reduction but i think what it does do more importantly is to make a statement that there are truly areas within the federal budget where money can be saved what my mammoth does is restore funding to the level requested in the president's budget so the administration zero this account out because it duplicate other federal programs the migrant and seasonal farm workers at the m s f w program provides discretionary grants to make comprehensive vocational rehab services available to migrant and seasonal farm workers with vocational disabilities now the ended right there you think well what's wrong with that well but according to the o m b here's the problem this program serves the exact same population and provide the exact same services as another separate federal program already is doing and that is the vocational rehabilitation state grant program the acronym is the are the authorizing legislation for the v a our state grant program contains provisions in it to ensure that state or agencies must reach out and serve all individuals with disabilities within the state that includes minorities and unserved and under served populations so what this means is that under the m s f w which is what we're talking about here program the federal government is in essence micromanaging if you will what essentially is a state and local government issue that is provided federally funded for through the v a our program our state program in this bill is already already is expanded by thirty six million dollars on top of the increases that were there before in the f y o seven levels so there is little need to do spending an additional two point three million dollars and yet again a separate program that does essentially the same thing the government is a does not need to buy both cable t v and satellite t v at the same time and the government does not need to be providing funding for programs chairman i wonder if anybody remembers these words whatsoever you do for the least of your brother and you do for me wonder if anybody remembers those this amendment is truly amazing to me this amendment is offered by a member of the house when like me any time he has an aig or a pain or a too ache or is having a bad day we can trot down to the attending physician and have the doctors in the nurses check us all over to make sure that we're in peachy keen shape but what does this amendment say this amendment says to some of the poorest people in the country are migrants and are far more cars sorry you can have pick beans well i have and i can tell you it's darned hard work i used to represent a county by name a washer a county wall to wall irrigation and crops like you cumbers and beans and i used to watch those migrant workers come in and work their tails off to get a few bucks are we really so stingy are we really so utilitarian that we're willing to say it to workers like that sorry members of congress are important so they can get take care of whenever they've got a physical problem but oh no don't you dare waste the taxpayers money when it comes to some poor devil in the migrant stream or when it comes to their family or kids you want to vote for this amendment you go right ahead  jim and i are all rise to support this amendment because fundamentally what we are charged with doing here is being responsible with hard earned taxpayer money and as the general from new jersey said it is not responsible to pay for two programs that do the same thing which is why the administration in its review looked at this program which is wonderfully named perfectly appropriate has a wonderful mission but the provisions of this program are being accomplished elsewhere in the federal government now it may be hard for the chair of the appropriations committee to believe that there's some duplications in the federal government but it's not hard for the districts for the citizens of the six district of georgia to believe that the name of the program that accomplishes this same man is the vocational rehabilitation state grants program so the goal of the gentleman from new jersey i don't believe is to eliminate the ability to have appropriate programs for migrant and seasonal farm workers that's not the goal at all the goal is to responsibly span hard earned taxpayer money in accomplishing the appropriate priorities of the federal government so to have an anybody come to the floor and say that it anybody who would support this amendment desires to end the programs for migrant seasonal farmworkers is simply not true and not the case and it doesn't appropriately represent the amendment of the gentleman from new jersey so i commend him for his desire to make certain that we do not provide duplicative services which are wasteful wasteful of hard earned taxpayer money and i'm pleased to yield to my friend from new jersey and i thank the gentleman from georgia for yielding and answer the question of the chairman yes i have picked vegetables and i have worked on a farm and i have thrown bales of hay and i have worked in the heated sweltering heat of greenhouses picking vegetables as well so yes i do have that experience  i do know of what i speak to some extent but never to the extent i'm sure of the chairman or some of what the people go through in these situations the chairman also makes reference to words with balloting being stingy you know it's awfully easy it's awfully easy to be generous to be generous individual if you're using somebody else's money and basically that's what congress does every single day of the year we come to the floor with the appropriation bills railing about how much more we're spending than last year and saying how generous we are when and when in fact this is not our dollars despite the statement of the gentleman from alaska the last debate these are the taxpayers dollars coming in so it's easy to other people's money what we hear as members of congress therefore should be consider ourselves in a position to be wards of that money part to protect it and make sure that it goes to the most