[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 169 (Friday, December 7, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12582-S12583]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[[Page S12582]]
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2001--CONFERENCE REPORT
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the
Senate will now proceed to the consideration of the conference report
accompanying H.R. 2944, which the clerk will report.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
The committee of conference on the disagreeing votes of the
two Houses on the amendment of the Senate to the 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, having met, after full and free conference, have
agreed to recommend and do recommend to their respective
Houses this report, signed by a majority of the conferees.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senate will proceed to the
consideration of the conference report.
(The conference report is printed in the House proceedings of the
Record of December 5, 2001, at page H8914.)
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, there
will now be 10 minutes debate on the conference report with the time to
be equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking member of
the subcommittee.
The Senator from Louisiana.
Ms. LANDRIEU. I thank the Chair.
Mr. President, I am pleased to present this conference committee
report on behalf of myself and my most able ranking member, the Senator
from Ohio. We have worked closely together over the last several
months. We are proud to present a conference report that truly is a
bipartisan, bicameral compromise on the District of Columbia, which is
a very important center, a very important capital, a very important
symbol for our Nation, home to almost 500,000 people who live here, but
a center where millions of people work and where even more millions
visit and, in some ways, call home because it is the Capital of our
Nation.
I am pleased to present this conference committee report. I will
briefly highlight a couple of the most significant provisions of this
conference agreement.
The first is that this bill reflects for the first time in 5 years a
budget that is no longer under the control of the control board. That
control board did an excellent job under tremendous leadership, and I
commend them for their great work over these 5 years, working with us
in Congress and with the Mayor and the city council to reshape and
reform the District's finances, which for the time are in pretty good
shape. There are no deficits at this present moment. But as my
colleagues know, there are some challenges ahead and the trends would
cause us to be very alert on that score.
This is the first budget we are presenting with the control board
behind us. I urge the authorizing committees of both Houses to quickly
reconvene next year to pass legislation that will create a more sound
transitional framework for the postcontrol period. I pledge this
morning my full and complete support towards that effort, and this
conference committee report somewhat lays a foundation for that effort.
I look forward to working to that good conclusion.
In addition, I am very proud that this bill has as one of its
hallmarks a reform of the child welfare system. Senator DeWine will
probably give more detail about this matter because he has been one of
the leading sponsors of this legislation and this effort. I know he
will go into greater detail.
Suffice it to say, the District's foster care system and child
welfare system was broken. It was in shambles. It was a disgrace; it
was a national tragedy. We all have challenges in our respective States
in this regard, and no State is perfect. Many States have a long way to
go. But the District's system had unraveled.
This bill gives the courts the reorganizational mandate that is
necessary and the financial support and resources, as well as some new
tough guidelines and standards that, hopefully, will protect children,
save their lives, restore dignity to families, and promote adoption
when necessary to give children the families they need to grow up to be
whole, complete, and full adults.
In addition, this bill works with the Mayor to ensure public safety
of the District and to respond to whatever emergencies might occur.
September 11 has given us all the push we needed to make sure we are
investing correctly in public safety. This bill is a beginning--not an
end but a beginning--towards that end.
It is the intention of the ranking member and myself to make sure the
emergency response plan that is ultimately crafted for the District not
only works for Washington, DC, but it works for the residents of
Maryland and Virginia. We have to work together as a unified region
when it comes to protecting the lives and property of the millions of
people who live here in the event we are attacked again. And this
region, unfortunately, is going to be a target because of this
magnificent building in which we stand.
Finally, this bill improves public education, and that is going to be
one of the focal points of my tenure as chair of this committee. I
believe it is all about economic development, hope, and jobs.
The mayor has indicated this is going to be a strong thrust of his.
This bill lays down some foundations for public education, for charter
schools, for early childhood and early reading programs. So I submit
this report. I thank our colleagues on the House side. I thank
Congresswoman Norton for her tremendous effort.
I thank the staff: Chuck Kieffer, Kate Eltrich Kathleen Strottman,
Kevin Avery; and Mary Dietrich and Stan Skocki of Senator DeWine's
staff. Again, I am pleased to present this conference for a vote this
morning.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Ohio.
Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, first, I thank Senator Landrieu for the
great work she has done. I say to her and Members of the Senate, it has
been a real pleasure to work with her on this bill. I think the bill we
have in front of us is a good bill.
Let me call my colleagues' attention to an article that was in this
morning's Washington Post, ``Deficiencies Found in D.C. Child
Services.'' The story starts off:
Nearly 80 percent of the District's child abuse complaints
were not investigated within 30 days and close to two-thirds
of foster homes housing city children were unlicensed this
year, a recent study shows.
The article goes on:
Among the reports' findings, 30 percent of the children
under District care were not visited by social workers during
their first 8 weeks in foster care. Thirty-seven percent of
child neglect complaints were not investigated within 30 days
after they came into the city's hotline. Abuse and neglect
cases are required to be investigated within a 30-day period.
The story goes on. This is nothing new. These stories have been
running for years in the District of Columbia and the Washington Post.
This Congress has looked at this mess. It is a national tragedy. As
Senator Landrieu has pointed out, no child welfare system is perfect.
Each one of us representing our respective States has seen problems in
our home States, but what we see in the District of Columbia is an
absolute scandal.
