[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 152 (Tuesday, November 6, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11475-S11480]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2002
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the committee is
discharged from the consideration of H.R. 2944, and the Senate will
proceed to its consideration. The clerk will report.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
A bill (H.R. 2944) making appropriations for the government
of the District of Columbia and other activities chargeable
in whole or in part against the revenues of said District for
the fiscal year ending September 30, 2002, and for other
purposes.
[[Page S11476]]
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate-reported
language is adopted as the substitute.
(The amendment (No. 2106) is printed in today's Record under
``Amendments Submitted and Proposed.'')
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana is recognized.
Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, as has been agreed to, I am pleased to
bring the District of Columbia appropriations bill to the floor with my
colleague and partner, the Senator from Ohio, Mr. DeWine. We will speak
this afternoon as we bring this bill to the floor and then entertain
any amendments which should be limited on this bill.
I say it is fine work the two of us have done with our committee
members to try to reconcile some of the differences in this bill and to
bring forward a bill we can support in a bipartisan fashion. I thank
the Senator from Ohio for his great work and his diligence,
particularly in some very important areas in this legislation that we
lay out.
Also, I recognize the staff who has been very helpful to us in
preparing this important piece of legislation. They will be with us in
the Chamber today.
Mr. President, this total budget before us for the District of
Columbia, our Nation's Capital, and one of the premier cities, if not
the premier city in our Nation, is $7.1 billion. I think it is
important to note for the purposes of what we are going to be
discussing this afternoon that $5.3 billion of this money is raised
through the local tax base, local levies, local ordinances governing
tax collections and fees paid by the residents of the District and
those tourists and citizens who visit the District.
We also have within this budget $1.7 billion in Federal grants, which
includes all of the Federal programs that all of our cities and States
participate in so readily, not the least of which is Medicaid, which is
a very familiar program to many.
In addition, the area that we have concentrated our work on mostly is
the $400 million included in this District of Columbia appropriations
budget for criminal justice, prisons, and courts; under a recent
statute the Federal Government has taken on the responsibility to
hopefully do a better job--a system that was in some disarray with some
unfortunate mismanagement, and to relieve the District of that
financial responsibility, helping them to get back on good financial
footing. So that is the general outline of the moneys in this bill. I
will come back to them in some detail.
In opening, let me say--and I know Senator DeWine shares the same
hope with me--we can lead in a new way with this bill, in a new time, a
momentous time for our country and for the Nation's Capital since the
unwarranted and unexpected and tragic attacks of September 11. Some of
the terms that have been used to describe the relationships between
Congress and the District have been old ones such as ``partisanship''
and ``bickering,'' a battleground for competing ideologies that might
have been better fought on a broader theater or on a broader
battleground.
Sometimes I think our District has been treated as a national guinea
pig instead of the Nation's Capital. I hope, as we bring the bill to
the floor this year, we can use new words to describe this
partnership--instead of ``partisanship,'' ``partnership''--words such
as ``trust'' and ``respect,'' respect for local decisionmaking, which I
think is so important in this relationship with the District.
Instead of a battleground, I hope we can find common ground to build
on some of the principles and issues that are important not only to the
District but to our country.
I would like to think this bill represents a thrust toward economic
vitality. The ranking member and I believe very strongly in job
creation in the District, along with the Mayor and City Council,
obviously, and we want to do what we can to make sure there is
vitality.
In addition, words such as accountability, transparency, excellence
in management, excellence in the education system, and investments in
strengthening the health care system of the District are issues about
which our committee feels very strongly.
I commend the work of the Mayor and the City Council, and so many
others, particularly the Chief Financial Officer and others on the
financial front who have helped to lead the District to a sound
financial footing.
It is important to note that this is the first budget we will be
considering as a Congress in 5 years that is post-control board. The
control board that was in effect and helped bring the District back to
relatively strong financial health, even in a time of crisis and
challenge, came to an end on September 30. This is the first budget to
come forward without the control board being in place.