effective places i refer you now to a statement from the ministration with references program to point out that the necessity of cutting the funding here and making sure that there are funds in similar programs ministrations places this program was established as a demonstration project a demonstration project in the mid one nine hundred seventy s and is no longer needed to demonstrate the benefits of these strategies to serve under served populations such as migrant and seasonal farm workers many of the same states have received continue funding over the last thirty years and should be able to effectively serve this pop population under the v our state grant program that program that is continued to be funded in this underlying legislation our program that sees a thirty six or thirty seven million dollar increase in the funding the gentleman from georgia when he speaks to what the his constituents feel i wonder what his constituents would feel when when they're told that we have a demonstration project that was established in back in one thousand nine hundred ninety and we're still following that demonstration project to see whether it's necessary to run the program or not but with that i yield back to the gentleman from georgia thanks jim and first comments and it's precisely the point about the demonstration project precisely gets to the point of so many of these programs we look we do a poor job as a federal government in looking at programs that we put in place as pilots or as demonstration projects to determine whether or not their effectiveness has been school that has a title one school e s a programs no chairman it's really easy to criticize and throw darts at projects or even employment if you will as when you have no idea what you're talking about i was a principal of two elementary schools and both were title one schools both had e s e a funding and the federal law at that time to probably still in existence said that federal funding cannot supplant local funding so if you're saying that this is duplicative it isn't as simple as supplementary is to enhance the programs that is already existing in the federal government has a responsibility to help programs and help youngsters in this country is common knowledge that the state has the primary responsibility of education in their state but the federal government has a responsibility also and in there are good judgment in the past when the established e s e a programs saw the need to help states fulfill their responsibilities so mr chairman it's probably easy to poke holes into something you don't know anything about it's probably even as i did not interrupt your time but just to respond to your statement through the chair no i've not ever administered a run a school and for that matter i would imagine that out of the four hundred thirty five members of congress there is probably only one or two or three that have ever run or administered a school and i hate that that would be the barometer or the test that we have to take before we can ever proposed amendment vote on amendment or even consider legislation that comes before the house if that were the case programs like the our program would never be established in the first place if the test is whether a member of congress has experience into it propose a newer program or expand a program where there's not enough educators here of people who have run title one schools to get the backing of legislation in the first place i'm not i would question the gentleman's premise now the gentlemen on the other hand questions of our basic premise and suppose for supporting this amendment what are some basic premise is this that you don't have to actually run the school to know that perhaps the best way to serve a particular segment of the of the of our country is to make sure that the dollars go to programs that are up and running and sir do serve that program the administration has looked at this and has seen that the program in place that we're talking about now has been in place since one thousand nine hundred seventy as a demonstration project demonstration the word itself connotes the fact that this is temporary in nature since that time we have the v r program as i pointed out already maybe a gentleman did not hear my testimony that the our program handles the same services in fact it says the activities needed to successfully serve the migrant and seasonal farm work population do not differ from those that benefit as a much wider group of the our consumers for example the outreach activities in churches and community centers may be effective for jennifer fine farm workers with disabilities what this deals with but they also to find other persons with disabilities who visit these places the hiring of bilingual counselors will sist all consumers who are monolingual in a non speak english language whether those consumers are farm workers or not and the provisions of the transportation services for rural areas will benefit for all rural residents whether farm workers or not bottom line is our basic premises if we're going to serve a segment of the population in this case my disabled individuals with disabilities and  migrant farm workers let's do so but let's do so with programs that are already up and running ahead of a track record and that's what this underlying bill does and even does it with spending thirty six million dollars more i think we can afford to make sure that program runs and eliminate the duplicative program and with that you'll back the gentleman from telling you how much time to have remaining with him until now has two minutes remaining thank you mr chairman i'll just add one thing as i've been listening to the general debate here it seems that quite often on this floor particularly the other side of the aisle that we measure how much we care about something by how much money we spend on it you know if that was the measure of everything paris hilton would be the most well adjusted kid on the planet it's not just how much we spend but it's whether its