Date: 2003-11-05
Speaker: VAN HOLLEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. I rise to support the DeLauro amendment. Many decades ago. our country did a great and noble thing. We made a commitment as American people that every child in this country. regardless of his or her disability. would get a good education. At that time. the Federal Government promised that it would pick up 40 percent of the costs of providing that education to youngsters with disabilities. But as we are gathered here today. the Federal Government is only paying 19 percent. and the result of that is not only that children with disabilities are not getting the Federal resources that are required for education. but also children without disabilities are suffering. as we are pitting one against the other. Now. we can talk about decades of who is to blame or who promised what. but let us just look at this year. This year we already have a story of sordid. broken promises. I serve on the Committee on Education and the Workforce. This year the chairman of the committee came forward with an authorization bill that would increase the authorization from last years levels originally by $1.4 billion. to $10.3 billion. Then we in the Committee on Education and the Workforce had a discussion where we. Republicans and Democrats alike. agreed that in order to meet our commitment. we had to increase that authorization. So the chairman of the committee went back to the Committee on the Budget and. very proudly. as he should. came back to the Committee on Education and the Workforce and said. "Look. I have talked to my colleagues. and they have agreed we are not going to increase it by Just $1.3 billion. we are going to increase it by $2.2 billion." That is what the chairman of the Committee on Education and the Workforce announced. Many of us were skeptical about whether that would be delivered on. We said. "Lots make that mandatory." We had a vote in committee. The chairman of the committee said to The Members. "Lets not take a vote to make it mandatory. because I have talked to my colleagues on the Republican side on the Committee on the Budget and we have a commitment here. Let us not make this binding." We had a vote. It was 10 to 9. Democrats voted in favor in the subcommittee of making it binding. Republicans did not. The same story in the full committee. Well. look where we are today. It turns out that we should have had a binding vote. That would have been the only way to hold the Committee on the Budget and the Republican leadership to its word on this issue. The chairman of the committee said. "Dont worry about it. Trust us." Well. look where that has gotten us. The fact of the matter is. we have let down the American people. We do not need to go back with broken promises for decades. We have multiple broken promises just this year. promises broken to American children. Let me just end by talking about priorities. because what we are seeing here is the budget that was passed at the beginning of the year. that set the road map. Everything after that was on automatic pilot. That budget was premised on huge tax cuts for the very wealthiest Americans. Now. I do not have any problem if people want to say "I am for tax cuts." and it is okay that for some economic theory that they should go to the wealthiest Americans. But do not say you are for that. and. at the same time. go back to your districts and say. "We are for full funding for special education." as Republicans and Democrats alike do. They all go out and say they are in favor of it. Because you cannot do everything. You cannot have big tax cuts for the wealthiest and come back to this body and fully fund special education. We have to make choices. That is what leadership is all about. If you want to choose higher tax cuts for the wealthy. that is a fine choice. Stand up for it. But do not at the same time come and say we really wanted to do this. but we Just could not do it. because we can do it if we make the right choices. We should make the right choices for the Americas children. That is why we have got to support this motion.