January 15, 2009 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H371 

SPECIAL ORDERS 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under 

the Speaker’s announced policy of January 6, 2009, and under a previous order 

of the House, the following Members 

will be recognized for 5 minutes each. 

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The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a 

previous order of the House, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. CUMMINGS) 

is recognized for 5 minutes. 

(Mr. CUMMINGS addressed the 

House. His remarks will appear hereafter in the Extensions of Remarks.) 

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ATTAIN ACT 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a 

previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. ROYBALALLARD) is recognized for 5 minutes. 

Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD. Madam 

Speaker, I rise to introduce the 

Achievement Through Technology and 

Innovation Act of 2009. 

The 111th Congress begins in an era 

of continued shrinking school budgets, 

overcrowded schools, and overextended 

teachers. On an individual and on a national level, these factors have dire 

consequences. The individual consequence is that millions of American 

children may never realize their full 

potential or the promise of the American dream. 

The national consequence is that our 

country loses the benefits of our children’s talents and their potential to become our Nation’s next generation of 

leaders in education, science, law, research, economics, engineering and all 

the key disciplines that have helped to 

make our Nation the greatest in the 

world. 

While there is no easy or single answer to the complex problems of education in our country, there are steps 

we can take now to put us on the path 

toward a quality education for all our 

children. One such step is to make 

technology literacy a priority and an 

integral part of every educational system in the country. 

From credible studies, we know technology can have a tremendous positive 

impact on student learning. This is especially evident in low income and minority communities where students are 

vulnerable to falling behind and learning 21st century skills critical to individual success and to America’s success 

in today’s world economy. 

Whether preparing for college or 

going directly into the workforce, students are increasingly required to have 

the high-tech skills employers and the 

world market continue to demand. 

Therefore, it is a tragedy that in the 

United States today we have high dropout rates that exceed 50 percent and 

school districts that cannot keep up 

with the technology needs of their students. Passage of the ATTAIN Act will 

help us to address these serious problems. 

For example, at the School for Global 

Studies in my district, I had the opportunity to see firsthand the benefits and 

the life-changing impact teaching with 

technology has on a child’s life. 

While touring the school, I met some 

of the students who confided that if it 

were not for the meaningful technology 

program at Global Studies, they probably would have dropped out of school 

and ended up in some serious trouble. 

Instead, these students are excited 

about learning and excited about their 

future. 

The excitement and the hope students feel at Global Studies is what 

every child in our country deserves to 

feel about their education and the 

promise of their future. The ATTAIN 

Act will help to make that possibility 

a reality for all our children. 

The ATTAIN Act would amend the 

Enhancing Education Through Technology program and the No Child Left 

Behind Act. Currently, the No Child 

Left Behind Act allocates 50 percent of 

technology education funds to schools 

with disadvantaged students through 

formula grants. The ATTAIN Act 

would increase that percentage to 60 

percent. This funding would be used to 

purchase new technology and train 

teachers on how to effectively use 

these new tools. 

The remaining 40 percent of ATTAIN 

funds would be distributed through 

competitive grants that encourage 

schools to undertake comprehensive, 

technology based, reform initiatives 

that have been proven to increase student achievement. 

Madam Speaker, we know that when 

teachers are properly trained and 

schools are properly equipped with 

technology, students are engaged, 

eager to learn, and ultimately better 

prepared to address and to lead our 

country to meet the challenges of the 

21st century. We have already lost the 

untapped talents of thousands of our 

young people. 

Passage of the ATTAIN Act will help 

to reverse this tremendous loss of unrealized potential. 

I urge my colleagues to cosponsor the 

ATTAIN Act and help with its passage. 

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BAILOUTS, TARP AND STIMULUS 

PACKAGES 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a 

previous order of the House, the gentleman from California (Mr. CAMPBELL) 

is recognized for 5 minutes. 

Mr. CAMPBELL. Madam Speaker, 

there is a lot of talk these days about 

rescue plans and bailouts and TARP 

and stimulus packages. Let’s take a 

minute to reflect on what has happened. Back in October we passed, and 

the President signed, a rescue plan 

which created the Troubled Asset Recovery Plan, so-called TARP. 

There are those here on both sides of 

the aisle who believe that that didn’t 

help, that that didn’t do anything. 

Well, you know, you never get credit 

for bad things that don’t happen. 

Let me assure you, Madam Speaker, 

that the financial system of this country was on the verge of collapse, and 

we averted that collapse because of two 

things, because of the unprecedented 

and aggressive monetary action of the 

Federal Reserve, but also because of 

the rescue plan and the TARP that we 

passed and deployed back last October. 

Now, you say, however, you averted 

financial collapse, but what’s going on 

now? Look at unemployment, look at 

the economy. 

What we were trying to avoid then 

was literally the collapse or the lack of 

function of our financial system and 

our financial structure. It was about to 

implode and to stop working at all. 

It is still working, not as well as it 

should, not normally, but it is still 

working, and it gets a little better 

every day. 

But we knew at the time, and said at 

the time, that the damage that had 

been inflicted at that point was going 

to start to affect employment and start 

to affect economic growth, and, in fact, 

it has. 

We now know that millions of people 

have lost their jobs, lost their homes, 

or lost their businesses. More people 

are losing their jobs, their homes and 

their businesses every day. 

The economy continues to sink and 

we don’t know where the bottom will 

be. We can’t see it at this point. 

So what are we doing now? What is 

the purpose of all this economic discussion we are having now? Just one 

thing, we can’t stop the recession, it 

has already happened, we are already 

in it. We can’t retroactively go back 

and get the homes and the jobs in the 

businesses that have already been lost. 

But what we do want to do is to 

make this recession as short and as 

shallow as we can. If we do nothing, 

the recession will end at some point, as 

all recessions do. 

But if we can have it end sooner and 

save millions of people their jobs, their 

homes or their businesses, then we 

should do so. 

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So I believe we should act, and the 

first thing we should do is to continue 

the successful TARP program. 

Now, some people say, well, it wasn’t 

successful, because, look, we invested 

all this money in banks and they 

haven’t started lending. In fact, much 

of the reason that they haven’t started 

lending is because the financial condition of the banks is much worse than 

we all thought they were back last October. The money the banks got from 

the Federal Government merely enabled many of them to keep their current functions, but not to expand lending. 

The additional money, which I think 

should be leveraged with private capital, in other words, a bank should only 

get future Federal Government TARP 

money if they go out and raise a 

matching amount of private capital so 

that we get more and more money in 

the financial system, such that they 

can have the capital from which they 

can begin to lend again. 


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