effect is it's whether it's duplicative as we are alleging in the case of this program it's whether it is actually helping whether it is getting the job done and it doesn't do any good for anybody to spend money to it's duplicative or that isn't effective or that doesn't get to words or that wastes a lot of money along the way that's not good for anybody and so whether it's this program frankly or any  others we should in this house and on this floor realize that we are stewards of the taxpayers money not just spenders of the taxpayers money and we should ensure that it's being well spent not just totally spent and i y will be postponed the clerk will continue reading page eighty six line one special institutions for persons with disabilities american printing house for the blind seventeen million five hundred seventy three thousand dollars national technical institute for the deaf sixty million seven hundred fifty seven thousand dollars value that university one hundred nine bill million nine hundred fifty two thousand dollars career technical and adult education two billion forty six million two hundred twenty thousand dollars georgia page eighty seven line one strike the comma and insert and page eighty seven line three strike and all that follows through the first comma on line five page eighty seven line five after withdrawn the the amendment that that i'm offering has at its top l h h s e c o eight at the bottom july seven anyone know the number of the members and the members number sixty five the dollar amount is sixty four million nine hundred eighty seven thousand dollars page eighty nine a line seven  jonas offering is minute prematurely click will continue to reach page eighty nine nine for student financial assistance seventeen billion four hundred sixty four million eight hundred eighty three thousand dollars which shall remain available through september thirtieth are we on page eighty nine line for yes we are the chairman a member of the best designate human and then the number sixty five printed in the congressional record offered by mr price of georgia much recognize for five minutes thank mr chairman that this amendment and i apologize for the confusion i apologize for rising early this amendment is a is a simple memon addresses the leveraging educational systems partnership program and would end the funding for this program saving sixty five million dollars of hard earned taxpayer money and the rationale for that he says the administration has described and has been as has been recommended by the secretary of education is commission on the future of higher education virtually every state operates programs to a much larger degree than the federal government that address this very same issue as i mentioned just a moment ago when i rose to another amendment we here in washington and act all sorts of pilot programs and all sorts of trial programs and so very often in fact probably more often than not we don't go back and look as a government to see whether or not the goal or the mission of those programs has been accomplished rarely in fact i would suggest to we see if the goal has been accomplished and this is one in which there's been great success the mission in the goal of the program has indeed been accomplished it's accomplished its original objective of stimulating all states to establish need based post secondary student grant programs however beyond the establishment of these programs the late program the leveraging educational assistance program itself does little to encourage states to increase their investment in granted for their neediest of students more effectively targets this aid to students who could most benefit from it now when we do look as i mentioned when the department of education itself and when the office of management and budget performs its assessment and reviews this program what it says is at this point because the mission has been accomplished the results of any further funding for this program are clearly not demonstrated so in an effort to achieve again some fiscal responsibility in an effort to decrease some of the significant waste that doesn't occur at the federal level i encourage my colleagues to accept and vote for the  these funding levels to the exact level recommended by the president now i see story after story indicating that a good many of my friends on the other side of the aisle are anxious to separate themselves from the president these days but we have evidently a few members of our caucus who are eager to embrace virtually every action and every thought that is thought in the white house i find that very interesting the president thought we ought eliminate this program what does this program do this program provide sixty more million dollars in grants to states to offer needs based udon scholarships there are a hundred sixty five thousand students who will benefit from this program getting scholarships of a thousand dollars i would simply ask does anybody really believe that we're providing enough help for working families to send their kids to college the pell grants are the major program that the field grant program is the major program upon which we rely in order to help students from lower and middle income families find enough money to go on to college when that program was in its heyday in the seventy's provided above all over seventy percent of the cost of attending a four year public university it provides it provided help in the form of a pell grant to meet that percentage of the cost today we're down to vod two to a little over thirty percent of the cost so we've shifted a huge percentage the cost to working families the president's answer in his budget this year was to move pell grants from one side of the budget to the other making it instead of a discretionary program a mandatory program that's a good idea go ahead follow the president over the cliff and vote to deny these hundred sixty five thousand students the additional help they need at the money that we invest in student aid is returned