[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 134 (Thursday, October 20, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11696-S11699]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            MEASURES READ THE FIRST TIME--S. 1904, H.R. 554

  Mr. FRIST. I understand there are two bills at the desk and I ask for 
their first reading, en bloc.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will read the bills by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (S. 1904) to provide elementary and secondary 
     education assistance to students in schools impacted by 
     Hurricane Katrina.
       A bill (H.R. 554) to prevent legislative and regulatory 
     functions from being usurped by civil liability actions 
     brought or continued against food manufacturers, marketers, 
     distributors, advertisers, sellers, and trade associations 
     for claims of injury relating to a person's weight gain, 
     obesity, or any health condition associated with weight gain 
     or obesity.

  Mr. FRIST. I now ask for a second reading in order to place the bills 
on the calendar, and under the provisions of rule XIV, I object to my 
own request en bloc.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The bills will be read a second time on the 
next legislative day.


                     relief for displaced students

  Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I join my colleagues in the introduction of 
a bill to continue our efforts to provide relief for the school 
children whose lives have been uprooted by Hurricane Katrina and for 
the all of the schools that were affected by the storm--those along the 
gulf coast and those who have generously taken in displaced students 
across the country.
  I would first like to thank my colleagues, Senator Alexander, Senator 
Kennedy, and Senator Dodd, who have joined me today to explain our 
intent in crafting this legislation.
  I am pleased that we were able to work together to develop and 
introduce this bipartisan compromise. The bill provides relief for 
displaced students in a time of crisis, without opening political or 
ideological battles.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Will the distinguished Senator yield?
  Mr. ENZI. Of course.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I commend our Chairman, Senator Enzi, for 
his leadership throughout this process. The hearings and meetings he 
convened to enable us to hear directly from the persons most affected 
by the devastation of Hurricane Katrina have been invaluable to the 
development of this bipartisan legislation.
  I also commend Senator Alexander and Senator Dodd for their 
leadership in working with us to draft this one-time, temporary impact 
aid for displaced students attending public and nonpublic schools. We 
all agree that all displaced students deserve help in continuing their 
education, and we all agree on the extraordinary circumstances and 
unprecedented scope of this disaster.
  The aid provided by this bill flows through the public school system 
to ensure greater accountability for the money. It enables these 
schools to make payments to accounts set up for displaced students in 
nonpublic schools, as well, which can then use those funds to provide 
services to the displaced students enrolled in their schools.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Wi11 the Senator yield?
  Mr. KENNEDY. Certainly.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I would also like to thank my 
colleagues for working together to craft this temporary emergency 
program to provide one-time assistance to all displaced school children 
in public and nonpublic schools. I am also pleased that we were able to 
develop this legislation in a way that provides financial assistance 
for all displaced school children without getting into ideological 
battles.
  Mr. DODD. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Of course.
  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I cannot underscore enough what my 
colleagues have already stated--that this is a one-time, emergency aid 
program. All of the authors of the bill have agreed that next school 
year, in terms of assistance to nonpublic schools, we will go back to 
the way things are done today. We are reaching out to all of the 
students affected by Katrina here, no matter what type of school they 
attend, because it makes sense under these extraordinary conditions, 
because it gets kids back on their feet as quickly as possible. In no 
way is this bill meant to undermine or amend current law or set any 
type of precedent for future legislation.
  Mr. ENZI. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. DODD. Of course.
  Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I would just like to echo the sentiments of 
the senior Senator from Connecticut. We have all agreed and have 
explicitly stated in the bill, that the level and type of assistance we 
are providing to both public and nonpublic schools is being authorized 
solely because of the unprecedented nature of the crisis, the massive 
dislocation of students, and the short duration of the assistance.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Will the Senator yield?

