[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 34 (Thursday, March 4, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2253-S2255]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          THE EDUCATION BUDGET

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I listened to our friend and colleague 
from New Hampshire speak about the education budget and about the 
expenditures in the areas of education. I just want to review here, in 
this time, for a few moments, exactly what has been the record of our 
Republican friends in the House and Senate, and the administration, 
over the period since 1994 when the Republicans took over the 
leadership in the Congress.
  After 1994, on March 16, 1995, one of the first acts of the new 
Republican House of Representatives was to ask for a $1.7 billion 
rescission on all education programs below what was enacted in the 
appropriations the year before. That is an extensive rescission, no 
matter how you cut it. This is in all the education programs of 1994. 
They asked to cut back $1.7 billion. The final rescission bill that 
passed on July 27, 1995, was $600 million below 1995. So, as we are 
looking over, now, and listening to who is interested in education, I 
hope our colleagues will at least give some attention, when they are 
reviewing the record, as to who has been interested and who has been 
committed, judging by the allocation of resources. Resources themselves 
do not solve the problems of education, but they are a pretty good 
indication of a nation's priorities.
  What we had as the first order of business in 1995 in the House 
rescission bill was to move ahead with a major cut of $1.7 billion for 
the appropriations the year before. Now, in the first full funding 
cycle, the 1996 House Appropriations, in August of 1995, cut $3.9 
billion below 1996. Then the continuing resolution ended up at $3.1 
billion below 1996. This was at a time when we had the memorable 
shutdown of the Government. The President said, That is too much, you 
will be cutting the heart out of many of these education programs. That 
was one of the principal reasons he went toe-to-toe with the Congress, 
because of those dramatic cuts in the area of education. Finally, there 
was a continuing resolution after the Senate adopted a Specter-Harkin 
amendment to restore $2.7 billion. We saw a bottom line $400 million 
below fiscal year 1996.

[[Page S2254]]

  In 1997, the Senate bill was $3.1 billion below the President's. This 
is rather extraordinary to me, that Members on the other side can stand 
up and talk and criticize the President on appropriations when you have 
this kind of record to defend--$3.1 billion below the President's. My 
good friend from New Hampshire ought to be talking to the Republican 
appropriators. Mr. President, $3.1 billion below what the President 
asked for, that was the Senate bill. The final agreement, after 
extensive negotiation thankfully moved the appropriation up, was to 
$3.5 billion above what the President asked for; as a result of the 
administration's position, a $6 billion swing in education funding.
  Then, in 1998, both the House and Senate bills were $200 million 
below the President's. Again, after tough negotiation the final 
agreement was $3.4 billion above, over 1997.
  Mr. President, these are fairly significant figures. All of us are 
concerned about education policy. I know my friend and colleague from 
Vermont, Senator Jeffords, has long stood for making sure that we, as a 
country, and as a matter of principle, focus on and provide greater 
support for education as a national priority, so I appreciate his 
commitment, his position in these decisions. But we have to look at the 
bottom line. Coming into 1999, fiscal year 1999, they are still cutting 
below the President's investment. The House bill, in June of 1998, 
which was for the fiscal year 1999, was $2 billion below the 
President's; the final agreement was $3.6 billion over 1998.
  This is the record. Year after year after year those appropriations 
committees, which are effectively controlled by the Republican 
leadership, have consistently underfunded education. So it does not 
come, I don't think, with good grace, to suggest that somehow we have 
an administration or President who is not strongly committed--whether 
it has been to the special needs children or all the children in this 
country. We all are mindful that even with these kinds of 
appropriations we only are spending probably 4 cents out of every 
dollar, maybe 5 cents out of every dollar, in education. You get 2 more 
cents for the food program, so the total considered to be the moneys 
that are spent locally, about 6 cents, is the Federal funding. But 2 
cents of that has to do with nutrition. We are talking about 4 cents.
  This is a major item, obviously, the title I program, but there is 
also some in excess of $4 billion in special needs. The Head Start 
programs and others are certainly enormously important, and they can 
certainly use additional resources.

  Federal education funding rose from $23 billion in 1996 to $33.5 
billion in 1999, an increase of $10.5 billion, or 46 percent. That is a 
pretty good indication of at least this President's priorities in the 
education area. So, we hope when we come back here at 2:15 we will move 
ahead and accept this. We are, I believe, on this side, strongly 
committed to trying to find every scarce dollar resource to fund these 
education programs.
  As I mentioned, with the Supreme Court holding of yesterday, we do 
have, I think, additional kinds of responsibilities. It was that aspect 
of the statement of the Senator from New Hampshire with which I agree. 
With that holding, there will be additional kinds of demands on local 
communities. I do think we ought to try to find additional resources on 
that particular measure, and we will certainly work with all in this 
body to see what can be done to gain those resources and support.
  I yield.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Voinovich). The Senator from Vermont.
  Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, the Senator from Massachusetts has made 
an excellent point. I do not argue with him. I, in fact, would have 
supported those appropriations and have supported the appropriations 
that have been recommended for education totally.
  I think the point Senator Gregg was making was that this 
administration does not place high enough priority on IDEA. I think the 
record bears this out. While the administration's proposed new programs 
increase funding elsewhere, it has shortchanged IDEA. The funding we 
are charged with under our promises and under the law as it reads--to 
fund 40 percent of the cost of special education--those costs are going 
up and are really making it difficult for our local communities to 
carry out other programs that have been recommended to help them. So I 
just wanted to make sure everyone recognizes that.
  Mr. President, I make a point of order a quorum is not present.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I will put in the Record the actual 
funding levels, in terms of the IDEA. In 1995, it was $3.2 billion; in 
1996, it was $3.2 billion; in 1997, it was $4 billion. They are numbers 
that have to be rounded out--$4.35 billion. In 1998, it is $4.5 
billion. And in 1999, it is $5 billion; the current is $5.54 billion, 
and the President's request was for $5.106 billion. The total increase 
from 1995 to the present is, therefore, an increase from $3.2 to $5.54 
billion. That is a significant increase. I say to our colleagues, much 
of that was attributed to our Republican friends who made it a 
priority. Quite frankly, we joined in that effort; I think the record 
would reflect that.

