[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 864 Introduced in House (IH)]







108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 864

   To authorize appropriations for the Individuals with Disabilities 
 Education Act to achieve full funding in fiscal year 2004 and fiscal 
                   year 2005, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 13, 2003

  Mr. Vitter introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                Committee on Education and the Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To authorize appropriations for the Individuals with Disabilities 
 Education Act to achieve full funding in fiscal year 2004 and fiscal 
                   year 2005, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``IDEA Keeping Our Commitment Act of 
2003''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) In 1975, Congress passed the Education for All 
        Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (enacted as Public Law 94-
        142), now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education 
        Act (20 U.S.C. 1400 et seq.), which established a Federal 
        commitment to provide schools with 40 percent of the national 
        average per pupil expenditure for the purpose of educating 
        children with disabilities.
            (2) To date, the Federal Government has never contributed 
        more than 14.9 percent of the maximum State grant allocation 
        for educating children with disabilities under the Individuals 
        with Disabilities Education Act.
            (3) The failure by the Federal Government to fully fund the 
        Individuals with Disabilities Education Act has forced State 
        and local governments to divert funding from other worthy 
        projects, including school construction and hiring additional 
        teachers, in order to pay for the full costs of educating 
        children with disabilities.
            (4) Each year, State and local educational agencies are 
        forced to spend precious resources to simply comply with 
        numerous reporting requirements called for under the 
        Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
            (5) Although Congress has increased Federal funding for 
        special education by 129 percent since 1995, the failure by the 
        Federal Government to fully fund the Individuals with 
        Disabilities Education Act constitutes a de facto unfunded 
        Federal mandate on the States.

SEC. 3. PURPOSE.

    It is the purpose of this Act to reach the Federal Government's 
goal of providing 40 percent of the national average per pupil 
expenditure for the purpose of educating all children with disabilities 
in fiscal year 2004 and fiscal year 2005.

SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE INDIVIDUALS WITH 
              DISABILITIES EDUCATION ACT.

    Section 611(j) of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act 
(20 U.S.C. 1411(j)) is amended to read as follows:
    ``(j) Authorization of Appropriations.--For the purpose of carrying 
out this part, other than section 619, there are authorized to be 
appropriated--
            ``(1) $17,700,000,000 for fiscal year 2004; and
            ``(2) $18,400,000,000 for fiscal year 2005.''.
                                 <all>