[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 176 (Wednesday, November 14, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S14375-S14387]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   IMPROVING HEAD START FOR SCHOOL READINESS ACT OF 2007--CONFERENCE 
                                 REPORT

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will now 
proceed to the consideration of the conference report to accompany H.R. 
1429, which the clerk will report by title.

[[Page S14376]]

  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. 
     1429) to reauthorize the Head Start Act, to improve program 
     quality, to expand access, and for other purposes, having 
     met, have agreed that the House recede from its disagreement 
     to the amendment of the Senate and agree to the same with an 
     amendment and the Senate agree to the same, signed by a 
     majority of the conferees on the part of both Houses.

  (The conference report is printed in the House proceedings of the 
Record of Friday, November 9, 2007.)
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. There will be 60 minutes of debate equally 
divided.
  The Senator from Massachusetts.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I thank my friend and colleague, the 
Senator from Wyoming, Mr. Enzi, for his strong advocacy and extremely 
effective work on this legislation. I also thank the staff of the HELP 
committee for their work on this important piece of legislation. This 
is an important moment in the Senate because this reauthorization of 
Head Start focuses on the most vulnerable members of society, the 
children, and it delivers a message of hope for these children and 
their families.
  HELP Committee members are extremely involved and active in all the 
matters that come before our committee, but never more than on issues 
of education and early childhood development. We have before us 
legislation that reflects a coming together of both parties and both 
chambers of Congress to address the needs of children in our society. 
Reflected in this legislation are the interest of some of those who 
aren't with us physically, colleagues who are involved in the 
Presidential campaign. Senator Dodd, who has been a longtime leader in 
the Senate on children and children's interests, has had important 
suggestions and recommendations. Barack Obama has followed this process 
very closely and has been in frequent communication with us. Senator 
Clinton has been very much involved in crafting this legislation, as 
well as a number of other pieces of legislation we approved in the 
committee earlier today.
  We welcome an overwhelming vote this afternoon. There was an 
overwhelmingly bipartisan vote in the House of Representatives, 381 to 
36. I am hopeful we will have a similar expression of support in the 
Senate.
  We have an hour. I know I have several colleagues who want to talk. I 
will yield myself 12 minutes. I don't know how much I have used so far.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has used 3\1/2\ minutes. Is that 
another 12 on top of the 3\1/2\?
  Mr. KENNEDY. No, a total of 12. If the Chair will let me know when I 
have a minute and a half, I would appreciate that.
  Planning for Head Start began in the early 1960s, before we knew all 
that we know today about how to best intervene and support the lives of 
young children living in poverty. At that time, as Attorney General, my 
brother Robert Kennedy decided to tackle the problem of juvenile 
delinquency. Research pointed to poverty as the root of the Nation's 
social and economic challenges. It was agreed that a strategy based on 
early education could be a significant part of the answer.
  In August 1964, President Johnson and Congress launched the war on 
poverty by passing the Economic Opportunity Act. The Nation's poor 
numbered 10 million, with nearly half under the age of 12.
  In the fall of that year, my brother-in-law, Sargent Shriver, 
convened a panel of experts in child development, education, public 
health, and social work to lay a foundation for the Head Start program. 
He envisioned a bold national commitment to prepare our neediest 
children for kindergarten and first grade. He conferred with experts 
like Dr. Edward Zigler, who is still a vigorous, forceful advocate for 
children, and they agreed that a comprehensive approach was needed. 
Preschool was the centerpiece of the plan, but a major emphasis was 
placed on health care and parent involvement, too.
  The following year, Head Start came into being as an 8-week summer 
program. With the help of thousands of volunteers, it served 560,000 
children through preschool classes, medical and dental care, and health 
services. Over the years, it would reach over 24 million.
  Today the face of poverty and of America's neediest families has 
changed. The American workplace has changed, and our education system 
is being challenged to keep up with the global economy. Head Start has 
always adapted, finding new ways to respond to the demands on low-
income, working families. But its mission has remained the same--to 
help our most vulnerable children succeed in school and in life.
  When parents are asked what they most want to accomplish in life, 
their answer undoubtedly includes a desire to open the doors of 
opportunity for their children. They want a fair chance for their 
children to grow up in a healthy and safe environment, to graduate from 
high school and go on to college, and to achieve the American dream.
  That dream should be available to every child in America. But far too 
often, families are still struggling to put food on the table, buy 
clothes for their children, pay the rent, or see a doctor. Poverty is 
again on the rise. Today, one out of every five children in America 
grows up poor.
  Poverty has many dimensions. It is a labor issue, because pay is so 
low and workers are exploited. It is a civil rights issue, because so 
many African American and Latino families are often the ones left 
behind. It is a health care issue, because the health care that 
families in poverty receive is so substandard. Most of all, it is a 
children's issue, because the children of the poor have done nothing 
wrong. But they still pay the price.
  It is our responsibility as a Nation to help those in need. The 
Federal bedrock of that commitment is Head Start. It has always been an 
important symbol of our responsibility to others. At its core are the 
values that shaped our democracy: Equity, opportunity, community 
empowerment, and economic progress.
  Head Start is based on the premise that education is the key to the 
future and to breaking down the destructive forces of poverty.

  It provides the starting point for a child's day, with a healthy meal 
each morning and a promise to parents that while they are at work and 
balancing two jobs, their children will see a doctor and dentist, and 
receive immunizations.
  It provides children with the building blocks they need to enter 
school ready to learn. It teaches the social and emotional skills 
needed by children to pay attention in the classroom and get along well 
with others. It expands their vocabulary, gets them excited about 
reading, and teaches them to count.
  It welcomes parents into its programs, gives them opportunities to 
make decisions about their child's learning and development, and 
sometimes helps families find a roof for over their head.
  Over the years, with each new educational and developmental advance 
in research, we have learned more about how Head Start can be improved. 
And with that learning, modifications have been made to enable the 
program to be even more effective.
  In 1972, the Child Development Associate program was established, to 
provide a standard of quality for Head Start teachers and aides.
  In 1974, the reauthorization of Head Start established the 
comprehensive Program Performance Standards to guide Head Start centers 
in providing essential educational, health, and social services, and 
achieving parental involvement. The reauthorization also paved the way 
for a network of training and technical assistance activities to help 
Head Start agencies enhance the quality of their programs.
  In the 1980s and early 1990s, the Indian and Migrant Head Start 
programs were formed, and family service centers were established to 
combat illiteracy, substance abuse, and unemployment in Head Start 
communities. At that time, Head Start also began its important focus on 
improving transitions for preschool children to public schools.
  In 1994, we created Early Head Start to serve low-income infants and 
toddlers in the first 3 years of their development. That legislation 
also led to the development of improved performance measures to assess 
outcomes in Head Start and new guidelines for monitoring Head Start 
programs.