[[Page S11697]]

  Mr. ENZI. Certainly.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, as you know, Hurricane Katrina had a 
devastating and unprecedented impact on students and schools not only 
in the disaster areas, but across the country. There are over 45,000 
displaced students enrolled in Texas schools and over 3,900 enrolled in 
schools in my home State of Tennessee. This is an unprecedented 
situation, and it requires an appropriate response for students in 
public and nonpublic schools. But that response must be a temporary, 
one-time only program to address the particular needs of this 
situation, and that is what this bill accomplishes. It is not intended 
to set a precedent for anything except another disaster in which over 
370,000 school children are displaced. Katrina did not discriminate 
among schoolchildren, and neither should we.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Would the Senator yield for a question?
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Of course.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I agree with the sentiments of my 
colleagues and want to point out that we have clearly stated in the 
bill our intentions with regard to the temporary nature of this 
program. Would the Senator from Tennessee please explain the provisions 
we have included to ensure that the program is not extended?
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Certainly. The bill creates one-time only emergency 
aid for the 2005-2006 school year. The bill explicitly states that the 
funds provided can only be used for expenses incurred during the 
current school year, and the entire bill sunsets on August 1, 2006.
  Mr. KENNEDY. I thank the Senator from Tennessee. Would the Senator 
yield for a follow-up question?
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Yes.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Isn't it true that in addition to these provisions in 
the bill, we have all agreed to stand together against attempts to 
extend this program beyond this school year or beyond this context?
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Yes, that is true.
  Mr. ENZI. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Yes.
  Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, as my colleagues and I have made clear, we 
have come together in a spirit of bipartisan compromise to accomplish a 
common goal. This bill will provide the relief necessary to support the 
instruction and services that students displaced by this terrible storm 
need in order to continue their education, regardless of whether it was 
a public school or a nonpublic school that opened its doors to a given 
student. Mr. President, we hope that our colleagues in the Senate will 
work quickly with us to pass this bill and put these to work providing 
an education to our children as soon as possible.
  Mr. President, today I join my colleagues Senators Alexander, Kennedy 
and Dodd in the introduction of the Hurricane Katrina Elementary and 
Secondary Education Recovery Act.
  This bill is a comprehensive legislative approach to address the 
needs of the hundreds of thousands of students who have been displaced 
by Hurricane Katrina. We have developed a bill that includes strategies 
to meet the immediate needs of those students, families and communities 
that have been affected by the heavy toll that Hurricane Katrina 
exacted from the gulf region, and the States that have responded with 
help.
  My top concern was to make sure that all the displaced students get 
back into school so that they can continue their education. Returning 
to school gives children a sense of routine that is important in 
assuring them that things will return to normal. School provides them 
with access to a support system of friends and teachers, which is 
invaluable as they and their families continue to come to grips with 
the aftereffects of the storm.
  With this bill we have attempted to address the needs that have been 
identified by the impacted communities directly affected by the storm 
as well as by those communities across the country that received the 
displaced students. The bill provides support for all displaced 
students, ensures accountability, and is fiscally responsible.
  In addition to the support for displaced students in both public and 
non-public schools, the bill includes provisions for supplemental 
services, restart services for schools in the most heavily impacted 
states, teacher and paraprofessional reciprocity, and assistance for 
homeless youth and displaced adolescent students. This bill is a 
bipartisan product that reflects what we heard from over 100 
representatives of the education community and what we saw firsthand in 
the areas devastated by the storm.
  This is a daunting task as we have limited resources, but are faced 
with an almost unlimited need. We must focus our efforts on ensuring 
that the educational needs of the children affected by this 
unprecedented emergency are addressed. I believe that this legislation 
achieves that goal.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, we need to address the urgent school 
needs of the hundreds of thousands of children affected by the deadly 
storm that hit the gulf coast, and the bill that Senator Alexander, 
Senator Dodd, Chairman Enzi and I have introduced will begin to do so.
  As we continue to see images of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita 
and the troubled process of rebuilding along the gulf coast, we are 
reminded that we are all part of the American family, and we have a 
responsibility to help members of that family when they are in need.
  Part of that responsibility is to do all we can to see that children 
and youth do not lose a year of their education. Hundreds of thousands 
of school children attended classes in buildings that have been damaged 
or destroyed. In Mississippi, 271 schools have been damaged; and in 
Louisiana over 130,000 students have been affected. Hurricane Katrina 
alone displaced 372,000 children, and damaged or destroyed 700 schools. 
Our legislation will provide urgently needed resources to help these 
schools get back on track and help these displaced students to resume 
their education, wherever they've temporarily landed.
  People across the country have opened their homes. Communities have 
opened their schools. We owe a great debt of gratitude to all the 
principals and superintendents who stepped up to the plate so quickly.
  But they need realistic help from Congress as they struggle to 
accommodate these students. We need to do all we can to assist already 
hard-pressed schools as they attempt to meet the massive new challenge 
of including hundreds or thousands of new students in their local 
schools.
  This bill will provide the relief necessary to support the 
instruction, after-school programs, and other school services the 
students need, when everything in their lives has been turned upside-
down. It provides needed funding to help schools on the gulf coast to 
reopen soon, so that these children can return to their own schools as 
quickly as possible.
  The bill provides $900 million for special school reopening grants 
for affected districts. These grants will supplement FEMA funding to 
assure effective use of Federal funds. They can be used to re-purchase 
textbooks and instructional materials, establish temporary facilities 
while repairs are being made, help reestablish the data that was 
destroyed, and pay the salaries of teachers and other personnel who are 
working to reopen these schools.
  The bill also provides $2.4 billion to help ease the temporary 
transition of students into new school districts and relieve the 
financial burden on these schools through one-time emergency impact aid 
for receiving districts. Districts will report the number of affected 
public and private school students they have enrolled, including 
students with special needs, and receive supplemental aid in quarterly 
payments, for a maximum of $6,000 a pupil, or $7,500 a pupil for those 
with disabilities.
  These funds will be used to help the districts cover the additional 
costs they have incurred as a result of enrolling displaced students, 
and can be used for purposes such as supporting basic instruction, 
purchasing educational materials and supplies, and helping schools 
temporarily expand facilities to avoid overcrowding.

