[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 125 (Monday, July 31, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H8005-H8006]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


           MASSIVE CUTS LOOM IN LABOR-HHS APPROPRIATIONS BILL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Hawaii [Mrs. Mink] is recognized for 5 minutes.

[[Page H 8006]]

  Mrs. MINK of Hawaii. Mr. Speaker, I, too, want to rise in great 
dismay and almost shocked disbelief at the bill that we are being asked 
to consider this week which provides funding for programs in the 
Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education.
  Most of the people who hold public office today, whether in local, 
State, or national capacities, have always made a very strong and vocal 
commitment to the importance of education, not just to the children 
that are here today but virtually for the future of this country. In 
order for us to be truly competitive in a world sense we have to be 
sure that the children of America are being given the fullest 
opportunity for education, for training, for career development, and 
certainly in meeting the changes that occur in our economy and in jobs 
throughout the Nation, we have to also be prepared to make sure that 
there are funds available for job retraining of workers who are 
displaced in a wide variety of industries, outcomes of such things as 
NAFTA and GATT, and simply the downsizing of our megacorporations.
  So it is almost with a dismay and disbelief that I rise today to 
advise the people in the country about these massive cuts that are 
coming in the field of education. The budget that we are going to be 
asked to vote for this week cuts $3.8 billion in education and about 
$2.8 billion of this cut are going to affect the local schools 
directly. It is astounding that such a major cut would come from a 
field that everybody agrees is the most important responsibility of 
Government. But there you have it. Now, how do these cuts come into the 
budget category?

                              {time}  1240

  The first major cut is $1.1 billion in title I, which is a special 
program that has been in existence since 1965.
  I happen to have been here in the Congress in 1965, where the debate 
over 25 years finally came to fruition and the first federally financed 
Aid to Education was enacted. It was then called Public Law 8910; and 
that program has continued over the years. Although never fully funded, 
it has provided billions of dollars of assistance directly to our 
schools.
  How is it determined what the schools are to get? It is targeted to 
economically and educationally disadvantaged children in our schools. 
In some instances, private schools are able to benefit by sending their 
children out to partake of the various programs that are located in the 
public schools.
  We have a devastating impact. Our report shows that 1 million of our 
most disadvantaged children in our neediest schools that do not have 
the real property tax base or the financial wherewithal to pay for an 
adequate education are going to have these funds stripped away. I think 
this is the most egregious of all of the cuts that we are being asked 
to make this week.
  Mr. Speaker, the other program which has had widespread support 
throughout the country is a program that we call Head Start. Time and 
again, people have stood on the well of this floor, Presidents have 
announced that we must achieve full funding of Head Start.
  It takes into consideration the need to prepare disadvantaged 
children, particularly, at age 4 and 5 years of age to make it possible 
for them when they enter the public schools in first grade that they 
can achieve at a far more adequate and rapid pace.
  This is a program that has bipartisan support and yet I am dismayed 
to report that the Committee on Appropriations cut Head Start by $137 
million, which means 45,000 to 50,000 children who are currently in the 
program will not be able to participate any longer. What a tragedy for 
these youngsters.
  What makes up an adequate educational system in America? What 
produces quality education? It is not money in itself, it is the 
quality of the teachers, and so one of the important areas that we have 
funded in the past is teacher education, and that program is being 
totally eliminated, that is known as the Eisenhower Professional 
Development Program for teachers. I see that my time is up, and I will 
be back again on the floor.


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