to this country many times over we're in a competitive world we are over fifty percent of the jobs that will be offered in this country the next seven years are jobs that will require a higher education and it seems to me instead of running away from such time as you may consume to the gentleman from georgia obtaining time and i appreciate the chairman's calm comment again the the purpose of this amendment is to address wasteful spending  s a significant responsibility that we have here in the house to make certain that that the money that we spend which is hard earned tax payer money is spent wisely and i know there is is huge animosity on the other side of the aisle against the president i think sometimes that animosity actually blinds individuals to some quality work that's coming from the administration there are high quality people who work in the administration this administration just like every other in fact there are high quality people in the department of education and their high quality people in the office of management budget who looked at this program and said that the goals in the mission of this program have indeed been accomplished was a wonderful program served a grant purpose but the goals of the missions have been accomplished and consequently it's appropriate if we are going to be responsible with hard earned taxpayer money too and a program that is accomplished its mission accomplished its goals not continue wasteful federal spending and so i would urge my colleagues i know that they can be blinded by animosity toward the administration and toward the president but i would urge my colleagues to listen to those hard work and individuals in the federal government who are looking at these programs and attempting to find cost savings for the american public so that we can prioritize on other other programs that's what this amendment is that it it seeks to be responsible with harder and taxpayer money i encourage my colleagues to support the amendment of new jersey and i thank the gentleman there was none so blind who shall not see i appreciate the gentleman from georgia for coming to the microphones and asking all of us to open our eyes so that we shall see what the value of these things despite the personalities and otherwise involved so i support the gentleman amendment from georgia and i yield back the balance of my time the privilege of gentleman from minnesota russ i move to strike the last word on directness follows the gentleman for georgia said we can eliminate the leap program because mission has been accomplished phillipe program is available for the poorest of the poor in this country is for people who families incomes are less than twenty thousand dollars poverty unfortunately still goes on in this country people who make less than twenty thousand dollars need help in order to attain an education to allow them to be competitive and now our country to be competitive against other countries which are investing dollar after dollar after dollar into educational opportunities for their individuals so the mission hasn't been accomplished and to eradicate poverty so i would really urge members to look closely at the language in the we program it also is matched by state dollars and i would urge my colleagues to oppose the amendment committee of the whole pursuit tiles resolution five four seven notwithstanding clause eleven a rule eighteen no further amendment to the bill may be offered except pro forma amendments offered any point in the reading by the chairman and ranking minority member of the committee on appropriations or other designees for the purpose of debate an amendment by mr pesquera revise regarding funding for traumatic brain injury programs an amendment by mr nettle regarding eligibility for nine eleven health programs mr holt regarding funding for math and science partnerships and remembered by mr cooper regarding funding for a story black colleges and universities and historically black graduate institutions an amendment by mr flake reducing funding for the corporation for national community service an amendment by mr conaway living funds for the life he program until certain conditions are met and members of mr conaway regarding the use of reductions made through amendments for deficit reduction amendment by mr mr jordan reducing funds in the bill by four point six percent which shall be debatable regrettably for thirty minutes and amendment by ms but mrs bore of wisconsin mr scott of virginia mr c georgia reducing funds in the bill by want percent which shall be debatable for thirty minutes and member by mr campbell reducing funds in the bill by zero point two five percent which shall be debatable for thirty minutes and then met by mr robey regarding earmarks an amendment by mr scott of virginia regarding funding for student drug testing and amended by mr lewis of georgia mr welch or mr weller regarding certain medicare regulations and a member of ms jackson leave texas and amendment by mr pence limiting funds for planned parenthood an amendment by mr taylor's regarding funds for math and science partnership programs amended by mr jim green mr jordan limiting funds regarding requirements for h p v vaccinations for school admittance an amendment by mr ryan of wisconsin limiting funds to certain centers for disease control activities an amendment by mr garrett of new jersey limiting funds or certain international conferences and remembered by mr king of iowa limiting the use of funds to employ workers described in section two seven four eight of the immigration nationality act and amendment by miss or king of i live in the use of funds to sponsor certain events at the sundance film festival hope we can get some tickets and m m m m m m but by mr davis of kentucky limiting the performance of bonuses for certain employees of the centers for medicare and medicaid services and the social security administration and a member by mr davis of kentucky living performance bonuses for certain employees the center for medicare medicaid