  Given the extraordinary circumstances and unprecedented scope of this 
disaster, we need to support the families whose lives have been 
destroyed by this storm by helping them to continue their children's 
education. We should do so even if their children ended up in a private 
school. But we must do so in a way that is non-ideological and 
responsible.

[[Page S11698]]

  Our bill is a bipartisan compromise to support children who enrolled 
in the private schools that opened their doors to students displaced by 
Katrina. Through this temporary, one-time emergency impact aid, funds 
will go to public school districts, which will make payments on behalf 
of dislocated children enrolled in private schools in their area.
  Under current law, Federal funding is available in certain 
circumstances to support the education of disadvantaged and disabled 
students in private schools. Our bill follows that model, which will 
expedite relief to affected families and provide accountability for 
public funds.
  The aid provided by the bill flows through the public school system, 
not to parents. States must establish income eligibility criteria for 
aid to students enrolled in private schools. Under the bill, the public 
school makes payments to an account set up for displaced students in a 
private school. The private schools can then access those funds to 
provide services on behalf of the displaced students enrolled in their 
schools.
  Our bill contains strong civil rights protections. Schools that 
participate in the program are not allowed to discriminate in 
enrollment on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability, or 
sex. The bill explicitly states that existing civil rights laws apply 
to recipients of these funds, and it prohibit Federal funds from being 
used for religious purposes.
  The bill explicitly states that this type and level of aid to public 
and private schools is being provided only because of the unprecedented 
circumstances and massive dislocation of students caused by the 
hurricanes. As sponsors of the bill, we agree that this will be a 
temporary program, and that it is not intended to be a precedent for 
anything except another disaster in which over 370,000 school children 
are displaced.
  The bill sunsets at the end of the school year, and funds provided 
can be used only for expenses incurred during the 2005-2006 school 
year.
  The bill also includes $100 million for after-school programs and 
supplemental services for displaced children, and $50 million to help 
children who are newly homeless as a result of the hurricane.
  In addition, the bill creates a new one-year authority for a program 
for high school juniors and seniors. Grants will go to state and local 
education agencies alone, or in partnership with colleges and 
community-based organizations, to offer alternative programs that 
provide instruction, test preparation and assistance with college 
applications, and job readiness skills.
  Our bill will relieve the immediate and short term needs of these 
schools and children. But we may need to do more to help the 
communities along the gulf coast rebuild. We must ensure that schools 
and communities have adequate resources to meet their construction 
needs, and we must ensure that communities are able to bring their 
quality teachers and workforce back home. As the process of rebuilding 
moves forward, we will continue to look for ways the Federal Government 
can help make these communities better than ever.
  Our bill is a bipartisan, compromise that will give relief to schools 
and children as soon as possible. I urge Congress and the 
administration to enact this legislation as soon as possible, so that 
these funds can do their job. The children and schools affected by the 
hurricanes cannot wait any longer.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, Hurricane Katrina displaced more than 1 
million people, at least 20 times more than in any other disaster 
handled by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and 372,000 of 
those displaced by Katrina are school-aged children, in kindergarten 
through the 12th grade. According to the U.S. Department of Education, 
schools in 49 States and the District of Columbia have opened their 
doors to help these children.
  The legislation that Senators Enzi, Kennedy, Dodd and I introduce 