  I will say, though, that we were able to see that kind of increase 
while we were also able to see an increase in the other programs as 
well. It wasn't an either/or position. That is what I hope will result 
this afternoon, after we have had a good discussion and debate.
  We are strongly committed on this side to finding additional 
resources for the funding of that program. We will work with our 
committee chair to see how this last Supreme Court decision is going to 
impact local communities. I think that is enormously important. We are 
committing ourselves at this time, the day after that decision, to work 
closely, because we do think that there are going to be some very 
important additional burdens on local communities with that decision 
about the scope of the ADA, including educational and health support. I 
think there is going to be a call for additional help and assistance. 
We will certainly work with the chair to try and deal with that.
  I have had the chance to talk with a leader on our side, Senator 
Harkin, who has been such a leader on so many of these issues affecting 
the disabled. He is in strong support of trying to find ways to help 
and assist local communities as well. I am sure we will be addressing 
this probably later in the day.
  I wanted at this time to make sure that our membership understood 
with that decision we are going to look forward to working in a 
cooperative way with the chair of the committee.
  Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, just very briefly, I thank the Senator 
from Massachusetts for his desire to join us in trying to push for more 
funds for special education. I hope we can be successful with our joint 
efforts.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, if the Senator will yield, will the 
Senator join me in indicating to the Senate the excellent results of 
the Senate Finance Committee this morning on legislation which the 
Senator from Vermont and I have worked on closely with Senator Roth and 
Senator Moynihan. There was a very positive bipartisan result, as I 
understand, 16 to 2, and although it is not directly related to 
education, it is directly related to the issue of employment of the 
disabled. Perhaps the good Senator would want to indicate to the 
membership the success of the Finance Committee in reporting that out.
  Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I thank the Senator for bringing that to 
my attention. I enjoyed working with the Senator. We introduced it 
jointly together, and your support, although you are not on the Finance 
Committee, has been most helpful in ensuring its success. We had a good 
hearing. There are a couple amendments which may come about, which I 
think can be taken care of without any serious diminution of the impact 
of the bill.
  I say on behalf of all the Senators on the committee and those that 
have signed on, we now have 62 cosponsors to that bill. This is an 
incredible step forward for people with disabilities who desire to 
work. I do not think there are

[[Page S2255]]

very many who don't desire to work. They have been placed in this 
incredibly terrible position of, if you go to work, you lose your 
health care and you lose your SDI benefits or other benefits that you 
have to help you live. You just cannot do it except under very unusual 
circumstances.

  Thus, we have finally opened the door, after many years. The Senator 
worked on all these issues, too, starting with the bill that we have 
been talking about, special education, back in 1976, when we passed 
what is called IDEA. That opened the first big door, and that is to get 
an education. Without an education, you do not have any hope of being 
able to be employed.
  Since then, we have marched up through with ADA. I remember one of 
the amendments I had, which probably created the most stir, was when I 
was with John Brademas on his committee. I said, John, do you realize 
that the Federal Government is exempt from 504, which removes barriers 
for people with handicaps? He said, No. He said, Well, let us fix it. 
So over in the House, you have the day when you put all these 
unimportant amendments through and nobody looks at them. We had a 
little committee amendment on that which affected all the Federal 
buildings. I remember it well because when I got back to the office a 
couple days later, somebody had finally read the bill. It was filled 
with the head of the Post Office and everybody else asking me if I knew 
what I had done. I said, well, I didn't know how important it was until 
now, but that got the Federal Government by.
  Then we worked together on assisted technology as well. That bill we 
reauthorized last year, which is incredibly important at this time, to 
assist all those people with disabilities to have a better opportunity 
of getting employed because they have the assistance of technology to 
do that.
  It is a great day. I am confident that we certainly will prevail on 
the Senate floor. I think that the two Senators who have some problems 
we can take care of, but I thank you for your tremendous support over 
all the years we have been working together.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I thank the Senator. I think this is 
perhaps in some respects the most notable thing that we will achieve 
today. As important as this is, with the reporting out of that 
particular bill, which is really, as the Senator has pointed out, the 
Americans with Disabilities Act, we effectively attempted to eliminate 
discrimination against those that had disability. It was enormously 
important, and we made extraordinary success. But to really breathe 
life into that legislation, you have to make sure that not only is the 
individual not going to be discriminated against in getting the job, 
but that they are also not going to have these barriers placed in front 
of them in holding the job which were there in terms of their 
elimination of their health care support and any other kinds of support 
services. That was the purpose of this legislation that was reported 
out with very strong bipartisan support.
  We look forward, hopefully, to being able to act on that at an early 
time.
  Mr. JEFFORDS. I am sure the Senator shares this with me, too. There 
were some staff members--Pat Morrissey on my staff had been working on 
this for 20 years or more, I guess. I know on the Senator's staff, 
members have had similar input. I think we ought to remember who it 
really is sometimes that moves this legislation along.
  Mr. KENNEDY. I will include my good staffer. Connie has been working 
some 20 years, as well, on these. I agree with the Senator that they 
have just provided invaluable service. And for all those that work 
here, I hope they do recognize and get the sense of satisfaction, 
professional satisfaction, from really making the important difference 
in people's lives. That will certainly be true of all of the staff that 
worked on this legislation.

  Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. ASHCROFT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. ASHCROFT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak on the 
Ed-Flex bill while in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has that right.

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