Date: 2003-06-11
Speaker: CORRINE BROWN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

I thank the gentlewoman for yielding and to the meinbers of the Congressional Black Caucus. I thank them for hosting these educational hours to educate the American public as to what is going on in the peoples House. To me. the coldhearted attitude of the House Republicans can be summed up in a statement made last week by the House majority leader. When asked about bringing up the child tax credit bill. he said. and I quote. "There are a lot of other things that are more important than that." I humbly ask my colleague on the other side of the aisle. what exactly on your agenda is more important than the protection of the children in this Nation? In my State of Florida alone. the child tax credit package benefits over a million children. Once again. the Republican leadership is catering its agenda to the rich. after deciding just today that the only way they would agree to take up the child tax credit bill is by adding on an $80 billion tax credit for the rich in the bill. Even though their selected leader. George W. Bush. is urging them to take up a clean bill and even though they follow his leadership in everything from tax cuts for the rich to foreign policy. when it comes to funding childrens programs. they ignore even the plea of the White House. In addition. the House Republican leadership is planning to dismantle Head Start. one of the best educational programs for children of workingclass families. by block granting program funding. There was $900 million sent down to Florida Governor Jeb Bush. Yet he put the money in the bank as opposed to helping the people of Florida. Block grant money is not the way to go. In the past. everyone was telling me. just send the money to the State. In the area of transportation. just send the money to the State. Education. just send the money to the State. They will know best what to do with it. I can tell you. they are singing a different tune now. When I talk to the mayors or the county commissioners. they tell me. Whatever you do. dont send that money to Tallahassee. because we will never see a dime of it. Whatever you do. dont block grant the money and send it to Tallahassee. It is a deep hole and they never see a dime of the dollars that come from the Federal Government down to the State. The Republican Head Start block grant plan will end Head Start as we know it. one of the most successful programs in the history of this country. Even the new limited eightState block grant is a risky deal. Why risk turning a successful program over to States with unproven expertise and without the Federal program quality standard requirements and oversight that are demonstrated to increase school readiness? My colleagues. there is an old expression which really applies to this issue: If it aint broke. dont fix it. Head Start kids are very prepared to do better in school than lowincome children who do not receive Head Start. In addition. it has been proven that Head Start narrows the readiness gap between HeadStart kids and kids from the more affluent side of the tracks. Head Start should help children arrive at .school more ready to learn. and it does. But for the administration to expect Head Start to completely protect children against the effects of poverty is just plain stupid. Moreover. block grants do not work. Block grants gut the quality of comprehensive services. And this block grant plan is particularly bad and requires States to provide a bunch of services but does not require the same nature. extent or quality of them. None of the 13 areas of Head Start performance standards that lay out the comprehensive services and high level of quality that have made Head Start successful are even mentioned in the block grant. In fact. the block grant emphasizes comprehensive services being met through referrals of families to outside service for assistance. which would end up encouraging States to provide a much lower level of service. In addition. the block grant does not specify any minimum requirements for teacher education levels. for childstaff ratios or for curriculum content. It simply calls on each State to come up with their own school standards and their own ways of measuring progress against those standards. I can go on and on and on as far as Head Start is concerned. I will submit my statement for the RECORD. But I do have a question for the gentlewoman from California. When we passed. when the House passed--I did not vote for itthe $350 billion. $20 billion was earmarked to the States. Can you explain what was the purpose of the $20 billion that went to the States? Was it to put in the bank and use for a slush fund next year to. I guess. enhance the chances of the Republicans to continue to practice reverse Robin Hood. stealing from the working people to give tax breaks for the rich? What was the purpose of that $20 billion?