[[Page S14377]]

  The current reauthorization applies the lessons learned from the past 
with the new knowledge of child development and early education to 
enable Head Start to be even more successful in the years ahead.
  There is no question that Head Start is effective. Our own federally 
mandated study of Head Start found that it expands children's 
vocabularies, and makes the greatest difference for those with the 
greatest needs. Head Start improves children's writing skills, and 
helps children grow in their social skills and behavior.
  By the time Head Start children complete their kindergarten year, 
their skills and developmental abilities are near the national average, 
with scores of 99 in early literacy, 98 in early writing, 95 in early 
math, and 95 in vocabulary.
  We are talking about the most disadvantaged children in America. They 
are often well behind in terms of their ability to enter school ready 
to start. Look at the results at the end of kindergarten. Head Start 
children catch up to their peers, to the national norm. It brings the 
children up so, hopefully, we will be, as a country and society, more 
equitable, more fair.
  This reauthorization maintains high standards and comprehensive 
services in Head Start. It upgrades educational components of the 
program, and ensures that it delivers the skills and support that 
children need to succeed in kindergarten and the early grades. It 
promotes greater partnerships between Head Start programs and local 
schools, and ensures that services continue to be framed by the highly 
effective Head Start Child Outcomes Framework. It also provides a 
needed bridge for parents to their local schools, to promote greater 
coordination and ease the transition of children from preschool to 
kindergarten.
  We also terminate the flawed National Reporting System, and ensure 
that new educational standards and measures used in Head Start will be 
informed by the National Academy of Sciences. Two years ago, the 
Government Accountability Office confirmed many of our long-standing 
concerns with this assessment, concluding that the test is not valid to 
make determinations about programs and students. The study also 
confirmed that the test was inconsistent with nationally-recognized 
testing standards, and unclear in its purpose.
  This reauthorization ensures that any assessments used in Head Start 
will be valid and reliable, fair to children from all backgrounds, and 
measure the whole child. Head Start children and their families deserve 
nothing less.
  Head Start teachers and staff are the heart and future of the 
program. They help children learn to identify letters and arrange the 
pieces of puzzles. They teach them to brush their teeth, wash their 
hands, make friends, and follow rules.
  This reauthorization sets important and unprecedented goals for 
enhancing the skills and qualifications of Head Start teachers and 
staff. In this reauthorization, we are striving to help all teachers 
earn their associate's degree over the next 6 years, help half of all 
teachers in Head Start earn their bachelor's degree, and help all 
assistant teachers work toward completing a CDA or another early 
education credential.

  These are ambitious goals. But we know that learning and development 
of young children require good teachers and that there is a strong link 
between educational qualifications and the quality of programs.
  The quality of a program doesn't just depend on the educational 
background of its teachers, which is why we are also calling for 
professional development and a career advancement plan for every Head 
Start employee including family service workers, assistant teachers, 
and curriculum coordinators. We have established new partnerships to 
increase staff in Head Start who are prepared to serve the diverse 
children enrolled in the programs.
  Most of all, we have worked to ensure that Head Start agencies have a 
dedicated stream of funds to provide needed training for teachers. The 
reauthorization dedicates $2 million this year to local training and 
improvement efforts, much of which will be used to improve and 
strengthen the Head Start workforce. We commit to confronting the 
persistent challenge of compensating Head Start teachers as the 
professionals that they are. Head Start teachers earn half the salary 
of kindergarten teachers, and turnover is about 11 percent per year.
  This conference report commits 40 percent of new funds in Head Start 
to program quality and teacher salaries, to do more to attract and 
retain caring and committed leaders. It ensures that each Head Start 
Center will receive an annual cost-of-living increase to keep up with 
the rising costs of operation and overhead.
  We grant additional flexibility in this reauthorization for Head 
Start to serve thousands of additional low-income children in need, by 
including families just above the Federal poverty level. It is 
essential for Head Start to prioritize its services to the neediest 
families in their communities. But this new flexibility enables those 
living near poverty and earning less than what they need to get by to 
receive assistance too. It is the right thing to do, and it is what 
Head Start is all about.
  The reauthorization also makes a long-overdue commitment to expanding 
Head Start programs in Indian country, and programs for migrant and 
seasonal farmworkers. By reserving up to $20 million annually to expand 
services in these programs, we can hopefully reach an additional 5,500 
migrant children and an additional 5,100 Native American children 
living in poverty. New provisions are also included to enhance services 
for homeless children, children who are English language learners, and 
children with disabilities in order to ensure that these populations 
receive the care and attention they deserve.
  Accountability is a cornerstone of excellence and should start early. 
Head Start should be accountable for its commitment to provide safe and 
healthy learning environments, to support each child's individual 
pattern of development and learning, to build community partnerships in 
services to children, and to involve parents in their child's growth.
  This reauthorization makes significant progress in increasing 
accountability and investing in excellence in Head Start. It continues 
the comprehensive monitoring that has become a hallmark of Head Start, 
and ensures that reviews are fair and balanced in order to account for 
challenges and strengths in programs. It also establishes a new system 
for the designation of Head Start grants, to be phased in over the next 
several years.
  We know that the vast majority of Head Start programs provide 
outstanding services--fewer than 20 percent of programs are found to be 
deficient each year. But where serious deficiencies exist, we must see 
that substantial problems do not languish at the expense of children. 
If a local program is unable to meet Head Start's high standards of 
quality, timely action should be taken. This new system will facilitate 
accountability and funding decisions, and do so in a manner that is 
transparent, fair, and responsive to the local needs of families and 
children.
  We have established greater accountability for enrollment in programs 
and delineated a clear system of governance in Head Start.
  The reauthorization also takes important steps to expand Early Head 
Start. Since its inception, results have proven that Early Head Start 
is one of the most effective programs of the Department of Health and 
Human Services. In this legislation, we improve the training and 
assistance network serving Early Head Start and guarantee a dedicated 
expert in each State to work with programs to meet the needs of infants 
and toddlers. We also expand the screening available to infants exposed 
to trauma, violence, or other circumstances detrimental to their 
development. We commit to expanding Early Head Start to serve an 
additional 8,000 low-income infants and toddlers over the next 5 years.
  As in elementary and secondary education, reform in early childhood 
education requires resources. Today, half of all children eligible for 
Head Start have no access to it. Early Head Start however, serves only 
3 percent of eligible infants and toddlers--we leave behind a shameful 
97 percent.
  When Sargent Shriver discussed the war on poverty, he said ``You have 
to put immense resources into winning a

[[Page S14378]]

war.'' He was right, and he wasn't talking about wars like Iraq. He was 
talking about the war on poverty. This conference report increases 
authorizations for Head Start to $7.3 billion in fiscal year 2008, $7.6 
billion in fiscal year 2009, and $7.9 billion in fiscal year 2010. On a 
bipartisan basis, the conferees have signaled a commitment to invest 
more in our youngest children, and to assist Head Start in responding 
to the changing and evolving needs of the communities it serves.
  Research shows that the first 5 years of life make an immense 
difference for a child. Those who attend high-quality early education 
programs are more likely to do well when they reach elementary school, 
are less likely to be held back a grade, and are more likely to 
graduate from high school and go on to college.

