[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 55 (Monday, May 2, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E837]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  CONFERENCE REPORT ON H. CON. RES. 95, CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE 
                      BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2006

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                             HON. JOE BACA

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 28, 2005

  Mr. BACA. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the budget before us 
today.
  In a time when our schools are struggling to keep up with increasing 
Federal standards, this budget actually cuts funding to our schools.
  It cuts funding for programs that promote equal education 
opportunities for low-income students, such as programs in my district 
in California.
  It also eliminates funding for school violence and drug prevention 
programs.
  It freezes bilingual education funding. Twenty-four percent of the 
students in my county of San Bernardino are English learners and depend 
on these programs. We should not hold back children by preventing them 
from learning English.
  The budget will endanger the health of millions of Americans, by 
cutting funding to food stamps, the nation's number one investment in 
nutrition and defense against hunger.
  Families will be forced to make hard choices between buying groceries 
and paying their bills.
  It will also cut funding to Medicaid by $10 billion.
  These cuts will be devasting to low-income families.
  This budget also falls millions short of what is needed for Veterans' 
medical care. Veterans hospitals will either have to cut health care 
services or require local veterans to pay more for services.
  Our men and women in uniform are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan to 
protect us, and we aren't providing the funding to protect them when 
they come home!
  This budget also slashes funding to COPS program. The program has 
funded 15,801 additional police officers and 504 school resource 
officers in California.
  It completely eliminates funding for the $301 million State Criminal 
Alien Assistance Program, leaving state and local governments to pay 
for the jailing of undocumented immigrants convicted of crimes. San 
Bernardino County received more than $1 million in these funds in 2003.
  The President and Republicans in Congress talk about conservative 
compassion, but where's the compassion in this budget?
  Instead of funding the programs that working families depend on, the 
President has offered tax cuts totaling over $100 billion over five 
years. Most of these cuts will benefit the richest one percent of all 
Americans.
  This budget also spends every last penny in the Social Security trust 
fund, $2.6 trillion over the next 10 years.
  The President entered his term with a budget surplus he inherited 
from President Clinton, and now he has created the largest deficit in 
our nation's history .
  My colleagues, I urge you to vote ``no'' on this resolution.

                          ____________________