[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 115 (Wednesday, September 22, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9535-S9537]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2005

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
now proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 709, S. 2826, the 
District of Columbia appropriations bill; that the bill be read a third 
time; that the Appropriations Committee then be discharged from further 
consideration of H.R. 4850, the House-passed DC appropriations bill, 
and the Senate proceed to its consideration.
  I further ask unanimous consent that all after the enacting clause of 
H.R. 4850 be stricken; the text of S. 2826 be inserted in lieu thereof; 
the bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed; and the motion 
to reconsider be laid upon the table.
  I ask unanimous consent that the Senate insist on its amendment, 
request a conference with the House on the disagreeing votes of the two 
Houses, and the Chair be authorized to appoint conferees on behalf of 
the Senate.
  Finally, I ask unanimous consent that S. 2826 then be returned to the 
calendar.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Louisiana, Ms. 
Landrieu, the ranking member on the DC Appropriations Subcommittee, for 
her hard work and efforts in helping to

[[Page S9536]]

draft the appropriations bill before us today. This bill provides $560 
million in Federal funds for the District of Columbia and includes the 
city's own local budget of $6.2 billion.
  The funds in this bill focus on a number of key priorities for the 
District of Columbia: First, improving the lives and opportunities for 
children in the District; second, reducing and preventing crime in the 
District; and third, increasing security in our Nation's capital.
  The bill continues an initiative we began last year to help improve 
the city's long-troubled foster care system by providing funds for 
intensive intervention when children first enter care; providing 
resources for early and continued mental health services for all 
children in foster care; providing incentives to retain qualified 
social workers and foster parents; and funding a new computer tracking 
system for children in foster care.
  The bill also focuses on children by enhancing educational 
opportunities for inner-city students. We are continuing to provide a 
total of $40 million for three interrelated educational components: $13 
million to promote excellence in traditional public schools; $13 
million to expand choice through high quality charter schools; and $13 
million for opportunity scholarships for low-income students in failing 
schools.
  The second priority that this bill funds crime fighting in the 
District. The federal government entirely funds the D.C. Courts and the 
Court Services and Supervision Agency. The committee is providing a 
total of $337 million for these agencies, which is $55 million more 
than the fiscal year enacted level. Most of these additional resources 
are for renovations and repairs to the City's 4th oldest building, the 
Historic Old Courthouse, which will make it habitable once again and 
provide much-needed courtroom capacity. The bill also provides 
additional resources to enhance supervision of high-risk sex offenders, 
offenders with mental health problems, and domestic violence offenders.
  With this bill, we are beginning an important federal investment in a 
new forensics lab for the District of Columbia. Currently, the city 
must rely on the generosity of the FBI's crime lab. Because of its own 
heavy workload, the Bureau limits the amount of evidence that it can 
process for the city. With so many unsolved rape, murder, and other 
violent crime cases in the District, a new crime lab is a crucial need.
  The sobering fact is that, as the seat of our Nation's capital, the 
District of Columbia is a target of bioterrorism attacks. And, those 
attacks must be investigated. Indeed, the anthrax attacks of 2001 and 
the ricin scare of 2004 have shown that a forensics lab is vital to 
public safety in the District and deserving of federal support.
  The final priority in this bill is improving security in the 
District. As the seat of the federal government and as a symbol of our 
democracy, the District of Columbia faces increased risks of terrorist 
attacks. Therefore, the bill includes security funding, including 
resources to complete a Unified Communications Center, which will be 
the center for coordinated multi-agency responses in the event of 
regional and national emergencies. The bill also continues to provide 
funds to reimburse the city for increased police, fire, and emergency 
personnel costs associated with events that occur in the District 
because of the presence of the Federal Government.