  Our Federal investment in early childhood education clearly pays 
off-- for every dollar invested in high-quality early education, there 
is a 16 dollar return later in life.
  All children--regardless of their background--deserve to learn and 
develop. We need to strengthen early childhood for young children, in 
order to help them succeed later in school and in life.
  A comprehensive curriculum and a stable and well-qualified workforce 
are cornerstones of a good early education. I am especially pleased 
that this reauthorization of Head Start includes a blueprint to 
strengthen the array of early childhood programs and services for young 
children.
  The bill establishes an Early Childhood Advisory Council to examine 
needs of early childhood programs, develop a plan to improve 
professional development, upgrade standards, enhance collaboration 
among programs, and improve data collection.
  More than 40 States have early learning standards in place or under 
development. States such as Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Illinois 
have developed the systems needed to improve program quality and expand 
access to programs in the early years. We need to build on that 
progress. States that are ready to take on the challenge of 
implementing needed improvements in their early education programs will 
qualify for incentive grants to get such improvements under way.
  One of our highest priorities in Congress is to expand educational 
opportunities for every American. In this age of globalization, every 
citizen deserves a chance to acquire the skills needed to compete in 
the modern economy. That challenge begins at birth, and accelerates in 
the early years of life well before children even begin kindergarten.
  This reauthorization helps us reach this essential goal. It keeps 
Head Start on its successful path, and enables it to continue to thrive 
and improve.
  We still haven't won the war on poverty in America. But thanks to 
Head Start, we are getting closer. Day by day, and one child at a time. 
This conference report continues that indispensable progress, and I 
urge my colleagues to approve it.
  Mr. President, we have others who desire to speak at this time. I 
will have a chance with the remaining time, perhaps, to get into some 
of the additional items.
  Mr. President, I reserve the remainder of my time.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Wyoming.
  Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I thank Senator Kennedy for that excellent 
recap of what has taken us months, in fact, years to get done.
  I am pleased after many years of false starts, we have finally 
reached agreement on Head Start reauthorization. This conference 
agreement is a bipartisan, bicameral effort that focuses on improving 
the lives of low-income children and their families. We need to ensure 
that children, regardless of their circumstances, have the opportunity 
to get the preparation they need to enter school ready to learn and be 
successful.
  The Head Start Program was established in 1965 as part of the war on 
poverty to level the playing field for low-income children. The purpose 
of the program was, and remains, to provide educational and other 
developmental services to children in very low income families. It 
recognizes that children do not start school with the same set of 
experiences or knowledge. Head Start programs provide low-income 
children with a solid base of experiences and knowledge that enables 
them to start their elementary school experience on par with their more 
affluent peers.
  Since its creation, Head Start has been a comprehensive, early 
childhood development program that provides educational, health, 
nutritional, social, and other services to low-income, preschool-aged 
children and their families. Head Start currently provides services to 
over 900,000 children and their families through a network of over 
1,600 public and private agencies. This program also recognizes the 
important role that families play in a child's development and 
encourages their regular participation in the program.
  I do thank Senator Kennedy and Congressman Miller for their 
commitment to working together on a bipartisan basis. That commitment 
has resulted in a conference report that meets the needs of children 
and families who participate in Head Start programs throughout our 
Nation. I also thank my other colleagues, particularly Senators 
Alexander and Dodd, and Congressmen McKeon, Kildee, and Castle, for 
their fine work and dedication to this important legislation.
  The conference agreement before us today builds off legislation we 
developed last Congress when I was chairman of the HELP Committee. 
Senator Kennedy agreed to use that legislation as the base for this 
year's bill to build on the bipartisan support it had received. Senator 
Kennedy and I understand that to get anything done, especially in the 
Senate, you have to have bipartisan support.
  Years ago, I established an ``80-percent rule'' to help guide my work 
in committee and on the Senate floor. It means that 80 percent of what 
Congress works on we agree to. The other 20 percent is the stuff we may 
never agree on. But that is what always seems to get the attention. I 
do think we do our best work when we focus on the 80 percent. 
Legislation seems to move more quickly when we work together in a 
bipartisan way.
  I am pretty certain people in Massachusetts are cringing, and people 
in Wyoming are cringing and saying: Oh, no, Kennedy and Enzi are doing 
it again. But that is the way things get done, and we have quite a 
track record of doing things that wind up pretty unanimous on both 
sides of the Capitol because they figure with our two backgrounds it 
has to be reasonable or we will not agree. That is exactly how it works 
out.
  So this bill probably will not make headlines, and it is not the most 
sensational sound bite. However, this is work Congress can and must do 
to improve the lives of children and families across America.
  Today, with the passage of the Head Start conference report, we begin 
to fulfill this obligation. But our work is far from done. This is just 
the first in a number of education and training bills we have to 
complete this Congress.
  With the reauthorization of the Head Start Act, the first bookend is 
in place. I hope we can continue to work together on legislation to 
reauthorize No Child Left Behind, the Higher Education Act, and the 
Workforce Investment Act. These four bills represent the continuum of 
education and workforce training legislation supported by the Federal 
Government--with Head Start as one bookend and the Workforce Investment 
Act as the other.
  These acts support programs from preschool, through elementary and 
high school, into postsecondary education and the workforce, and are 
critical to maintaining our global competitiveness. We cannot afford to 
let those programs fall victim to election year politics.
  I am pleased the House Education and Labor Committee has moved 
forward with the markup of the reauthorization of the Higher Education 
Act. It is my hope we can continue this momentum and move into a 
conference on that important legislation in the very near future.
  Head Start provides the building blocks children need for success 
later in life. The Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 
2007 before us today helps ensure that children in Head Start programs 
will be better prepared to enter school with the skills necessary to 
succeed. We have always worked hard to improve and strengthen this act 
because we believe in the future success of all children.