As the control board has moved off the scene, what has moved front
and center are the authorities and responsibilities of the Chief
Financial Officer. So many of the charges to keep the District in good
financial stead will now lie with the Chief Financial Officer, and it
is my hope that throughout this year and the coming years we will be
able to strengthen that office and the systems within the DC government
to make sure it is clear who is accountable for what and that there is
transparency and accountability, because without strong finances the
District will never be able to reach all of its many worthy goals, some
of which I have just outlined.
I wanted to note that before I get into my prepared remarks.
The second principle that is embedded in this mark that I present is
the elimination of some of the time-worn restrictions on the ways the
District can spend some of its local funding. In our States, we all
have cities and jurisdictions that want to be and should be autonomous
in terms of the ordinances they propose and on what they choose to
spend their money.
Too often, in my opinion, Congress has stepped in to try to
micromanage, supersede, mandate, and attach too many strings to the way
in which this city wanted to spend its own resources. Again, it is its
own tax dollars spent by its own elected board. I have tried in
appropriate ways to eliminate in this mark many of those riders or
measures that were placed not because of the issues to which they
pertain, but because of the principle.
I want this mark to suggest that we are entering an era, hopefully,
of mutual respect and partnership, trust and respect of local
decisionmaking. I would expect that for the city of New Orleans, for
the city of Baton Rouge, and for the city of Lafayette. Senator DeWine,
I am sure, expects that for the city of Cleveland. We should have no
less of a level of appreciation for the District of Columbia.
The third principle of this bill is a significant investment in child
welfare. This has been one of the mayor's top priorities. It has been,
I believe, the citizens' top priority as, unfortunately, 200 children
in the last 10 years have lost their lives at the hands of people who
supposedly love them, supposedly were caring for them. They have been
murdered, tortured, and abused because the system in DC is not strong
enough. This bill represents an extremely significant investment in
that respect.
Counting what the city is putting up and what the Senator from Ohio
and I have determined is an appropriate investment reaches almost $40
million in new money to create and to strengthen the court system
creating a new family court that will be complementary to this effort
in hopes to correct this terrible situation and reverse this trend. I
can state this is one of the best provisions in this bill.
In addition, particularly due to 9-11, the $16 million for security
investments for the District is to help the District establish better
management and security plans, and I will go into that in more detail.
The other principles are investments in education, the environment,
and children's health. Investments are an important part of any growth
plan for a city or for a State. We can tighten budgets, we can have
fiscal discipline, we can try to keep those budgets in balance, but the
smart money goes to those cities that are making long-term strategic
investments.
We can never overinvest if we spend it wisely in education or the
physical environment, such as bringing back the Anacostia River, the
Navy Yard, which
[[Page S11477]]
is an important developmental opportunity for the District, and in
children's health, which Senator DeWine has led.
To restate, the tragic events of September 11 have reminded us all of
the safety, security, and financial strength of the District, our
Nation's Capital, and how it serves as a vital symbol of our national
resolve. This bill, as I said, serves the needs of the District's
police, fire, public health, and emergency management services--the
people who are on the front lines today, who were on the front lines on
September 11, and who will be there when we have another attack. We
hope we do not have another attack, but we are prepared for one and
getting better prepared every day.
Given the strategic importance of maintaining stability in the
Nation's Capital, the Appropriations Committee decided to maintain the
original funding for the IMF conference that was canceled. Instead of
canceling the funding, we reoriented that funding to be used for these
important security needs.
In the days after the attack, local officials and the media began to
detail some of the shortfalls in the present emergency protocol.
Specifically, articles in the Washington Post highlighted the need for
coordination and improvement. I thank Senator Mikulski and Senator
Sarbanes for their input on this subject, as well as Delegate Norton,
who is in the Chamber, along with the Mayor and others as we worked out
a security plan that is robust, a security plan that has redundancy
built into it, a security plan that will work for the residents of the
District, for the thousands of people from the region who visit daily
to work and enjoy the sites, and the millions of people who travel
throughout the year to celebrate in the Nation's Capital.
