Date: 2011-02-16
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

The spending bill that the Republicans have introduced is a threat to our economy. a threat to our competitiveness. and a threat to Americas working families. and with this amendment. a threat to Americas poor. No one is in favor of wasteful spending and outdated government regulations that dont work or special spending for the powerful and the special interests. Instead of identifying real governmental waste. like subsidies to Big Oil and tax cuts to billionaires. the House Republicans have decided that all the cuts will fall on the backs of working people. on students. and on the poor in this country. The universe of cuts will be limited to those parts of our population. the most vulnerable parts of our population. those who struggle every day to keep their jobs and provide for their families. to hold on to their homes. or maybe to catch a break and get a job. or maybe to catch a break and have their child be put into Head Start. or to have mental health services for a member of their families. They deny workers the basic rights and protections on the job. and they prevent unemployed Americans from getting job training that will give them a leg up in this economy because they zero out these programs. Simply put. the Republican spending bill eliminates hundreds of thousands of jobs and hundreds of thousands of job opportunities for Americans who are seeking to get back into the economy. This bill is reckless and irresponsible. The programs that are targeted in this bill are a lifeline to the future of our economy. These cuts mean over 200.000 young children will lose their spots in a Head Start classroom. For the first time. as we celebrate the 100th birthday of President Reagan. we destroy Ron and Nancys favorite program. Those children will not be allowed into the Head Start classroom. and we know exactly what that means. They will start school behind. they will continue behind. and if they graduate. they will graduate behind. Thats what we cast them into. Thats why its called Head Start. These children need a head start. These quarter of a million children will not get a head start. They will go to the back of the line. It means that parents will have to choose between going to work and putting their children in a lowquality child care without an option for those Head Start classes. It means that 2.400 disadvantaged schools that rely on title I. the funding that will provide quality education. will lose the funding for teachers and tutors and afterschool programs. And again. the most vulnerable children. the children who start without that head start. the children who are the poorest in our Nation. they will receive the least resources available so that they could participate in an economy if they can get a good quality education. and have the opportunity to achieve it. These cut means reduced support for students with disabilities. It will leave some 7.000 special education teachers and staff unemployed. And the services those students so desperately needand they can prosper when theyre given those services in our education programs and thrive in regular education programsthey will be denied that opportunity. And of course. as has already been mentioned. it means that $845 that would have been available for the poorest students. middleincome students who are starting college. whether its community or 4year college or its a proprietary school. that money wont be available for them. But mind you. the costs in the community colleges. the costs in the public institutions. the 4year institutions. the proprietary schools. theyre all going up. These students resources to pay for college are going down. and many of these students do not have the ability to replace those resources. By eliminating the Corporation for National Community Services. we break the great bipartisan compact here that we would join together to provide people an opportunity to give back to this Nation. that we would organize services to serve our community and to volunteers in our community. whether they be senior citizens or whether they be young people starting out. and the people could earn an opportunity by serving their community to earn a scholarship. and grandparents could earn a scholarship to give to their children if they gave back to their community and volunteered in their community. Those programs are gone. Theyre eliminated. Theyre zeroed out in this legislation. By eliminating critical job training opportunities offered through the Workforce Investment Act. some 200.000 unemployed Americans who need these skills to compete in the workplace will be denied their services. as will the returning vets from the vets program who use the OneStop services. In April. 3.000 of them will be gone. closed down because of the budget cuts here. Where will those veterans go? Where will those veterans go that are seeking opportunities? Where are we going to take these veterans who were harmed. who have suffered in combat. who are recovering from their injuries and trying to navigate the employment sector and our economy? They can go to a OneStop shop. They can get special treatment as a veteran in that place. They can see the array of opportunities that they might have to bring to them. But no. now they can cruise the community. They can go from place to place. trying to find and knit together the services that are available today in those OneStop centers. So this legislation is devastating. devastating to millions of Americans. Millions of Americans with the slightest bit of help would be able to engage in our economy. be able to engage in our society. and be able to prosper for themselves and for their families. Tonight. the Republicans foreclose that future. They foreclose that future for millions of Americans who will not be able to fight back or hire lobbyists. I yield back the balance of my time.