[[Page S14379]]

  I am particularly pleased with the accountability provisions in this 
conference report. The conference agreement includes important changes 
related to the evaluation and review of grantees. We have taken steps 
to increase the quality of Head Start, and there is now greater clarity 
for grantees as to what constitutes a program deficiency.
  The roles of governing body and policy councils have been clarified 
and strengthened, while also preserving the important role of parents. 
It is absolutely necessary and vital that a single entity, the 
governing body, has fiscal and legal control of the Federal grant 
dollars. That said, we maintain the equally vital and necessary role of 
the policy councils in setting program priorities, classroom 
activities, and classroom personnel changes. We believe this will help 
ensure the continued integrity of the Head Start Program for years to 
come.

  Parents are their children's first teachers. It is vital we continue 
to encourage and strengthen the role parents play in Head Start 
programs. This conference agreement increases the presence of parents 
in Head Start programs. It strengthens services for families, and it 
provides training and development opportunities for parents who serve 
on policy councils and governing boards.
  Today we are taking the final legislative step toward a comprehensive 
and bipartisan reauthorization of the Head Start Program. As we take 
this step to reauthorize Head Start, it is important we review the 
effectiveness and need for the 57 other early childhood and preschool 
programs currently receiving Federal support. Many of those programs 
are programs in name only. Others are ineffective and fail to provide 
the services children need to be ready for school. We have to direct 
funds to programs that have been shown to be effective at preparing 
children for success in elementary school. Head Start is a successful 
program that deserves our continued support. This support should not be 
diluted by competing programs or the creation of new programs.
  I again wish to thank all the members of both committees, in 
particular Senators Kennedy, Alexander, Isakson and Dodd, and 
Congressmen Miller, McKeon, Kildee, and Castle, for getting this done.
  I also thank all of the staff who worked to complete this 
reauthorization. Many of them have been working toward this day since 
early January. In particular, I would like to thank the following staff 
for Congressman Miller: Ruth Friedman, Lamont Ivey, Denise Forte, and 
Stephanie Moore; for Congressman McKeon: Kirsten Duncan, James 
Bergeron, and Susan Ross; for Congressman Kildee: Lloyd Horwich; for 
Congressman Castle: Jessica Gross; for Senator Kennedy: Roberto 
Rodriguez, Carmel Martin, and David Johns--I would like to mention how 
well Senator Kennedy's staff and my staff have been able to work 
together on all of the issues--for Senator Isakson: Glee Smith; for 
Senator Alexander: David Cleary and Sarah Rittling; and for Senator 
Dodd: Catherine Hildum, and former staffer Sharon Lewis.
  For my staff, I want to be sure to thank Lindsay Hunsicker, who has 
done a marvelous job of working and understanding and providing some 
creativity in the decisions that had to be made to get here; Beth 
Buehlmann, who oversees all of these education issues and is making 
sure they are moving forward in a bipartisan way; and Ilyse Schuman, 
who is the legal brains behind the drafting and decisions for my team; 
Katherine McGuire, who heads up the team as staff director; and, of 
course, Kelly Hastings.
  Passage of this conference report will ensure that low-income 
children are prepared not only for success in school but, most 
importantly, for later success in life.
  I look forward to getting this conference report to President Bush 
for his signature as soon as possible.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and reserve the remainder of my 
time.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Massachusetts.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I yield 5 minutes to the Senator from 
Washington, Mrs. Murray, who has been particularly involved in making 
sure parents are going to be included in this program. She has been 
such an outspoken advocate for the homeless and foster children who so 
often get left out and left behind. She is a former schoolteacher 
herself and member of a school board. She brings extraordinary 
knowledge, experience, and understanding to this problem. We are very 
fortunate to have her on our committee, and the Senate is very 
fortunate to have her as well. I hope they listen to her message.
  Mr. President, I yield 5 minutes to the Senator from Washington.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Washington is 
recognized.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Massachusetts.
  I am delighted we are here today to talk about one of the most 
important things this Congress has done for our children, and that is 
the Head Start Program.
  I thank the Senators from Massachusetts and Wyoming for shepherding 
this important bill to the floor today, where it is in its last final 
step before it reaches the President for his signature.
  For over 40 years now, Head Start has helped children from low-income 
families build the confidence and skills they have to have to succeed 
in school. As the Senator from Massachusetts said, I am a former 
preschool teacher, parent, school board member, and U.S. Senator. I can 
tell you, I have seen from every aspect how this important program 
benefits our children.
  Today, I am very excited we are taking a vote to renew this important 
program. The bill we have in front of us now strengthens Head Start by 
making it more efficient, more accommodating, and more sensitive to our 
children's social, emotional, and developmental needs. It will allow us 
to better serve millions of children and improve on this already 
successful program.

  This bill will help raise the quality that Senator Kennedy talked 
about of our Head Start services across the country so that we ensure 
all of our children, no matter where they live, receive high quality, 
consistent services. Also, it will help ensure that all Head Start 
partners from our early childhood centers to our elementary schools, 
our childcare centers, our health care providers, our family service 
centers, are all working together in a coordinated way so we can best 
serve our young children and their families.
  This bill increases funding authorization for Head Start each year 
from 2008 to 2010, and that will enable even more of our kids to start 
school ready to learn than ever before. I hope all of our colleagues 
will support this important bill, and I urge the President to sign it 
as soon as possible so we can put these new tools to work for our kids.
  As the, I believe, only former preschool teacher here in the Senate, 
I feel a personal obligation to stand up for all of our young children. 
And standing up for our children, particularly our most vulnerable 
children, means standing up for Head Start. Each year, nearly a million 
poor children across this country attend our Head Start programs. Those 
kids didn't choose to be poor, but fortunately, since they live in this 
Nation, which values our young people, many of them are enrolled in 
Head Start where they can get the tools and the training they need to 
prepare them for school.
  I thank Senator Kennedy and his staff as well as Ranking Member Enzi 
for working so hard on this bill.
  I am particularly proud of the provisions that increase Head Start 
access for our homeless and for our foster children. This bill will 
help improve transportation and services for these children and places 
a priority on enrolling them. These are some of our kids who face some 
of the greatest barriers to learning in our society, and I am glad we 
are making their success in school and in life an immediate priority.
  I also fought to make sure that parents of children enrolled in this 
program have a voice in the decisionmaking process on local Head Start 
issues. I think our parents need to be involved in these programs and 
to have responsibility, and I think as their kids get a jump on 
learning through Head Start, this program will help our parents begin 
to understand that they have a very important and critical role in 
shaping their children's education. So I am very proud we were able to 
work out that language and move forward in a positive direction.

