Date: 2002-09-26
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker. I have never heard such a sad. duplicitous argument from my colleagues on the other side as this one of why they cannot get their work done. why they cannot do the job that they were elected to do. They come out here and suggest that somehow it is everyone elses fault. but the fault lies within the Republican caucus. I find it rather interesting on the eve of the time when so many in this House are so anxious to send our troops into harms way to establish democracy and defend democracy. they are so afraid of democracy on the floor of the House of Representatives. Bring the bill out and let us vote. Somebody will win and somebody will lose. It may be a bipartisan coalition of moderates and Democrats or rightwing conservatives and conservative Democrats. I do not know. But bring the health and human services appropriations bill to the floor and let us vote. That is democracy. This is supposed to be the most democratic of all places on the face of the Earth. and you want to manage it because you are afraid to be accountable for your votes. It was not too long ago When the President of the United States said when he signed the No Child Left Behind education reform that I had the honor of working with him on. along with the chairman of the Committee on Education and the Workforce (Chairman BOEHNER). he said to the American public and he said to every audience as we flew around the country as he had multiple signings. if you will. he said. This is the way Washington should work. This is the way Washington should work. The basic tenet of that bill at the request of the President of the United States was accountability. That bill holds State offices of education accountable. school districts accountable. chief State school officers accountable. teachers accountable. But now we have the Republican caucus. rather than bring out the funding for that bill. seeking to duck the accountability for the savage cuts that are. going to happen if we kick this all over to March. This is not theoretical. My colleagues in California on both sides of the aisle know that in the middle of March. if we have not done this bill. tens of thousands of teachers in California will get pinkslipped. their lives will be disrupted. school budgets will be disrupted. Most of these local governments and school districts will start the budgetary process in January. and by March. April and May they will be deep into their budget. But there will be no education budget. There will be no education budget allowing for the additional billion dollars for special education on which we have bipartisan agreement. There will be no education budget for the 350.000 additional title I children. the children in most desperate need of this money to get a decent education in this country. There will be no education budget for them. There will be no education budget for 350.000 children with disabilities. Can you not see it in your heart to bring this budget to do your work to carry out the promise of the President of the United States. the promise of this Congress to the parents and to the children of this Nation that there would be a new day for education. there would be a system of standards and goals and accomplishments and. more importantly than anything. of accountability to the children and to the parents? When? When will this Republican caucus get the courage and the pride to do the Nations business?