  I take this opportunity to recognize the city's leadership in 
improving the financial condition of the District. Recently, the 
District received a vote of confidence from Wall Street when its bonds 
were upgraded two steps from ``BBB+'' to ``A''. Despite this good news 
about the city's short-term financial performance, I am well aware that 
the city faces a long-term economic structural imbalance. This 
imbalance represents a gap between the District's ability to raise 
revenue at reasonable tax rates and its ability to provide services of 
reasonable quality to its residents.
  I recognize that the structural imbalance is driven by expenditure 
requirements and revenue restrictions which are mostly beyond the 
control of the District's leadership. Clearly, the city's revenue 
capacity would be larger without Federal constraints on its taxing 
authority, such as its inability to tax Federal property or the income 
of non-residents.
  I agree that the city faces a troubling problem in the long-term. I 
want to help close the financial gap and help ensure the long-term 
economic health of our Nation's capital. This is a Federal enclave, 
established by the Constitution, and it must live by the constraints 
imposed on it by the Federal Government. I believe that the Federal 
Government must recognize the costs it places on the city and the 
burden it places on the city's infrastructure, all the while limiting 
the ability of the city to raise revenue. Indeed, many of the problems 
facing the District result from it being the seat of the Federal 
Government.
  This bill takes two small steps to begin to address the structural 
imbalance. First, we are providing $4 million to assist the city with 
its annual operating payment to the Washington Metropolitan Transit 
Authority, commonly referred to as the ``Metro''.
  The District's share of the Metro operating subsidy is $208 million. 
Whereas the State governments of Maryland and Virginia both help 
subsidize the Metro, the District does not have a State to help share 
the burden of this cost. In addition, many Federal workers use the 
Metro system to travel between Federal buildings throughout the 
workday.
  Second, the bill provides $10 million for a combined sewer overflow 
system. The current system was constructed in 1890 and overflows 60 to 
70 times each year, dumping raw sewage into the Anacostia River. 
Clearly, the Federal Government places a heavy burden on this system 
and should help share the cost of upgrading it. I believe these small 
Federal contributions for infrastructure are important, but clearly the 
Federal Government must do more to help eliminate this structural 
imbalance that it has helped create.
  I again thank Senator Landrieu. She and I share the same concerns for 
the children and residents who live in the District of Columbia, as 
well as the millions of visitors who come here every year to see 
America's seat of government. She and I have worked as close partners 
in writing this bill. Together, we have put together a bill that 
focuses on improving the well-being of the District's children and 
protecting the safety of all who live and work here. I thank the 
Senator from Louisiana, and I turn to her now for her remarks.
  Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I am pleased to join Chairman DeWine in 
presenting the bipartisan fiscal year 2005 District of Columbia 
appropriations bill to the Senate. The bill totals $560 million, which 
is an increase of $18.3 million from fiscal year 2004. The chairman and 
I moved this bill through the full Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, 
September 21 by a near-unanimous vote with no controversial amendments. 
During our 3-year chairman and ranking membership of the D.C. 
subcommittee, we have met many policy and partisan challenges and 
remained great friends. This year is truly an achievement of the 
chairman's bipartisan lead of this bill. We continue to marry our 
interests in strengthening education and child welfare in the District.
  Great communities need great schools. This bill includes $26 million 
for public education in support of the committee's goal to improve 
education in the District. Fifty years after the landmark Brown v. the 
Board of Education decision of the Supreme Court, 3 years after 
enactment of the significant No Child Left Behind Act, we are still 
working to shape the two-sided face of public education, excellence and 
failure, into a more equal experience for children. The District's 
schools have been mired in years of changing superintendents, 
management and oversight challenges. A new superintendent has been 
hired, Dr. Clifford Janey, we are excited about his energy to reform 
and improve and want to support his efforts as strongly as possible. 
This bill includes certain tools to, hopefully, contribute to Dr. 
Janey's work.
  In our public schools we must recognize and reward excellence. We 
must acknowledge and eliminate failure. This bill directs a total of $7 
million for a new incentive grant program for public education 
improvement in both traditional public schools and public charter 
schools. These grants will be