I expect Mayor Williams and his staff to give attention to this real
and immediate concern. I thank them for the work they are doing, and I
look forward to working with them diligently in the months ahead.
Fiscal year 2002 will be an important year for the District. Overall,
the District has moved from a negative accumulated fund balance of $518
million in fiscal year 1996 to a positive fund balance of $464 million.
That is almost a swing of $1 billion in 5 years. That took a lot of
hard work and a lot of dedication. There was a lot of anguish and a lot
of disagreement about how that should happen, but it did happen. The
District is in a positive financial posture due to a lot of hard work,
and we want to keep it that way with appropriate mechanisms, even with
the Control Board moving out of its area of responsibility. The city
met all the requirements under the 1005 Financial Responsibility and
Management Assistance Act and is no longer under the general
supervision of the Control Board.
The Chief Financial Officer will begin to fulfill many of the
financial management functions previously performed by the board. The
termination of several significant receiverships, particularly in child
welfare, indicates a stronger, more effective, local government.
With each success, the District gains more independence. This bill
maintains Congress' commitment to ensure that District officials have
the tools they need to continue to serve DC and those who visit the
capital.
While this is often a challenging role for the Federal Government to
make, it is an important one. It is imperative Congress work with the
city so the foundation of resources are in place to ensure this
independence will result in success. To accomplish this, the
Appropriations Committee has worked diligently to forge a partnership
for progress between Congress and DC local elected leaders. Determined
to be a supportive partner of the city's agenda, we have done our best
to construct a Federal budget that supplements but not supplants the
city's efforts to fulfill its promise to enrich the lives of the
citizens in the District.
The bill before us is now evidence the committee shares the city's
vision for quality education, a clean environment, improved child and
family welfare, and continued financial strength. In each of these key
areas, we have worked with local officials to determine the best course
of action for all concerned.
Over the past 10 years, the District of Columbia has struggled to
review and reform its child welfare system. I am certain my colleague
from Ohio will speak in more detail about this because he has been such
an extraordinary leader in this particular area.
First, under the guidance of a court-appointed receiver and now under
the direction of a newly-appointed Child and Family Services Agency,
this committee would be hard-pressed to find a greater priority than
the well-being and safety of the children of the District. For this
reason, as I said earlier, we have included a significant increase in
the funding of a family court reform effort, the Child and Family
Services Agency, and Court-Appointed Special Advocates, CASA.
The ranking member and I believe strongly that investing more money
without reforms, without accountability, without principles such as one
family/one judge, without principles such as people should choose to do
this job because they want to, not because they are forced to, that
lawyers should take these cases because they want to, not because they
are forced to, and the principles that volunteers in courtrooms looking
out for the interests of the child will make a difference in that
child's life and in that family's life, are crucial to the
underpinnings of the reform.
I will be pleased to work with colleagues on both sides of the aisle
and in both Houses of Congress toward that end.
In addition, we have made note of the progress made by many DC public
schools. In particular, the committee has included language and funding
intended to serve as a catalyst for the ever-growing DC charter school
movement. However, I am concerned about the current financial and
management challenges of the schools and hope to work with the city on
this front more specifically.
Let me say as an aside, before I get into my conclusion about
schools, we all represent hundreds and thousands of schools in our own
particular States and each one of us in our own way has worked with our
mayors and our superintendents and our Governors to help reform and
uplift and to build a stronger school system. In my mind, never has it
been more important than in the post-September 11 attacks to think
about what our school systems mean to our democracy.
Let me be as clear as I can possibly be on this subject. Pretty good
is just not good enough. Schools that do all right is just not going to
cut it or make it happen in the world that we face today. In these
challenges, where it is important for us to understand our country
well, to understand other countries well, other cultures and other
religions, it is important for people to be well educated and well
trained and well read and well versed on history and art and
philosophy. It is important for our children to have the finest
education.
Why? So they can become the kind of citizens that not only can govern
in this Nation but literally lead the world. The world looks to America
for leadership. They do not look necessarily to the elected officials
of our country for leadership, although we are the voice of the people,
but as the people of the United States that must lead. People can lead
better when they are well educated and well prepared, well read about
the actual character and conditions of this world.