[[Page S14380]]

  To name a few other quick additions, this reauthorization improves 
the transition of Head Start children to school by making sure that the 
curriculum they get matches their State early learning standards and 
kindergarten skills, which is very important. It also reserves 40 
percent of new Head Start funds to improve programs as well as increase 
salaries for staffers, and it enables Native-American and migrant Head 
Start programs to expand, which will increase access to early learning 
for those particularly vulnerable populations.
  I have visited Head Start centers all across my State. I have talked 
with teachers, I have talked with the parents, and I have talked with 
advocates about ways we can improve Head Start. I am very pleased that 
a number of their suggestions have been put into this bill. Washington 
State, my home State, is a leader in early learning efforts. I think we 
can all be proud of this bill, and I hope all of our colleagues will 
support it.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator's time has expired.
  Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I yield 7 minutes to the former Secretary of 
Education.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Tennessee is 
recognized.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask the Chair to please let me know 
when I have 1 minute remaining.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Chair will so advise.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, it is not too much to say that this 
vote on this piece of legislation on Head Start is about whose century 
this century will be. Some say it will be China's century. Some say it 
will be India's century. I think the jury is still out, but I do 
believe it can be the American century, and I believe it is up to us to 
make sure it is.
  We have the advantages in our country. One of them, of course, is our 
brain power advantage. We don't have better brains than others, but 
since World War II, we have spent a great deal of time building our 
education system, our universities, our research laboratories. We 
worked together this year to pass the America COMPETES Act, authorizing 
$34 billion over the next 3 years to step that up. A second advantage 
we have is the e pluribus unum. We are one country. Where different 
countries are fractured, we are working here to help our children and 
our new arrivals learn English, our common language, and to learn our 
American history so we can stay as one country. That is an advantage we 
have. The third advantage we have is that we are the only country in 
the world that believes that anything is possible. We don't say leave 
just a few children behind, or 80 percent of us are created equal; we 
set these very high goals. Anything is possible. Most of our politics 
is about failing to reach the goals, dealing with the disappointment, 
and then trying again.
  How do we make sure that the dream that anything is possible is real? 
Well, No. 1, we keep down taxes and we keep down regulations, and we 
keep markets free so people can go from the back to the front of the 
line. The other thing we do is to make sure that all Americans have a 
chance to get to the starting line ready. Some people need some help, 
and that is what Head Start is about.

  I was very pleased to come to this floor in the earlier part of this 
year with Senator Kennedy, Senator Enzi, and Senator Dodd, introducing 
a piece of legislation that we hoped would get to the point this one 
has today. I thank them for the way they have worked on this for the 
last 3 or 4 years. It didn't matter much whether it was a Republican or 
a Democratic Senate; we all worked together and we are here now with 
this result.
  A lot has changed, and there are four major advantages to this bill, 
in my opinion. No. 1, I call special attention to the 200 new centers 
of excellence that are created. These are opportunities for Governors 
to look, say, at Nashville or at Boston or at some place in their State 
and designate a center of excellence. These would be shining examples 
of all of the best efforts that are being made for early childhood 
education. The centers would get up to $200,000 a year for 5 years and 
would hopefully try to coordinate all early childhood education and 
development efforts.
  When I was a child, my mother's preschool class in the garage in our 
backyard was the only preschool education program in town. In the 
1970s, Tennessee adopted public kindergarten for the first time, a few 
years after Head Start. Well, today, Head Start is a $7 billion 
program. It has 1,700 agencies, 29,000 centers, but that is far from 
all the effort we are making. There are 21 billion Federal dollars for 
early childhood education, and many State and local dollars. They are 
not always spent in the most efficient manner. The President thought it 
would be better to give the Head Start funds to the States. I disagree 
with that. We have disagreed with that, but we have respected his 
impulse by saying in these 200 centers for the next 5 years, let's see 
what happens. Let's see what happens when States work with local 
governments and put all the Federal, State, and local money together 
for early childhood education in these centers for excellence.
  Second, there is a system for renewal for Head Start agencies. There 
is not an automatic renewal after this time, and the Secretary of 
Health and Human Services will develop a process for that to make sure 
that for every cycle, the Head Start agency earns its right to 
continue. Third, there is clear authority to governing boards about the 
big dollars we are spending here and the big lives we are affecting. We 
heard eloquent testimony from the mayor of Shelby County, A.C. Wharton, 
about money that was stolen down there. So we have done a better job 
listening to Mayor Wharton and to others in making it clear who is in 
charge of the money, who is in charge of the administration, and at the 
same time, making sure that the parents, who are the lifeblood of the 
uniqueness of Head Start, are active and full participants through 
policy councils.
  Finally, as the President also recommended, we have worked over the 
last 2 or 3 years in developing this bill to increase cognitive 
learning standards. Forty years ago, we didn't know nearly as much 
about how the brains of very young children work, but we know now that 
to be ready to learn, to be at the starting line when the time comes to 
go to school, children need to learn more in their earlier years. So 
Head Start will provide that opportunity.
  It is not too much to say that this bill is about whose century this 
will be. We hope it will be the century of every child in the world, 
but we like the idea that it could be the American century, and we want 
to take full advantage of the assets we have. One of the assets we have 
is the dream that anything is possible, that you can go from the back 
of the line to the front. We will keep our markets free. We will try to 
keep our taxes down. We will get rid of unnecessary regulations so 
people can get ahead. But this bill is a commitment that says we will 
also make certain we will do our best to make sure every single child 
has an opportunity to get to the starting line ready to succeed.
  Thank you, Mr. President.
  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I am proud to rise in support of the 
conference report for the Head Start for School Readiness Act. Since 
1965, Head Start has been one of the most successful Federal programs 
for helping low-income children and their families. This long overdue 
reauthorization is good news for over a million Americans who rely on 
Head Start's comprehensive services.
  Head Start is for the poorest children. About 75 percent of Head 
Start families are at or below the poverty level. For a family of four, 
that is just $20,600 per year. These children are often the furthest 
behind in learning to read and learning the alphabet. Yet Head Start 
makes a difference. In 1 year, these students see huge improvements in 
their vocabulary, increasing from the 16th percentile to the 32nd 
percentile, which is almost the national norm.
  But Head Start does so much more. It brings children to the doctor to 
get immunizations and hearing checks. It helps parents get on the right 
track. Many parents become Head Start teachers and go back to school to 
get their degrees. It provides nutritious meals for children who might 
otherwise go hungry. I am a social worker. I have seen first hand 
children whose lives were changed by a simple hearing

