[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 101 (Tuesday, July 20, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H5990]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1015
                  DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA APPROPRIATIONS

  (Mr. PENCE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, I rise this morning in support of the fiscal 
year 2005 District of Columbia Appropriations Act and most especially 
the responsible educational choice scholarship provisions that were 
added in just last year's bill, provisions that reflect the support and 
leadership of Mayor Anthony Williams of the District of Columbia.
  It was decades ago that a southern governor stood in the doorway of a 
public school and said to young African American children, because of 
their race, they may not come in. For years the education establishment 
stood in the schoolhouse door and said to the grandchildren of many of 
those Americans that, in the interest of preserving the establishment, 
they may not come out.
  That wall, that barrier, started to crack in recent years in 
Wisconsin and in Ohio and last year here on the floor of the Congress 
when millions of dollars were made available for thousands of children 
in inner city schools that have been failing for decades here in the 
District of Columbia.
  We have the opportunity today to renew the second year of the 
District of Columbia opportunity scholarships. I am confident we will. 
I rise to praise the leadership of the Committee on Appropriations and 
District of Columbia Mayor Anthony Williams for taking such a strong 
stand for educational opportunity for all the children of the District 
of Columbia.

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