I hope we really appreciate how important it is for not only the
schools in the District of Columbia to work at a higher and more
excellent level but how important it is for all of our schools. I am
willing to take on some battles there because we have to think outside
of the box, in a new way. We are going to do that in a bipartisan way,
in an appropriate way, to help strengthen the schools for every child
in this District, in our Nation's Capital, which is host to people from
many places around the world, to provide a quality education, a
wonderful education, not with just a pretty good teacher, not with a
good teacher but with a great teacher, a well-motivated and well-
trained teacher, to give children the kind of education in partnership
with their parents, to provide that education for the children to
create better schools, a stronger community, a stronger Nation and
citizens that can truly lead the world in the decades ahead.
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Finally, I am proud to say this bill includes funding to support
education, public health, economic development projects. As the mayor
and I have both said, a community with clean parks, beautiful waterways
and safe streets is one in which people are proud to live. So if the
schools are excellent, they serve as an economic catalyst for
businesses that want to stay in the District and grow. When there are
clean parks and places where children can play, when the waterways are
clean enough to recreate and to swim in, and when the streets are safe,
that is what makes a great community all the more great, and that is
what our hope is for this District and for all of the cities that we
represent in this great Nation.
I want to say particularly how impressed I am with the work of Mayor
Williams, who has worked tirelessly on this and many other fronts. This
is home for the Federal Government and its employees. It seems only
right that we should do our fair share to see the District remains the
beautiful place it is.
Amendments may be offered to this bill to restrict the District's
ability to use its own locally collected tax revenues to operate
specific programs hundreds of cities across this country operate. I
hope those amendments will not be offered, but if they are, we will
debate them with a limited time and move on so we can get this
important bill passed and signed by the President.
In many parts of the country, some of these issues are controversial.
Throughout the entire country, the issue of the direction of local
funds is something that is universally, I believe, supported.
Let me conclude by thanking my ranking member and by saying I am
proud to offer this mark, which puts the District in financial balance
with a financial surplus, that outlines some of the strong principles
of education, investments in health and in the environment which will
make this city even stronger. With the emphasis on security and
investments we have made, I think this mark will serve this city well
for the next many years and in the decades to come.
I yield back the remainder of my time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I thank Senator Landrieu for her comments
but, more importantly, for the great work she has done over the last
few months. It has been a great pleasure to work with the Senator from
Louisiana. Her dedication to her job, her dedication to children in the
District of Columbia, comes out every single day I meet with her and
every time we talk about these issues. This bill is truly a reflection
of that dedication.
Senator Landrieu and I have really been partners in our efforts to
ensure that the children who come into contact with the court system in
the District of Columbia are placed in a safe and a stable environment.
The bill before us today will go a long way toward ending the
suffering of innocent children by providing resources to strengthen the
District's family court system. Today, as Senator Landrieu has
outlined, we are providing $140.2 million for the DC court system, an
increase of approximately $35 million over last year's enacted level.
The majority of these funds will be dedicated to improving the family
courts so case workers can adequately address the individual needs of
the children and the families who come into contact with the court
system. These funds will help implement the reforms outlined in the
family court bill that Senator Landrieu and I have introduced. These
reforms will help the District hire, train, and equip additional staff
and construct additional courtrooms.
It is not a question of money. That is why we have, as Senator
Landrieu outlined and talked about a moment ago, introduced the family
court bill, a bill I hope we will have within a short period of time
for debate and for passage.
We are fulfilling today part of our commitment to the children of the
District of Columbia. We need the reforms outlined in our DC family
court bill, and we need the money contained in this bill to implement
those reforms.
The family court bill we will take up later has a fundamental
principle. And, that is that we have judges who, every single day,
spend 100 percent of their time worrying about the children in the
District of Columbia. ``Family court'' means exactly what the title
indicates: The judges deal with family problems. They deal with
children every single day. We need these judges to do this full time--
we don't want them to be spending their time on felony trials or other
civil cases. We need them to develop the expertise in family law.
