[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 29 (Wednesday, March 6, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H1720]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       DISTRICT'S FEDERAL PAYMENT

  (Ms. NORTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, education is the motherhood and apple pie of 
Congress, yet the divergent ideology on education is punishing 80,000 
schoolchildren in the Nation's Capital. Six months into the 
appropriation year, a third of the District's Federal payment is still 
here, yes, it is still here, and the District is going to run out of 
money at the end of the month.
  The issue is not the District but whether tuition should go to 
private and religious schools. We passed it here with a compromise. 
There is very little money involved, yet nationally of course there is 
a proposal to cut a billion dollars and a million kids from the title I 
education and disadvantaged program.
  The House is free to argue the point. It is a fair point to argue, as 
to whether vouchers should obtain or whether we should cut large 
amounts of money from public schoolchildren. I ask my colleagues, 
however, to care about the District's schoolchildren and about the 
survival of the Nation's Capital itself. Do not allow us to run out of 
money at the end of March because money you owe us is stuck here.

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