[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 60 (Friday, May 4, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4375-S4376]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        EDUCATION AND THE BUDGET

  Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, we are here discussing the education bill. 
Yesterday, the Senate passed a measure to

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increase funding for education over what is in the baseline by $150 
billion. I supported that. But we have an incredible disconnect going 
on between what we are doing on the floor of the Senate and what we are 
about to do in the budget resolution. The budget resolution that has 
come out of the conference committee has no new money for education--
none, zero. So we are all out here talking about education being the 
top priority--and, indeed, it is--but we have a budget resolution 
coming out of the conference committee that gives no priority to 
education--none, not one thin dime of additional resources to 
education. It is really an incredible disconnect--the difference 
between the rhetoric on the floor and the reality of this budget 
resolution.
  The new President of the United States proposed a very modest 
increase in education over the so-called baseline. He proposed $13 
billion of new money for education over the 10-year period. In the 
Democratic alternative budget, we proposed $139 billion of new money 
for education over the 10-year period. What passed on the floor of the 
Senate when we considered the budget resolution was an increase of $308 
billion. We passed the Harkin amendment, which reduced the tax cut by 
$450 billion and allocated half to education and half to debt 
reduction. The Harkin amendment added $225 billion to education over 
the next 10 years. It went to conference committee to be worked out as 
to the differences between the House and Senate, and they came back 
with nothing, zero, no new money.

  We passed on the floor of the Senate the Jeffords-Breaux amendment 
which added $70 billion to fund IDEA. That went to the conference 
committee and came back with zero--a big nothing. So there is no new 
money in this budget for education, and our colleagues ought to be 
aware of it as we consider the budget next week.
  I thank the Chair and yield the floor.

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