Teachers tell me it takes 4 or 5 years before an eager new teacher
becomes a seasoned, experienced, and excellent teacher. The same is
true with a judge. Our bill provides that longevity, that experience,
that training, to focus on our children.
Our family court bill also has the basic principle: One judge, one
family--again, this is so the children are not moved from judge to
judge to judge. There needs to be an institutional memory with that
family. If that judge knows whom he is dealing with, knows what has
happened in the past, that judge can better deal with that family. That
is the family court bill. It is not before us today, but it will be
before the Senate, we hope, in the next few weeks.
I don't have to remind anyone in this Chamber or anyone who reads the
newspaper about what a mess the District of Columbia child welfare
system has been and still is today. There are a lot of good people
working very hard to change that. I believe we have to do our part. The
bill before the Senate is a downpayment--a downpayment--on that job and
that obligation.
Next, this bill contains $147.3 million for the court services and
offender supervision agency, an increase of $34.7 million over last
year's level. With these funds, the District will have the resources to
provide drug treatment services to over 2,700 offenders in the District
of Columbia criminal justice system, an increase in treatment slots of
about 54 percent over last year. Initially, funds will be used to
repair and renovate the District drug facilities. Some of the money
will be used to hire additional drug treatment counselors.
This increase, which meets the President's request, is particularly
important because 80 percent of the individuals in the District of
Columbia criminal justice system have a substance abuse problem. This
is not unique to the District of Columbia. I saw it when I was a county
prosecuting attorney. I saw it when I was lieutenant governor in Ohio.
One of my responsibilities was to oversee the Ohio criminal justice
system. Roughly that 80 percent of the people in Ohio prisons and our
jails had substance abuse problems. That is true for the District of
Columbia, as well.
Spending money on treatment of people behind bars may not be the most
popular thing to do, but it does make sense. It is cost effective. It
is the right thing to do. The sad truth is we already pay to house,
feed, and clothe the prisoners. Doesn't it make sense, while we have
their attention, while they cannot leave, that we work to try to give
them some drug treatment while they are in prison or jail? Almost every
single prisoner will someday walk out the door and return to society.
It makes good sense to spend money for drug treatment. We do this and
provide a significant increase in the funding of this bill.
Third, the bill includes $16 million to provide security protection
for those living and working in the District of Columbia. The September
11 Pentagon tragedy and the tragedy in New York and Pennsylvania
clearly demonstrated the need in every district in this country to have
an integrated emergency management system in place. It certainly
demonstrated that need in the District of Columbia. This funding will
pay for a coordinated emergency plan for the District of Columbia in
national security situations including, of course, terrorist threats,
protests, natural disasters, or other unanticipated events.
As a condition of receiving these funds, in this bill, we are
requiring that the District develop and submit to Congress a
comprehensive plan to improve security measures and procedures in the
District of Columbia.
Fourth, the bill includes funding for the local Federal Police Mobile
Wireless Interoperability Project to provide equipment to facilitate
direct communication to between the D.C. Metropolitan Police, the U.S.
Secret Service, the U.S. Park Police, and the U.S. Capitol Police. We
were pushing this prior
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to the September 11 attacks. The recent tragedy highlighted how
important it is that the District's law enforcement teams are able to
communicate effectively. It is important in every city in this country,
but in this city we have a unique problem. Our unique problem is we
have so many different agencies that have authority: The D.C.
Metropolitan Police, the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Park Police, and
the U.S. Capitol Police. This effort will coincide with the integrated
emergency planning to help enhance the District's overall response to
security threats.
Briefly, I will mention three other important initiatives included in
this bill. I am pleased the bill includes funds for the Green Door
Mental Health Clinic to expand the facility. Our friend and colleague
from New Mexico, Senator Domenici, has been a very strong advocate and
supporter of this program. I thank him for his strong support and his
dedication. The Green Door is a community program for people with
severe and persistent mental illness. The Green Door program serves
about 300 people. Of the people it serves, 70 percent are African
American. Of those 300 people, about 75 percent are schizophrenic.