[[Page S14381]]

aid or a good breakfast. Believe me: it can make all the difference.
  Head Start is also a smart investment. Research shows that society 
accrues $9 in benefits for every $1 invested in Head Start children. 
Head Start graduates are more likely to have increased earnings and 
employment than non-Head Start participants. Head Start graduates are 
also less likely to be dependent on welfare or to have been charged 
with a crime when compared to their siblings who did not participate in 
the program.
  Unfortunately, only 60 percent of eligible preschool children are in 
Head Start, and less than 5 percent of eligible infants and toddlers 
are in Early Head Start. In Maryland, about 25 percent of eligible 
children age zero to 5 years are in Head Start and Early Head Start. 
The Bush administration has underfunded this critical Federal program 
for the past 7 years. Now is the time to renew the Federal investment 
in Head Start.
  That is why I am proud to support this bill that makes low-income 
children and families a priority in the Federal checkbook. It increases 
the authorized spending level from $6.9 billion in fiscal year 2007 to 
$7.3 billion in fiscal year 2008. That is nearly a $450 million 
increase. This increased investment will allow tens of thousands more 
children to participate in the program who would be otherwise turned 
away because of inadequate funding.
  This bill also expands Head Start by increasing the eligibility 
income level from $20,600 to $26,800. This means that a family of four 
who are scrimping and saving on an annual income of only $26,800 will 
no longer be denied the comprehensive services Head Start provides.
  The Head Start for School Readiness Act makes a serious investment in 
our youngest children and their families. The benefits of Head Start to 
the children, their families and society at large far outweighs the 
cost. I urge my Senate colleagues to vote in favor of this conference 
report. Our young children deserve nothing less.
  Mr. REED. Mr. President, I strongly support H.R. 1429, the Improving 
Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007. This important bipartisan 
legislation, which I helped craft as a member of the Senate Education 
Committee and as a conferee, reauthorizes the Head Start Act for the 
first time since 1998 and strengthens our commitment to ensuring that 
the nation's neediest children receive high-quality early education 
supports and services.
  Since 1965, Head Start has provided comprehensive early childhood 
development, educational, health, nutritional, social and other 
services to low-income preschool children and their families, and this 
reauthorization builds on our long-standing investment in this 
essential initiative.
  There are two provisions that I am particularly pleased are included 
in this legislation, and which are important to my State of Rhode 
Island. First, the Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act builds 
on provisions I first authored in 2003 to provide Head Start programs 
with additional flexibility to serve children up to 130 percent of 
poverty. Current law limits program eligibility to 100 percent of 
poverty or below. This increase in income eligibility will enhance the 
opportunity for struggling, low-income families to participate in Head 
Start while ensuring that programs prioritize serving families under 
the poverty guideline and enhance outreach to ensure those most in need 
are served first. Raising the income eligibility limit finally puts 
Head Start on the same level as other means-tested programs, which 
essentially all serve above the poverty level to provide for greater 
participation and help the working poor.
  Second, this legislation for the first time establishes the Parent 
Policy Council as a decisionmaking authority within the governing 
structure of Head Start programs. Strong parent involvement in their 
children's early education and development has been a key tenet of the 
Head Start program since its inception in 1965, and is one of the 
primary reasons for the program's continuing success.
  This reauthorization also includes a provision I authored to enhance 
coordination between Head Start programs and school and public 
libraries to excite children about the world of books, assist in 
literacy training for Head Start teachers, and support parents and 
other caregivers in literacy efforts.
  Additionally, I am pleased that this conference report does not 
permit employment discrimination based on religion despite the 
administration's continuing advocacy for such a change. Faith-based 
organizations are an integral part of Head Start. However, there is no 
need to change a program that has encouraged their participation by 
allowing such discrimination.
  I want to thank Chairmen Kennedy, Dodd, and Miller and Ranking 
Members Enzi, Alexander, and McKeon and their staffs, for their 
extraordinary work on this conference report. The Improving Head Start 
for School Readiness Act is significant legislation for the people of 
Rhode Island and the nation, and I am pleased to support it. This 
strong reauthorization in tandem with necessary funding increases will 
ensure that Head Start can continue its important and critical work to 
lessen the effects of poverty and ensure that children are successfully 
prepared for school and life.
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, today we approved the Conference Report on 
the Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007--H.R. 1429. I 
applaud the good work of all involved. I particularly want to commend 
Chairman Kennedy and Senator Enzi, as well as Chairman Miller and 
Representative McKeon on the House side for their collective work on 
this important bill.
  Head Start is a national program promoting school readiness through 
educational, health, nutritional, and social services. Currently, Head 
Start serves over 900,000 low-income children and their families in 
approximately 1,600 programs run by public and private agencies. As a 
whole-child, whole-family program, Head Start prepares children for 
what we hope will be a lifetime of learning.
  I want to recognize and commend our Head Start programs in Utah. They 
do an outstanding job, and I believe this legislation will go a long 
way to providing additional support for them. I have appreciated their 
input during this long process.
  I have been struck by some of the stories shared by our Head Start 
people in Utah. I remember hearing from one of our Head Start Directors 
that a number of children have never held a book before entering the 
program. When they are handed their first book, many don't know how to 
open it. Entering Head Start swings wide the doors of learning and 
opportunity and exposes young children to the reading and learning 
process.
  I have also heard stories of Head Start children who were suffering 
from major medical problems that would not only threaten their ability 
to learn but their very lives. One of the great characteristics of the 
Head Start program includes the identification and treatment of several 
medical conditions, many problems can be detected and treated before 
they become serious learning impediments.
  The Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007 not only 
reauthorizes the program, it greatly improves and strengthens it. This 
bill will enable more low-income children to get into the Head Start 
program. Utah has only been able to serve just over 50 percent of its 
eligible children. This bill provides for the expansion of Head Start 
and Early Head Start in States, like Utah, serving fewer than 60 
percent of eligible children.
  This bill strengthens the accountability of Head Start programs and 
improves the overall quality of Head Start grantees, as they will be 
reviewed every 5 years. It clarifies and strengthens the role of the 
governing board in the oversight of the program. It also respects the 
priority role of parents and family through the collaborative role of 
the policy councils and operations of the Head Start programs.
  Through this legislation, the Head Start workforce is strengthened, 
as goals have been established for education standards for Head Start 
teachers, curriculum specialists, and teacher assistants. It requires 
Head Start teachers to have in-service training every year and ensures 
professional development for all Head Start staff working directly with 
children.
  The Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007 strengthens 
coordination and collaboration of the program by aligning services with