today will help all of Katrina's 372,000 displaced school children. 
Katrina did not discriminate among school children, and neither do we. 
We propose providing up to $6,000 per student during this school year 
to help States, school districts and schools defray the costs of 
receiving any child displaced by Katrina. In the case of children with 
disabilities, the maximum amount will be $7,500 per student. This 
legislation will help children attending both public and nonpublic 
schools. Our bill is temporary, one time impact aid, makes no permanent 
change Federal education laws and will not be extended after this 
school year. It minimizes costs by making payments quarterly, taking 
into account the fact that during the year many children are returning 
to their home communities.
  It also requires the Secretary of Education to verify head counts of 
students eligible for aid, and the States must return to the U.S. 
Treasury any unused funds. States, as part of their application 
process, will be able to look at the income of families attending 
nonpublic schools when determining what aid should be available, 
although it is my strong hope that in doing this, the States will 
remember that almost any displaced family is suffering hardship and 
that burdensome means testing requirements could slow down much needed 
humanitarian help.
  Nine States have received more than a thousand of these displaced 
students, with the largest number being in Louisiana and Mississippi, 
the two States most heavily damaged by Katrina. In addition, Texas has 
enrolled as many as 60,000 students. Houston Independent School 
District, which has enrolled roughly 4,700 displaced students, has 
hired 180 new teachers, added 37 new bus routes and ordered about 
10,000 new textbooks to accommodate the students. Georgia has accepted 
more than 9,000 students, Alabama almost 5,400 students, and my home 
State of Tennessee has enrolled almost 4,000 students.
  While most of these children are in public schools, private schools 
have also been essential to this humanitarian effort. This should not 
surprise us because in the four Louisiana parishes hit the hardest by 
Katrina nearly one third or 61,000 of the 187,000 students attended 
nonpublic schools. According to the Department of Education, 
immediately after the hurricane, 50,000 students from the Catholic 
Archdiocese of Greater New Orleans were displaced. In Texas 4,000 of 
the 60,000 displaced students enrolled in private schools. In 
Tennessee, about 3,500 were in public schools and 500 in nonpublic 
schools.
  In Baton Rouge according to a report on National Public Radio, 
immediately after the hurricane there were suddenly 5,000 to 10,000 
displaced private school students who had no school to attend. To 
accommodate them, the Catholic Diocese in Baton Rouge struggled to 
establish satellite schools--some located great distances away--which 
these students attended at night.
  In Memphis, where so many displaced students have gone, the 
willingness of private schools to accept these students is an enormous 
help to overcrowded public schools. The Memphis City schools have 
enrolled over 650 students and the adjacent Shelby County Public School 
District has enrolled over 600 new children, a difficult burden in a 
school system already growing by 1,000 students and one new school 
building each year. The Memphis Catholic Diocese has enrolled over 250 
students to help share the load.
  During the last 6 weeks, some of these children are returning home as 
schools reopen. But severe problems of displacement remain. For 
example, school officials in Baton Rouge and Livingston, LA, expect to 
receive a new influx of children moving to shelters in Houston and 
other locations. The schools in the three hardest hit parishes--
Orleans, St. Bernard and Plaquemines--enrolled 81,196 public and 27,886 
private and religious school students. Many of these schools are 
expected to remain closed for the entire school year.
  In additional to helping all of Katrina's displaced school children, 
in fashioning this proposal we have sought to respect traditional State 
and local education prerogatives, to meet Federal constitutional 
requirements, to make the provisions simple enough that this aid could 
be administered quickly, and to avoid spending more taxpayer dollars 
than absolutely necessary.

