[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 120 (Thursday, September 5, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1535-E1536]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              IMPACT AID TECHNICAL AMENDMENTS ACT OF 1996

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                           HON. PATSY T. MINK

                               of hawaii

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, September 4, 1996

  Mrs. MINK of Hawaii. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of 
H.R. 3269, the Impact Aid Technical Amendments Act of 1996, which 
addresses certain problems with the impact aid payments to school 
districts brought to our attention since the reauthorization of this 
law in 1994.
  The House has already passed this bill and we are simply being asked 
to approve Senate amendments which correct several additional impact 
aid problems brought to the attention of Senate Members. Our action 
today will clear this bill for the White House and enact into law these 
provisions necessary to assure that impact aid payments are distributed 
fairly among all districts.
  After the reauthorization of a program we often discover some 
unintended consequences or a need to clarify congressional

[[Page E1536]]

intent when the reauthorized program is implemented. Sometimes a change 
in the law is required to resolve the problem. This is especially true 
of the impact aid program which relies on a fairly complicated formula 
to distribute Federal funds to compensate school districts for the 
education of federally connected--mostly military--children.
  H.R. 3269 makes such changes to assure that certain school districts 
are treated fairly under the impact aid law. I won't mention every 
change, but would like to mention the provisions in this bill which 
clarifies congressional intent in regard to the treatment of Hawaii in 
the impact aid formula.
  The State of Hawaii has only one local education agency [LEA]. 
However, for the purpose of calculating Federal grants under many 
education programs the Department of Education treats Hawaii's seven 
administrative districts as separate LEA's. This is true for title I 
and was true of impact aid prior to the last reauthorization.
  In the last reauthorization the Congress did not intend to change 
this policy, but language specifying that Hawaii should continue to be 
considered as having seven districts was not specifically included in 
the reauthorization legislation. The formula calculations which were 
provided to us at the time of reauthorization were based on 
calculations treating Hawaii's seven administrative districts as 
separate LEA's, even though the language included in the final bill did 
not reflect this policy. I would note that it was not the committee's 
intention to specifically leave out language specifying that Hawaii's 
seven administrative districts would be recognized as LEA's, but we 
operated under the presumption that the U.S. Department of Education 
would continue to treat Hawaii in the same manner as it has previous to 
the 1994 reauthorization.
  Because that has not been the case, the result is that Hawaii stood 
to lose over half of its impact aid funds once the 2-year hold harmless 
ran out and the new formula was fully implemented, which is fiscal year 
1997.
  I want to thank Chair Goodling and Chair Cunningham for all of their 
assistance in resolving this issue for Hawaii and for their work on 
this bill. Chair Goodling made a commitment very early on when we first 
discovered this problem to help resolve it. He joined me in writing to 
the Department on the issue and when we found out a legislative change 
was needed, he and his staff have been most helpful in finalizing our 
legislative language and moving this bill forward.
  I ask my colleagues to support this bill which will assure that many 
school districts around the country get a fair share of the much needed 
impact aid education funds.

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