[[Page S14382]]

State early learning standards, providing professional development 
opportunities for Head Start staff, and promoting partnerships with 
other agencies.
  Because I believe that education is best done at the local and State 
levels with appropriate Federal support, I am pleased that under this 
bill, states will designate a State Advisory Council that will closely 
address the education and care of children from birth to school entry. 
I strongly support the authorization for Centers of Excellence to 
designate model exemplary Head Start programs in every State.
  One of the concerns expressed by many of us as we started this 
process years ago, was the challenge of strengthening the academic 
portions of Head Start. Under this bill, Head Start agencies will use 
scientifically based measures to support learning and program 
evaluation. Recommendations of the National Academy of Science study on 
Developmental Outcomes and Assessments for Young Children will be 
incorporated. Although the National Reporting System was intended to 
improve the program, it was found to be time-consuming and unwieldy for 
Head Start programs, and without demonstrated benefits. That reporting 
system has been eliminated under this bill.
  In order to educate every child in our country, we must prepare them. 
Many pre-school children, particularly those who are disadvantaged, 
would have learning difficulties long before they entered elementary 
school. This bill will help these young, vulnerable, and teachable 
children develop the necessary early reading and math skills to be 
successful in school. It will address their health and nutritional 
needs, and it will provide important socialization. It also engages and 
empowers parents, and benefits us as a Nation.
  I was proud to have worked with my colleagues on the Senate Health, 
Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee to get this bill through the 
legislative process, and I was pleased to see it pass unanimously 
today.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I rise today in support of the conference 
report to accompany the Head Start reauthorization bill. For the first 
time since 1998, Congress will send a bill to the President to 
reauthorize and strengthen the Head Start program.
  A child's education begins well before he or she enters a school 
building for the first day of kindergarten. The children who succeed in 
kindergarten are the children whose parents read to them every day, who 
talk with them, and who engage their minds with games, art, and new 
experiences. These are the children who enter kindergarten ready to 
learn.
  Unfortunately, many children enter kindergarten well behind their 
peers. They may have parents whose long hours interfere with the kind 
of time they spend with their small children. Or they may have parents 
who don't know how important these early developmental activities are. 
That is why we created Head Start in 1965, to make sure low-income 
children are ready to learn when they arrive in kindergarten. Head 
Start provides preschool-aged, low-income children and their families 
with school activities, health screening, healthy snacks, and structure 
to encourage parental involvement.
  Each year, over 900,000 children are served by Head Start nationwide; 
40,000 of those children live in my home State of Illinois. The 
legislation that we are considering today will increase authorized 
funding for Head Start to $7.9 billion in fiscal year 2010, allowing 
tens of thousands more children to participate in the program.
  The legislation will also expand eligibility, allowing Head Start to 
serve low-income children and families up to 130 percent of Federal 
poverty, or $26,800 for a family of four. It will also expand the Early 
Head Start program, so it can reach an additional 8,000 low-income 
infants and toddlers. The earlier children enroll in Head Start 
programs, the more likely they are to succeed once they enter 
kindergarten.
  The legislation also sets new minimum qualification standards for 
Head Start teachers. Within 6 years, all Head Start teachers must have 
an associate's degree, and half of all teachers must have a bachelor's 
degree. Forty percent of new funding will be reserved for program 
quality enhancements, including much-needed salary increases for Head 
Start staff.
  Educational standards will be strengthened in Head Start programs to 
make sure children are presented with language and literacy, math, 
science, and other cognitive development material. These new standards 
will be updated and aligned with the latest research in child 
development. The legislation we are considering today will improve the 
transition for children who are leaving Head Start to enter 
kindergarten, through better coordination between Head Start programs 
and schools, shared teacher training, and alignment of curriculum.
  I am especially pleased that this legislation strengthens Head Start 
without weakening its long-standing civil rights protections for more 
than 200,000 Head Start teachers and 1.3 million parent volunteers.
  Since 1972, the law has prohibited agencies that receive government 
funding for Head Start from employment discrimination on the basis of 
race, creed, color, national origin, sex, political affiliation, or 
beliefs. These civil rights protections have been reaffirmed all six 
times that the Head Start program has been reauthorized since then, and 
I strongly support the seventh reaffirmation today.
  Preserving this provision is especially important given this 
administration's attempts to overturn long-standing principles of 
nondiscrimination through Executive orders, proposed legislation, and, 
recently, Department of Justice opinions.
  Let me be clear. I support the right of religious organizations to 
use religious criteria in hiring people to carry out their religious 
work. This exception--which is the current law--makes sense because it 
allows people of common faith to work together to further their 
religion's mission.
  However, there is a fundamental difference between religious 
organizations using their own funds for their religious work and 
religious organizations using government funds for that purpose. In 
1972, Congress established the current, expanded religious exception 
under title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The same Congress 
established the nondiscrimination provisions in Head Start that 
continue with today's legislation. They understood the difference 
between permitting hiring based on religion for religious functions not 
funded by the government, and allowing discrimination based on religion 
in hiring people to carry out activities funded by the Federal 
Government.
  I also want to address a memo released last month by the Department 
of Justice entitled ``Effect of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act 
on Faith-Based Applicants for Grants.'' This troubling memo concludes 
that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act allows faith-based 
organizations to receive Federal funds even when considering religion 
in employment. It further asserts that RFRA ``protects this right to 
prefer co-religionists for employees even if the statute that 
authorizes the funding program generally forbids consideration of 
religion in employment decisions by grantees.''
  I strongly disagree with these conclusions in general, and especially 
with respect to the legislation before us today. The law and the 
history regarding Head Start is clear with respect to nondiscrimination 
in employment, and this explicit civil rights protection must be 
followed.
  In closing, I want to affirm my strong support for the participation 
of religious organizations in the Head Start program. These 
organizations provide critical support for our Nation's children in 5 
percent of Head Start centers and greatly improve our pre-schoolers' 
education. It is not surprising that Head Start is the second-largest 
source of federal funding for faith-based organizations.
  This program truly is a model for how the government can successfully 
partner with faith-based organizations, while complying with 
nondiscrimination requirements.
  I thank Senators Kennedy and Enzi for their bipartisan work on this 
important legislation, and I urge my colleagues to support this 
conference report.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, as I understand, we have 9 minutes left. 
Am I correct?
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator is correct.