In a separate, but equally important provision of the bill, we have
included funds to assist the D.C. Safe Kids Coalition to expand their
permanent child safety seat fitting station programs. These stations
are vital to help reduce motor vehicle-related deaths and injuries--the
leading cause of injury-related deaths among children age 14 and under.
Funds will help the District distribute additional child safety seats
to low-income families.
The Safe Kids Coalition is a group I worked with in Ohio. I have seen
their great work in Ohio. I have seen their great work in the District
of Columbia. I have seen it across our country. They are literally
saving lives every single day. They are doing things that matter. The
small amount of money we have included in this bill, I believe, will
help them save the lives of children in the District of Columbia.
Finally, this bill provides funding to the Children's National
Medical Center to help renovate its facilities, update its equipment,
and provide private areas for families. Each year, the children's
hospital in the District of Columbia provides care to approximately
200,000 infants, toddlers, youngsters, teenagers, from every State in
the Union. Kids from all over the country are treated here. Kids travel
here, their families travel here. This children's hospital really has a
national focus.
The Center conducts Federal research for the National Institutes of
Health and supports pediatric specialists who are nationally and world
renowned. We are very fortunate to have the children's hospital here in
the District of Columbia, the Children's National Medical Center. We do
serve children, not just in the District, but throughout the world.
Anyone who has a child has probably at one time or the other taken
that child to a children's hospital. My wife, Fran, and I have had that
experience on several occasions. Each time we go into that setting as
very apprehensive, worried parents, I can tell you it is a great relief
to deal with professionals who know what they are doing, who know
children are not just miniature adults, that they are different and
they have to be dealt with differently. That is something with which I
think we need to help the District of Columbia and help private
agencies that are helping the National Children's Medical Center to
improve its facilities, to improve its research to better help with our
children. So we have provided money in this bill to do that.
Let me again thank my colleague, Senator Landrieu, for her great
work. It has been a pleasure to work with her. As she has indicated, we
do have maybe two or three amendments that we will, I think, dispose of
tomorrow. I anticipate it will not take us very long to debate these
issues. There were a couple of issues we just could not get resolved in
the committee. They will be resolved within an hour or two tomorrow,
and I hope we will then be able to move, by about mid-day, to final
passage of this bill.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.
Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, we will be open for amendments under the
time agreement in just a few moments. I thought I would add a couple of
closing remarks. We may have amendments presented tonight. We are
anticipating probably those amendments will be presented in the
morning.
I wanted, for the record, to also thank not only my distinguished
colleague from Ohio and ranking member but also the other members of
our committee for their fine work. I thank the Senator from Illinois,
Mr. Dick Durbin, the Senator from Texas, Mrs. Hutchison, and the
Senator from Rhode Island, Mr. Reed, for their work and dedication to
helping us bring this bill to the floor, working on all these issues in
great detail, conducting meetings, conducting phone conversations,
conferences, meeting with House Members to resolve many of these issues
and to work with the local officials in such a respectful, progressive,
and forward-looking way.
I also thank my colleague and counterpart in the House, Congressman
Knollenberg from Michigan, for his fine work as a chair on the House
side, and also the Congressman from Philadelphia, Mr. Fattah, for his
work on these important issues.
I want to mention a couple of important projects. Senator DeWine
mentioned a few. I see some other Senators are coming to the floor--
Senator Sessions and others--but I would like to take a moment to
mention a few other projects that are in this bill.
One is an investment of a half-million dollars that I think will help
us begin to build up for the city--and with the partnership of the
Federal Government and with the city government and related agencies
and, most important, with the families of the District--a partnership
to help us build and develop, over time, hopefully some of the finest
recreation sports fields and facilities in the Nation.
