Date: 2006-09-19
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker. as one of the original cosponsors of the Zero Tolerance for Guns and Weapons in Schools. I have long supported the effort to make our schools safer. and. in fact. schools are among the safest places in our entire society for children. but this legislation. I do not quite understand what it is trying to do. The suggestion here is that if we just pass this law. that somehow schools will become safer. The- fact of the matter is every school district. every State has a policy with respect to the bringing onto campus of drugs. which it is illegal to have on campus. off campus. in your own home or anywhere else. and the use in bringing on weapons. which we have a very strong zero tolerance policy against the bringing of any guns or weapons onto school sites. It seems to me that this legislation is somehow founded in the idea that if the Congress just votes. this will. in fact. happen. Tragically. what we have seen is while people are asking us to vote on this policy. which is already in llace in most school districts. or all school districts in all of the States in accordance with the State court decisions and in accordance with the Supreme Court decisions. what we have is that the Republicans are masking the fact that what they do is they keep gutting the Safe and DrugFree School Grants to the States. They cut those grants from $437 million in 2005 to $346 million in 2006. and the House Republicans want to cut them even further to $310 million next year. So the very funds that this Congress - has determined and we worked in partnership with States and school districts over the last several years to make our schools safer. to help educate children about the dangers not only of the drugs and of weapons and various kinds of social behavior. they are now in the process of cutting those. but they want to pass a law that says to do what we have as a matter of existing policy. except that this law. in fact. exposes the district to much more litigation now because now. under the guise of this law. they have to go back through. and. if a student is searched under this law. the questions are raised all over again which many districts h&ve tried to settle under State law. under State court interpretations. so that they can have a policy that works. that the schools are on notice of. and the students are on notice of. and that the parents are on notice of. The fact of the matter is that the policy appears to be working across this country. So. when we get all done with this. I think what we have with this legislation is an effort to try and cover what are the more serious votes taken by this Congress. to slash the funding for the Safe and DrugFree Schools legislation. Also. this legislation. if it were to be passed into law. fails to take into account additional legal standards that have been. imposed by State courts. A uniform search policy can cause difficulties for school districts and would require it to establish policies to address requirements of H.R. 5295. as well as legal standards that apply to respective jurisdictions. The Congressional Research Service adds that enacting Federal legislation with respect to schoolbased searches could. therefore. interfere with areas of traditional State and local responsibility. of which there is no showing that the States and local school authorities are not meeting their responsibilities to their students. to the teachers. to the staff in the schools. to the parents and to the communities. The question is. I guess. just a question of whether or not you think you trust the Congress more simply to pass a law. of which there have been .no hearings and no discussion with local officials about how to do this. or whether you trust the people who are running the schoolsthe school boards. the school administrators. the principals. the district superintendentsSeptmbe.. 19. 2M.. who. inrfact. have the rspongibility for the safety of the children of their districts and of their schools. It is not much more complicated than that. and you do not have to take it -from me. because the fact is that the National School Boards Association. the American Association of School Administrators. the American Federation of Teachers. the National PTA and the Great City Council Schools all oppose this legislation. Why do they oppose this legislation? Because this legislation only makes it a very difficult job that they have been working at and policies for the safety - of our students that they have been refihing over the last decade. 0i 1745 This legislation just throws all of that open to new interpretations. to new exposure to liability on the questions of their actions that they take on a daily basis to keep our schools safe. to keep our children safe. They understand this policy. They have developed these policies they have done in conjunction with the communities that they represent. Now Congress wants to fly over on suspension without hearings and drop down a new policy. one size sort of fits all. for all of these school districts. for all of the schools. when in fact the people we represent in our communities have been working on these policies a long time before this legislation was ever sug-. gested. They have been working on them successfully. they have been working on them within the intricacies of State and Federal law. and they have developed the policies in cooperation with the communities and with the parents. And I would hope that we would reject this legislation. and we would let those who have to take the responsibility. those who absorb the liability for their actions. and those who have local cooperation within their communities on engaging these policies. that they would in fact be allowed tp go forward and continue those policies. and we would heed the concerns of the Congressional Research Service that we now have a Federal policy that. if it was to pass. requires this kind of reaction by all of the States to see whether or not they comply with this Federal law when in fact they are already complying with the efforts in their communities to keep their schools safe. I reserve the balance of my time.