  This is how our proposal would work. To begin with, a State would 
submit to the U.S. Department of Education an

[[Page S11699]]

application identifying the number of Katrina displaced students 
attending public schools, Bureau of Indian Affairs--BIA--schools, and 
nonpublic schools in that State. The application will also describe the 
process for establishing and providing payments to student accounts for 
displaced students at nonpublic schools. After receiving Federal 
dollars, States would in turn make payments to school districts based 
upon the number of displaced students temporarily enrolled in public 
schools or nonpublic schools in that district. These payments would be 
up to $6,000 annually for each displaced student, except that for 
students receiving IDEA services the total payment would be as much as 
$7,500.
  In the case of students enrolled in nonpublic schools, school 
districts would make payments to student accounts on behalf of each 
such displaced student. The amount of the payment to each of these 
student accounts would be the same as that for each student enrolled at 
a public school unless the tuition, fees, or transportation expenses 
for the nonpublic student are less than $6,000, or $7,500 in the case 
of a student receiving IDEA services.
  This has not been an easy piece of legislation to write because the 
four of us do not agree on whether or how Federal dollars should follow 
children to private schools, including religious schools. But we do 
agree that there must be a one-time, temporary solution to help all of 
Katrina's displaced children. Therefore, we have found a way to create 
this one-time temporary impact aid that makes no permanent change in 
Federal education law and, insofar as we are concerned establishes no 
precedent--except perhaps for some other hurricane that displaces 
372,000 children.
  In other words, we have set aside disputing our ideological 
differences for another day and hope that our colleagues will do the 
same. We have done this in the spirit suggested by a Washington Post 
editorial last month which appeared shortly after the hurricane:

       Just as it's important not to sneak in an enormous new 
     federal program for ideological reasons, it's also important 
     that neither Democrats, teachers unions nor anyone else rule 
     out for ideological reasons what could be a useful tool for 
     distributing relief funds. There could be pragmatic reasons 
     to put displaced students in private or parochial schools: 
     if, say, school districts are overcrowded, if students have 
     special needs or if that happens to be where they ended up. 
     So it might make sense to attach a sum to each student--
     whether it's called a voucher or something else--as long as 
     that sum is given out in a limited number of places and for a 
     limited time, certainly not longer than the current school 
     year.
       . . . any solution that would allow students to finish the 
     year with a minimum of fuss and disruption to themselves and 
     their families, and that would prevent school districts in 
     Texas and elsewhere from unduly burdened, should be welcomed.

  If each of us maintains our traditional positions, there would be no 
way to help all of Katrina's displaced children. There was nothing 
traditional about what happened in Hurricane Katrina. We urgently need 
to help all children on a one-time, emergency basis.
  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I support the Hurricane Katrina Elementary 
and Secondary Education Recovery Act introduced by myself, Senator 
Enzi, Senator Kennedy and Senator Alexander. This bill will provide 
much needed relief to the children, families and schools devastated by 
Hurricane Katrina.
  Hundreds of thousand of children have been displaced by this 
disaster. Schools across the country are taking students in offering 
them some sense of normalcy in an otherwise abnormal situation. We have 
heard stories of schools all over the country that have opened their 
doors to new students, including schools in Connecticut. These 
collective examples point to our education system as an integral part 
of our communities. Better than any other entity, schools know that 
children need a safe place to develop and learn in the wake of 
disaster.
  Among the provisions today, is one that will provide financial 
assistance for displaced students regardless of where they go to 
school. Public and nonpublic schools will receive assistance that can 
be used to pay for additional personnel, curricular materials, portable 
classrooms and even health and mental health services as long as the 
services provided are secular and neutral in nature and are not used 
for religious instruction, indoctrination or worship.
  This is not a voucher bill. Through a number of mechanisms, this bill 
maintains public control of public dollars. This bill prohibits Federal 
dollars from going to religious instruction. And, this bill preserves 
civil rights protections.
  Most important, this bill is temporary in nature. The bill provides 
temporary emergency impact aid for displaced students. It is temporary 
in that it sunsets at the end of the current school year, emergency in 
that it is necessary because of the extraordinary circumstances that we 
have been presented with, and impact aid as it is assistance for those 
schools that have been impacted as thousands of children and their 
families have left the devastated areas.
  I cannot underscore this enongh--the provisions in this bill are a 
departure from Federal law but they are a temporary departure in light 
of extraordinary events. Next school year, in terms of assistance to 
nonpublic schools, we will go back to the ways things are. We are 
reaching out to all students here, today, because it makes sense, 
because it gets kids back on their feet as quickly as possible. We are 
not changing the generic laws. As we explicitly state in the bill, the 
level of assistance we are providing to nonpublic schools is being 
authorized solely because of the unprecedented nature of the crisis, 
the massive dislocation of students, and the short duration of the 
assistance.

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