As Senator DeWine said, as a parent of eight children--I am a parent
of two and actually am a soccer mom on weekends here in the District,
and in Louisiana to some extent also--I am visiting and spending a lot
of time with soccer moms and soccer dads. I played a little baseball in
my day. I know, growing up in New Orleans, how important sports and
athletics are to the development of our family. I watched how important
that was for many other families. I think here in the District there
are some wonderful opportunities of which we are not fully taking
advantage.
I shared this with the mayor. He expressed not only his commitment
but enthusiasm. The city council and its members and leaders in the
city, expressed their enthusiasm for working with Congress in
partnership to help create better opportunities for our children in
every neighborhood and every area of the city to participate in
organized sports and to have opportunities for soccer fields, baseball
diamonds, and basketball courts. In this particular bill we have a
study to be conducted for possible locations--close, in this region--
that could help us build the kind of facilities that are now available
in jurisdictions just right outside of the District, in Maryland and
Virginia.
Bond issues have been passed. Great corporate partnerships have come
together. So if you live in Maryland or live in Virginia, the chances
are on the weekend you can get to a soccer field that is actually well
maintained and well manicured and kids and parents can have so much fun
and enjoy the beautiful scenery and great opportunity that sports
bring to teach children lessons and bring families together.
Unfortunately, we do not have those kinds of extensive facilities in
the District. It is one of my goals to work with the many different
organizations in the city, and the elected officials, to help build a
foundation.
In addition, I understand the District itself would like to host the
Olympics in 2012, which is a wonderful goal. It is going to be quite a
challenge. Building these sports facilities is not only great for
improving the quality of life and helping give children and families
the kind of experience we all hope for in the communities in which we
grow up, but it is also a great economic opportunity for the District
to position itself as a potential contender for the Olympics. So I am
very keen and very passionate and committed to this particular area.
In addition, I thank Senator DeWine for his work with Children's
Hospital
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and for the investments he has made in creating the children and family
court system. Let me take a minute on that particular subject.
We hope every child in this country and the world will stay in the
family to which they were born. I think it is what God intended. It is
what we hope for and work for every day. But there are facts,
tragedies, and circumstances where children cannot stay with their
biological parents. There are some tragedies that have occurred in this
District and in places around the Nation. We are hoping to build a
bipartisan consensus in this country, and I might say in the world, on
the simple notion that all children deserve a family to call their own.
Children should not be raised in hospitals, left to grow up alone on
the streets, to comfort themselves when they are sick, to put
themselves in bed, and get themselves up in the morning at ages at
which you could not believe they could be capable of doing that.
It is incumbent upon our Government, working with the private sector
and nonprofit organizations, to make sure every child has a family. We
want them to stay with their biological families if at all possible;
but if not, to not leave them alone or in a situation that is not
permanent, and move them to adoption.
So investing in a new court system, starting up a family court, is a
great step toward that goal of helping children to be connected to at
least one loving, responsible adult.
I am proud to say that adoptions in the District are up, but we still
have too many children in foster care.
I can't give this speech nearly as well as the mayor himself, who
came out of foster care at the age of 4. He was basically declared to
be mentally unfit at that age. His emotional capacity was questioned.
His adoptive mother, Ms. Williams, gave a beautiful testimony. She said
she looked at this child and could see something very special in his
eyes and decided to take him into her family. She raised him, and the
rest is history. He went on to a fine university and is now mayor of
this great city.
I hope people can see hope in the mayor of this city, in him and his
adoptive family, and what can happen when the system works well--to
connect the child who needed a mother and father, a mother and father
who wanted a child, and to see how this community and Nation will
benefit when that system works.
This bill is committed to laying a foundation to help this system
work for the District and hopefully serve as a model for the Nation.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, will the Senator yield?
Ms. LANDRIEU. Yes, of course.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have been listening to the Senator's
opening remarks, and especially to what she just stated, and her
humility. She can speak with great authority about adoption. The
Senator and her husband, Frank, have two beautiful children, Mary
Shannon and Connor. I remember going to her office, and Mary Shannon
was there on the floor, having recently come into her life and all of
ours.
I am sure that Mayor Williams can give a very dramatic speech.