Why do I bring this up this morning? I bring it up for my colleagues
who will be coming to the Chamber in a moment to vote. This may not be
a perfect bill, there may be parts of this bill some of my colleagues
do not like, but it is a bill that fundamentally changes the child
welfare system in the District of Columbia. To me, that is the most
important aspect by far of this bill. We will have, I hope, within the
next week to 10 days, the authorizing bill that will fundamentally
reform the child welfare system in the District of Columbia by creating
a brand new family court structure.
The bill we have in front of us today funds that. It funds the
reforms. We cannot have these reforms unless we have the money. So what
Members will be voting on today, in a moment, is whether or not they
want to make fundamental reforms in a system in the District of
Columbia that everyone in this room and everyone in the District of
Columbia knows is an outright scandal. That really is what the vote is
all about.
So to my colleagues who have had a little problem with this bill and
some of the controversial provisions of it, let me say this: A ``yes''
vote on this bill will fundamentally change the direction of what we
are doing in the District. It will not be the end of our
[[Page S12583]]
work, but it certainly is a major step forward.
Let me also point out several other items that are in this bill that
I think are very significant. The bill also includes funds for the D.C.
Safe Kids Coalition; the District's Green Door Program, which provides
opportunities for people with severe and persistent mental illnesses; a
program that has been called to my attention by Senator Domenici, Teach
for America, D.C.; as well as the District's Failure Free Reading
Program. There is also significant money in this bill for the
Children's Hospital in the District of Columbia.
So it is a forward looking bill. It is a bill for children of the
District of Columbia. I urge my colleagues to support the bill.
I yield back the remainder of my time.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, less than a month ago, I stood before my
colleagues to address an extremely important public health concern, one
that is essentially a life or death issue here in the District of
Columbia.
AIDS rates in our Nation's capital are the highest in the country.
Nationwide, more than one third of AIDS cases are related to drug use,
and substance use by a parent has led to over half of the AIDS cases
among children. Statistics are more dramatic among women, where 3 out
of 4 women diagnosed with AIDS became infected through their own use or
a partner's use of contaminated needles.
Exhaustive scientific review has found needle exchange programs to be
an effective way to slow the spread of HIV and AIDS. The American
Medical Association, the American Nurses Association, the American
Association of Pediatrics, and the American Public Health Association
endorse these programs. Yet in spite of the overwhelming support from
public health experts, we here in Congress have prevented the District
of Columbia from using its own local funds to finance these lifesaving
programs since 1999. These programs currently operate in many of our
home States and communities, often with the help of State and local tax
receipts. Almost 95 percent of these programs refer clients to
substance abuse treatment programs.
I was pleased that the District of Columbia appropriations bill
passed by the Senate on November 7 eliminated this unnecessary
prohibition and acknowledged the strong support these programs enjoy
among both law enforcement officials and the public health community.
The conference report we are considering today does not include this
crucial step forward. Instead, it maintains the irresponsible status
quo, which prevents the District from using its own locally generated
revenue to finance needle exchange programs. This conference report
ignores Surgeon General David Satcher, who stated that ``there is
conclusive scientific evidence that syringe exchange programs, as part
of a comprehensive HIV prevention strategy, are an effective public
health intervention that reduces transmission of HIV and does not
encourage the illegal use of drugs.'' This conference report disregards
the Institute of Medicine, which identified access to sterile syringes
as one of four unrealized opportunities in HIV prevention.
I have chosen to vote against this conference report because I am not
willing to disregard countless medical experts who have acknowledged
time and time again that needle exchange programs are an effective tool
to halt the spread of HIV and AIDS, including the American Medical
Association, the American Nurses Association, the American Association
of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association. I am not willing
to ignore the tragic effect that this restriction has on children who
contract HIV because one of their parents used contaminated needles. It
is my sincere hope that next year we can stop politicizing this issue
and recognize that the District of Columbia, just like all of our home
States and districts, deserves to have all possible resources at its
disposal to combat this devastating public health crisis.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. All time has expired. The question
is on agreeing to the conference report.
The yeas and nays have been ordered. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant bill clerk called the roll.
Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from North Carolina (Mr.
Helms) is necessarily absent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Stabenow). Are there any other Senators in
the Chamber desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 79, nays 20, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 356 Leg.]
YEAS--79
Akaka
Allen
Baucus
Bayh
Bennett
Biden
Bingaman
Bond
Boxer
Breaux
Burns
Byrd
Campbell
Cantwell
Carnahan
Carper
Chafee
Cleland
Clinton
Cochran
Collins
Conrad
Corzine
Craig
Crapo
Daschle
Dayton
DeWine
Dodd
Domenici
Dorgan
Edwards
Feinstein
Frist
Graham
Grassley
Hagel
Harkin
Hatch
Hollings
Inouye
Jeffords
Johnson
Kennedy
Kerry
Kohl
Landrieu
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Lincoln
Lugar
McCain
McConnell
Mikulski
Miller
Murkowski
Murray
Nelson (FL)
Nelson (NE)
Reed
Reid
Roberts
Rockefeller
Sarbanes
Schumer
Smith (OR)
Snowe
Specter
Stabenow
Stevens
Thomas
Thompson
Thurmond
Torricelli
Voinovich
Warner
Wellstone
Wyden
NAYS--20
Allard
Brownback
Bunning
Durbin
Ensign
Enzi
Feingold
Fitzgerald
Gramm
Gregg
Hutchinson
Hutchison
Inhofe
Kyl
Lott
Nickles
Santorum
Sessions
Shelby
Smith (NH)
NOT VOTING--1
Helms
The conference report was agreed to.
Ms. LANDRIEU. Madam President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I
move to lay that motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Carolina.
____________________