services and so security administration unless certain requirements relating to medicare part d are met an amendment by mr schmidt of ohio limiting funds for title ten grantees an amendment by mr fuller lake believe it or not limiting funds for the american jazz museum in kansas city missouri and amended by mr flake limiting funds for the american ballet theatre in new york another member by mr flake limiting funds for the portuguese and lose a phone studies at rhode island college an amendment by mr flake limiting funds for the shedd aquarium in chicago an amendment by mr flake limiting funds for the kansas regional prisons museum and amendment by mr flake limiting funds for the call corporation for jefferson's popular force in virginia an amendment by mr flake living funds for south carolina aquarium and amendment by mr flake limiting funds for the burpee museum in rockford illinois and amendment by mr flake limiting funds for a college prep pilot program at missouri state university remembered by mr flake living in funds for the exploratorium in san francisco california an amendment by ms musgrave limiting funds for attachment therapy an amendment by mr souter limiting c m s funds for certain medicare payment activities related to hospital transplant programs amendment by mr sutter limiting funds the national labor relations board to recognize a union as the exclusive bargaining representative in please that has not been elected by secret ballot election an amendment by mr hen g regarding funding for the centers for disease control and amendment by mr westmoreland limiting funds for the publication of certain student loan applications and amended by mr campbell limiting funds for a charter school development foundation amendment by mr campbell limiting funds for city college in new york and event by mr campbell limiting funds for all projects requested by members of congress and disclose pursuant to the rules of the house which shall be debatable for twenty minutes amendment by mr camp regarding the medicare advantage program and amendment by mr crowley limiting funds for the north carolina technology association education foundation an amendment by mr crowley living funds for allegheny memorial hospital and amendment by mr crowley limiting funds for caldwell community college and technical institute an amendment by mr crowley the vetting funds for north carolina center for emerging technologies an amendment by mr crowley limiting funds for the southeastern senate for emerging biologic threats an amendment by mr hensarling regarding education for native hawaiians an amendment by mr baird of south carolina regarding bird honor  scholarship program an amendment by mr lambourn regarding the corporation for public broadcasting and a member of i mr hanson regarding twin cities public television for the minnesota digital public media archive an remembered by mr henson linger garding west los angeles college culver city california and i remembered by mr hensarling regarding families in schools los angeles california and in a member or amendments by mr robey regarding funding each such a memon may be offered only by the member named in this request or designee shall be considered as read shall not be subject to a memon except the chairman and ranking minority members of the committee on appropriations and its subcommittee on labor health and human services education and related agencies you need such capacity you may offer want pro forma memon for purpose of debate and should not be subjected to a demand for division of the question in the house or in the committee of the whole except as otherwise specified event shall be debatable for ten minutes equally divided and controlled by the proponent and opponent an amendment shall be considered to fit the description stated in this request if the address is if it addresses in  the object described are there any objections to the gentleman's request hearing on the gentleman's request is granted the speaker for purposes of gentleman from wisconsin writes by direction of the committee on appropriations i present a privilege report for filing under the rule a quick work for the title to quit your company h r thirty seventy four and bill making appropriations for the department of transportation and housing and urban development and related agencies for the fiscal year ending september thirtieth two thousand and eight and for other purposes i refer to the union calendar in order printed under clause one of rule twenty one points of order are ending september thirtieth two thousand and eight and for other purposes in the committee the whole road really today a request for a recorded vote remember up with a gentleman from georgia mr price had been postponed and the bill again read through page eighty nine line well the house continues debate on one of the yearly spending bills it's the labor health and human services and education department spending bill told its six hundred seven billion dollars is the largest of the dozen bills that set up that all spending for the new fiscal year which starts on october first this is an amendment part of nine in this series of votes that will see before the house continues debate another mammoth offered by florida republican cliff stearns which would move twenty five million dollars from america or over to low income college student and senior citizen programs well house continuing this first of nine amendment votes on the spending bill for the departments of labor health and human services and education this is an amendment that would move some money from america for the america program to low income college student and senior citizen programs all told twenty five million dollars of this amendment will the senate has also been working recently today on education issues dealing with student loans and grants you can watch the senate live on our companion network c span to a proposal to withdraw most u s troops from iraq by next march fail to advance today in the senate as the majority leader harry