Senator Landrieu speaks from experience, and she speaks volumes. As
chairman of the subcommittee, she is focusing on that which needed to
be focused for a long time in the District of Columbia. I think that
says a lot.
I want everyone within the sound of her voice to understand that she
speaks about something which is not read in a book. They adopted two
beautiful children. They are very happy and very fortunate children.
Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I thank the Senator. I appreciate those
remarks. Frank and I are blessed. As adoptive parents, we can't believe
that we are so blessed to have an opportunity to take children into our
home. People think you are doing them a great favor, but actually they
do a great favor by just being the beautiful children that they are.
As the Senator said, I am an advocate because I have seen the benefit
of not only adoptive children but as an adoptive family. I have seen
the benefits of birth families and birth mothers who have made such a
selfless decision. Given all of the desires expressed, and the needs of
the parties, the least our government can do is to invest some money
and some time to put in structure and accountability so these matches
can be made. Our whole society benefits.
I am proud that this is in this bill.
I hope this bill will be the beginning of new investments in the
District public school system, particularly giving more choices for
parents in the District for charter schools, for magnet schools, and
for more public school choice, by helping to return ownership of the
schools to the communities and to the parents, by breaking down some of
the systematic barriers that fight against excellence and greatness,
which keeps us thinking that mediocrity is what we strive for when that
is not the case. We strive for excellence. We strive for greatness in
our schools. We have to keep pushing forward, thinking in different
ways and helping us stabilize the middle class as it grows in the
District, both black and white and people of all races. We cannot
stabilize the middle class without an excellent school system. I want
to work with members of local government to help do that.
I reserve the remainder of my time.
Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I rise to offer for the Record the Budget
Committee's official scoring for S. 1543, the District of Columbia
Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2002.
The Senate bill provides $408 million in discretionary budget
authority, which will result in new outlays in 2002 of $368 million.
When outlays from prior-year budget authority are taken into account,
discretionary outlays for the Senate bill total $416 million in 2002.
The Senate bill is at its section 302(b) allocation for both budget
authority and outlays. The bill does not provide any emergency-
designated funding. In addition, the bill approves the District
government's budget for 2002, including granting it the authority to
spend $7.154 billion of local funds.
The Congress is far behind in passing the 13 regular appropriations
bills for 2002. Much of this delay is the result of the extraordinary
events of this year. I am hopeful that the bipartisan agreement reached
between the President and congressional appropriations on the 2002
budget earlier this month will result in a quick completion of the 2002
appropriations. It is particularly important that the Senate act
expeditiously to pass this bill, which not only provides a limited
amount of federal funding to the District, but also, through the
enactment of its budget, allows the city to obligate and spend its own
local revenues.
I ask unanimous consent that a table displaying the budget committee
scoring of this bill be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
S. 1543, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2002, SPENDING
COMPARISONS--SENATE-REPORTED BILL
[In millions of dollars]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
General
purpose Mandatory Total
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Senate-reported bill:
Budget Authority............... 408 0 408
Outlays........................ 416 0 416
Senate 302(b) allocation:\1\
Budget Authority............... 408 0 408
Outlays........................ 416 0 416
House-passed bill:
Budget Authority............... 398 0 398
Outlays........................ 408 0 408
President's request:
Budget Authority............... 342 0 342
Outlays........................ 362 0 362
SENATE-REPORTED BILL COMPARED TO:
Senate 302(b) allocation:\1\
Budget Authority............... 0 0 0
Outlays........................ 0 0 0
House-passed bill:
Budget Authority............... 10 0 10
Outlays........................ 8 0 8
President's request:
Budget Authority............... 66 0 66
Outlays........................ 54 0 54
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ For enforcement purposes, the budget committee compares the Senate-
reported bill to the Senate 302(b) allocation.
Notes.--Details may not add to totals due to rounding. Totals adjusted
for consistency with scorekeeping conventions.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alabama.
Mr. SESSIONS. I thank the President. I express my appreciation for
the good work of the Senator from Louisiana on the issues that she
described. I appreciate her commitment to education and to the
improvement of education.
____________________