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awarded to the principal of high performing or significantly improved 
public schools to reward their good work. A reward is a powerful 
incentive to build on success and meet some of the areas which can make 
their school thrive. These grants could be for a specialized librarian, 
new books, and bonuses for excellent teachers, or even to support 
sports and recreation with a new basketball court. It is entirely up to 
the principal to decide. In addition, the bill includes $5 million to 
support the very successful D.C. program to reconstitute the schools 
designated as in need of improvement by the standards of the No Child 
Left Behind Act. The Transformation School Initiative has successfully 
breathed new life into 15 of the lowest performing public schools in 
the District with innovative ways to reinvigorate teachers, reinvest 
parents, and get kids exciting about going to school and excited about 
learning. We are very pleased to support these programs with $13 
million for public schools as part of the $40 million School 
Improvement Fund created last year.
  The second prong of the School Improvement Fund, $13 million for 
public charter school, is supported by robust support to strengthen the 
chartering system. With 41 charters granted to date, the District has 
achieved the distinction of having the highest number of charter 
schools per capita. As such, the District is in a position to serve as 
leader in the effort to use charter schools to spur system-wide 
improvement from within our system of public education. Senator DeWine 
and I maintain our commitment to serve as a full and equal partner in 
this endeavor.
  It is important to note that while the primary reason for the rapid 
growth in the number of charter schools was the unmet desire of 
education reformers to find a way to ``step out of the box'' that had 
become our public school system, charter schools are by definition 
independent public schools. With their relative autonomy, charter 
schools are a way to provide greater educational choice and innovation 
while not abandoning the public school system. Recent studies show that 
the existence of a charter school in a district not only increases the 
quality of education available to the students served directly by the 
charter school but in all surrounding public schools. In addition, 
charter schools provide a healthy dose of competition into the public 
school system and have the effect of accelerating reforms and 
improvements in traditional public schools.
  Despite the increased challenge of educating students with the 
greatest need, objective surveys and reports show that the academic 
progress among charter schools students outpacing that of their cohorts 
in traditional public schools. Those successes included gains in 
reading and math performances; test scores higher than district, state 
and neighborhood schools; increased parental involvement; and higher 
attendance and fewer disciplinary problems.
  Strengthening charter schools, which were created in the D.C. by 
Congress in the 1995 School Reform Act, is a primary tenant of our work 
to improve education. Pursuant to Section 120 of P.L. 106-522, the 
Fiscal Year 2001 DC Appropriations Act, the local government is 
prohibited from amending the School Reform Act. Therefore, Congress has 
continued our oversight responsibility of the charter school law this 
year. The bill fortifies the environment where strong, accountable, 
academically excellent charter schools flourish.
  This bill includes language which will encourage public schools to 
convert to charter schools. The 1996 School Reform Act allows for 
traditional public schools to petition to convert to a public charter 
school, if the teachers and parents in the community want a more 
responsive and engaging school. However, to date, only one school, Paul 
Junior High, has exercised that option. We are not trying to say that 
every public school should be a charter school, but we support if the 
community of a particular school sees a benefit in becoming a charter 
school and can gain a majority consensus of that community, a 
conversion is possible.
  In addition, we toughen oversight of chartering boards to better 
screen applications and strengthen oversight of existing schools. We 
think this will make a stronger public charter school community, and 
should not create any additional bureaucracy which would tamp down 
reform. Finally, we included language which will improve access to 
facilities for charter schools, which can be their greatest challenge. 
The buildings in which children learn are just as critical as the other 
tools available to make these kids a success.
  Under the kind leadership of Chairman DeWine, we have also invested 
in the welfare of the most vulnerable children in the District, those 
in the custody of the abuse and neglect welfare system. Just in the 
last week, the District has suffered the loss of another child, Angel 
Fleming, who was put in the custody of the Child and Family Services 
Agency.
  The bill supports our priority of reforming child welfare by 
providing the tools necessary to the foster care system with $5 
million. We are funding for early intervention services to try to keep 
kids with relatives, rather than send them to temporary foster care 
homes. The bill also continues to ensure that all kids in foster care 
get mental health assessments and services. Finally, Senator DeWine has 
ensured that an area often forgotten, foster parents, receive the 
respite services necessary and promote grassroots foster parent 
recruiting and training efforts.
  This bill meets our Federal responsibility to the criminal justice 
system and infrastructure investments requested by the mayor and 
council. The new family court, which embraces the ideal of one family-
one judge, is fully funded and we continue to provide for their new 
building. In addition, the bill initiates a new investment in the 
administration of justice in the District by contributing $8 million to 
the construction of a new forensics lab. This laboratory will alleviate 
contract pressure D.C. imposes on other Federal agencies, such as the 
FBI, to complete local forensic work. The bill also contributes to 
security and emergency preparedness in the Nation's capital with $22 
million to bolster the police and first responders. In addition to all 
of the important initiatives in the District this bill invests in, 
there is $13 million for cleaning up the Anacostia River and providing 
recreation for the entire region and $5 million for transportation 
improvements.
  I want to thank the mayor of the District, Anthony Williams, the 
entire council, particularly the Chair Linda Cropp, and the D.C. 
Delegate to Congress Eleanor Holmes Norton for their many contributions 
and advice in developing this bill. They are great partners for 
Chairman DeWine and I to ensure the bill meet the needs of the 
District. I appreciate the chairman's consideration and our ability to 
work together on this bill.
  The amendment was ordered to be engrossed and the bill to be read a 
third time.
  The bill (H.R. 4850), as amended, was read the third time and passed, 
as follows:
  (The bill will be printed in a future edition of the Record.)
  The Chair appointed Mr. DeWine, Mrs. Hutchison, Mr. Brownback, Mr. 
Stevens, Ms. Landrieu, Mr. Durbin, and Mr. Inouye conferees on the part 
of the Senate.

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