Date: 2004-06-24
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. it is unfortunate that we are forced to debate these very .important topics within a nonbinding resolution. but the public ought to know that we are forced to debate these topics within a nonbinding resolution because of the corruption of the process by the Republican leadership in this House where we cannot debate these same items in the budget resolution. Yesterday we saw that they would not face up to the debt limit extension. so they had to hide it in the defense bill to be added someday in the dark of night in some conference committee in the future. We have seen the corruption of legitimate debate and the exchange of ideas on the floor of the House. I do not know if the Republicans would really want the American public to know that over the last 10 years. the House Repubians hae voted for -$0 billion less i education spending than was finally appropriated by the Congress of the United States. I do not know if the Republicans really want in real debate the public to know that the House Republicans have decided that we will never have full funding of special education. special education that is very expensive for the school districts of this Nation. where school boards and superintendents and parents and children have come and lobbied this Congress and we have a bipartisan coalition to vote for full funding of special education. But the Republicans will never get there. They have turned back the promises. they have turned back their votes of the past. they have decided they will add $1 billion a year to special education. and that means we will never get to the promise we made to this country of full funding. The gentleman from Wisconsin adds another $1.2 billion to that and in 6 years we would achieve the goal of full funding and take the pressure off those school districts to increase taxes at the lower level. but more importantly to be able to provide them the resources necessary for the education of those children with special needs.I do not think the Republicans want to have a real debate about their position on the Pell grants that they have frozen over the last 3 years after the President of the United States promised that these young people would have access to a Pell grant to help them achieve their college education. But the Republicans do not really want to have a real up or down vote on increasing the Pell grants. Once again. they have promised to do that. they simply do not want to get caught voting against that promise. so they have us in a nonbinding resolution. I do not think the Republicans want to get in a real vote on whether or not they are going to fully fund No Child Left Behind. where currently they are $29 billion behind the .curve that they have promised Americas schoolchildren. their parents. their families that they would provide because we -have provided the most significant reforms in the last 35 years in Federal education policy. What does that mean? That means that if they do not adopt this resolution. and it is nonbinding. that means that 500.000 lowincome children will not get the academic assistance that they need. That means that over 350.000 children will not have access to afterschool care that they need where they get tutored and they get mentored and they get academic help. That means that thousands of teachers will not complete the process by which they become highly qualified teachers in the classrooms of our children. So another year goes by and thousands of more teachers enter the classroom without the professional development. without the credentials. without the certifications necessary to provide a firstclas s education to Americas children.. .The Republicans have so corrupted tb e process that they can continue to make the promises to the public that they are for full funding of No Child Left Behind. they are for increasing the Pell grants to $5.100. they are for full funding of special education. but they do not have to deliver on them because they hide their budget in a conference committee. It was due out here weeks. months ago. it has not been passed. so they deemed a budget. not a budget that they voted on. they just deemed a budget. What incredible dishonesty in the face of the needs of Americas families and children to acquire a good education to participate to the full extent of their potential in the American society and in the American economy. What corruption. What dishonesty by the Republican leadership.