[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 36 (Tuesday, March 28, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1814-S1815]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS

  The following petitions and memorials were laid before the Senate and 
were referred or ordered to lie on the table as indicated:

       POM-447. A resolution adopted by the Senate of the General 
     Assembly of the State of Missouri relative to the Individuals 
     with Disabilities Education Act; to the Committee on 
     Appropriations.

                       Senate Resolution No. 1034

       Whereas, the Congress of the United States enacted the 
     Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (P.L. 94-
     142), now known as the Individuals with Disabilities 
     Education Act (IDEA), to ensure that all children with 
     disabilities in the United States have available to them a 
     free and appropriate public education that emphasizes special 
     education and related services designed to meet their unique 
     needs, to assure that the rights of children with 
     disabilities and their parents or guardians are protected, to 
     assist states and localities to provide for the education of 
     all children with disabilities, and to assess and assure the 
     effectiveness of efforts to educate children with 
     disabilities; and
       Whereas, since 1975, federal law has authorized 
     appropriation levels for grants to states under the IDEA at 
     forty percent of the average per-pupil expenditure in public 
     elementary and secondary schools in the United States; and
       Whereas, Congress continued the forty-percent funding 
     authority in Public Law 105-17, the Individuals with 
     Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997; and
       Whereas, Congress has never appropriated funds equivalent 
     to the authorized level, has never exceeded the fifteen-
     percent level, and has usually only appropriated funding at 
     about the eight-percent level; and
       Whereas, the Missouri State Plan for Special Education was 
     approved for statewide implementation on the basis of the 
     anticipated federal commitment to fund special education 
     programs at the federally authorized level; and
       Whereas, Missouri appropriated approximately $240 million 
     for the 2000 fiscal year in support for the state share of 
     funding for special education programs; and
       Whereas, the State of Missouri received approximately $105 
     million in federal special education funds under IDEA for the 
     1999-2000 school year, even though the federally authorized 
     level of funding would provide over $313 million annually to 
     Missouri; and
       Whereas, local educational agencies in Missouri are 
     required to pay for the underfunded federal mandates for 
     special education programs, at a statewide total cost 
     approaching $208 million annually, from regular education 
     program money, thereby reducing the funding that is available 
     for other education programs; and
       Whereas, the decision of the Supreme Court of the United 
     States in the case of Cedar Rapids Community School District 
     v. Garret F. ((1999) 143 L.Ed 2d 154), has had the effect of 
     creating an additional mandate for providing specialized 
     health care, and will significantly increase the costs 
     associated with providing special education services; and
       Whereas, whether or not Missouri participates in the IDEA 
     grant program, the state has to meet the requirements of 
     Section 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 
     U.S.C. Sec. 701) and its implementing regulations (34 C.F.R. 
     104), which prohibit recipients of federal financial 
     assistance, including educational institutions, from 
     discriminating on the basis of disability, yet no federal 
     funds are available under that act for state grants; and
       Whereas, Missouri is committed to providing a free and 
     appropriate public education to children and youth with 
     disabilities, in order to meet their unique needs; and
       Whereas, the Missouri General Assembly is extremely 
     concerned that, since 1978, Congress has not provided states 
     with the full amount of financial assistance necessary to 
     achieve its goal of ensuring children and youth with 
     disabilities equal protection of the laws: Now, therefore, be 
     it
       Resolved by the Missouri Senate, Second Regular Session, 
     Ninetieth General Assembly, That the President and Congress 
     of the United States are respectfully requested to provide 
     the full forty-percent federal share of funding for special 
     education program so that Missouri and other states 
     participating in these critical programs will not be required 
     to take funding from other vital state and local programs in 
     order to fund this underfunded federal mandate; and be it 
     further
       Resolved that the Secretary of the Senate be instructed to 
     prepare properly inscribed copies of this resolution for the 
     President and Vice President of the United States, to the 
     Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the Majority 
     Leader of the Senate, to the Chair of the Senate Committee on 
     Budget, to the Chair of the House Committee on the Budget, to 
     the Chair of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, to the 
     Chair of the House Committee on Appropriations, to each 
     member of the Missouri Congressional delegation, and to the 
     United States Secretary of Education.
                                  ____

       POM-448. A resolution adopted by the Council of the City of 
     Cincinnati, Ohio relative to the Physical Education for 
     Progress Act; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, 
     and Pensions.
       POM-449. A resolution adopted by the Senate of the General 
     Assembly of the State of Illinois relative to taxation 
     mandated by U.S. Courts; to the Committee on the Judiciary.

                       Senate Resolution No. 216

       Whereas, Unfunded mandates by the United States Congress 
     and the executive branch of the federal government 
     increasingly strain already tight state government budgets if 
     the states are to comply; and
       Whereas, To further compound this assault on state 
     revenues, federal district courts, with the blessing of the 
     United States Supreme Court, continue to order states to levy 
     or increase taxes to supplement their budgets to comply with 
     federal mandates; and
       Whereas, The court's actions are an intrusion into a 
     legitimate legislative debate over state spending priorities 
     and not a response to a constitutional directive; and
       Whereas, The Constitution of the United States of America 
     does not allow, nor do the states need, judicial intervention 
     requiring tax levies or increases as solutions to potentially 
     serious problems; and
       Whereas, This usurpation of legislative authority begins a 
     process that over time could threaten the fundamental concept 
     of separation of powers that is precious to the preservation 
     of the form of our government embodied by the Constitution of 
     the United States of America; and
       Whereas, Fifteen states, including Alabama, Alaska, 
     Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Louisiana, Massachusetts, 
     Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, South Dakota, 
     Tennessee and Utah, have petitioned the United States 
     Congress to propose an amendment to the Constitution of the 
     United States of America that reads as follows:
       ``Neither the Supreme Court nor any inferior court of the 
     United States shall have the power to instruct or order a 
     state or political subdivision thereof, or an official of 
     such state or political subdivision, to levy or increase 
     taxes.''; therefore, be it
       Resolved, by the Senate of the Ninety-First General 
     Assembly of the State of Illinois, That this legislative body 
     respectfully requests and petitions the Congress of the 
     United States to propose submission to the states for their 
     ratification an amendment to the Constitution of the United 
     States of America to restrict the ability of the United 
     States Supreme Court or any inferior court of the United 
     States to mandate any state or political subdivision of the 
     state to levy or increase taxes; and be it further
       Resolved, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to 
     the President of the United

[[Page S1815]]

     States, the Speaker of the United States House of 
     Representatives, the President Pro Tempore of the United 
     States Senate, the Secretary of the United States Senate, the 
     Clerk of the United States House of Representatives, and the 
     members of the Illinois Congressional delegation.
       Adopted by the Senate, November 18, 1999.

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