[[Page S14383]]

  Mr. KENNEDY. I yield 3 minutes to the Senator from Ohio and 3 minutes 
to the Senator from Vermont, and I will take the last 3 minutes, and we 
will alternate with our Republican colleagues.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Ohio is 
recognized.
  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I thank Chairman Kennedy and Ranking Member 
Enzi for their leadership, as well as the staff, for their tireless 
work on the Head Start reauthorization bill. It is long overdue. It 
will help prepare thousands of low-income children for their transition 
into school and for their success later in life.
  There is no greater investment, of course, that we can make than 
investing in our children. This legislation means an additional 8,000 
low-income infants and toddlers younger than those who have 
traditionally been enrolled in Head Start will be eligible for the 
program. Teachers will receive more training, the critical training 
they need and the cost-of-living increases that they deserve. This 
legislation means expansion of the program to children whose families 
earn just above the poverty line. For tens of thousands of children in 
this country, this legislation gives them hope. It is a step forward, a 
major step forward.
  Yesterday, unfortunately, the President vetoed the funding for Head 
Start. That is why we take a step forward today with this Head Start 
reauthorization, as the President took a step backward in vetoing the 
funding for Head Start. Budgets, we know, are about priorities. Whether 
it is a family budget, it speaks to your values; whether it is a 
Federal budget, it speaks to our values. Vetoing funding for Head 
Start, for medical research, and for job training as the President did 
yesterday, tells us something about his priorities.
  I am pleased that on a bipartisan basis, by passing legislation that 
expands Head Start to reach more low-income children, this Senate is 
saying our priorities are different. I hope that together we can 
override the President's veto and fulfill the promise inherent in the 
Head Start Program.
  I thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their good work 
on this Head Start reauthorization. We should move forward.
  Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, how much time do I have remaining?
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Almost 14 minutes.
  Mr. ENZI. I yield 7 minutes to the Senator from Georgia, who has 
always played a tremendous role in this piece of work with his staff 
person Glee Smith, and he brings with him a world of knowledge from 
Georgia where he served as the chief school official there. They set 
some precedent-setting things at all levels of education while he was 
doing that, and he did it in conjunction with former Senator Zell 
Miller, who was Governor at that time. I yield 7 minutes to the Senator 
from Georgia.
  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I wish to thank Ranking Member Enzi for 
his kind remarks and his tremendous dedication and commitment to 
bringing this conference report to the floor. I particularly want to 
thank Senator Kennedy from Massachusetts, who is a consummate 
legislator by anybody's definition and a very committed individual in 
the development of our youth and the betterment of education.
  As Senator Enzi said, about a decade ago I served as chairman of the 
State Board of Education in the administration of my predecessor in 
this seat who was then Governor Zell Miller. Those were the years that 
the breakthrough brain research came forward and illustrated 
conclusively that there is a direct correlation between early childhood 
development and the potential development of a person as an adult. We 
worked very hard together in Georgia to improve the plight of all 
Georgians and did everything we could to develop new programs. One of 
them that we developed was none other than the 4-year-old 
prekindergarten program which now is available to every child in 
Georgia. It is a program that builds on the fact that the earlier you 
can begin instruction, the earlier you can improve the environment and 
the atmosphere in which a child is exposed, the better that child is 
going to do.
  It is critical for us, if we want to turn around the trend in terms 
of dropouts in this country, to see to it that we enhance and enrich 
the lives of every single student who is going to go to our public 
schools.
  Mr. President, it is conclusive that the environment in which a child 
lives in their early years--that to which they are exposed, their 
nutrition, the total environment--is directly a correlation to their 
ability to learn. The Head Start Program is designed to get to those 
children most in need for quality support, for uplift, for a greater 
self-esteem, and for a leg up, a chance to get to go to a 4-year-old 
prekindergarten program or to a kindergarten program ready to learn.
  USA Today ran an article about a week ago talking about America's 
dropout factories, and it enumerated schools in almost every State, 
with dropout rates of 40, 50, 60 percent. If you looked at the facts 
around those articles and those schools, you would find a common 
denominator: Those schools' children came from the least of 
backgrounds, with the least support, and from the poorest of 
environments. We have an obligation to ourselves and, as Senator 
Alexander said, America's future to see to it that every American child 
arrives at kindergarten or first grade ready to learn. The advancement 
of programs such as Head Start will make that happen.
  I commend Senators Alexander, Enzi, and Kennedy, Congressmen Miller 
and McKeon, and all those who worked on this important legislation. I 
urge every Member to cast a favorable vote in favor of a better 
atmosphere for our young children to grow up in, better exposure to 
those things that help them go to school ready to learn, and turn 
around the paradigm on dropouts in the United States.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Vermont is 
recognized.
  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I wish to add my voice to the others and 
thank Senator Kennedy and Senator Enzi for their leadership on this 
issue and for the cooperative, bipartisan relationship we see on that 
committee, which makes it perhaps the most productive committee in the 
Senate.
  As others have said, this is a very important day forward for the 
children of our country. Right now, I am thinking about the Head Start 
workers in Vermont who do such an extraordinary job in reaching out and 
providing for low-income kids throughout our State, and I know the same 
is true throughout this country. They are dedicated people, they are 
underpaid and overworked, but they do it for the love of the children. 
I very much appreciate all they are doing.
  Mr. President, while this is, in fact, an important day forward, it 
is significant to point out again that this is an authorization bill, 
not an appropriations bill. We had the disappointment just the other 
day of the President vetoing the Labor-HHS bill, which includes Head 
Start. My hope is that in the very near future we are going to have a 
strong Labor bill, with adequate funding for Head Start, but more 
significantly--and this is an issue I will talk about until the cows 
come home--we have to change our national priorities with regard to how 
we treat the children of this country.
  Every Member of Congress, every American should be deeply ashamed and 
embarrassed that in this great country, we have, by far, the highest 
rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world. The figures are 
that between 18 and 20 percent of our children live in poverty. As 
other speakers have pointed out, if children at an early age don't get 
the intellectual and emotional nourishment they need, they are not 
going to do well in life. It is not an accident that at the same time 
we have the highest rate of childhood poverty, we also have the highest 
rate of incarceration of any major nation on Earth. So we don't take 
adequate care of our children, and, lo and behold, we are shocked when 
they end up behind bars, and we spend $50,000 to $70,000 for each 
person who is incarcerated. It makes a lot more sense to me--and I hope 
my colleagues agree--that we put that money up front to make sure all 
of our kids get the opportunities they are entitled to as young 
Americans.
  The truth is that while this bill is a significant step forward--and 
I applaud all those who built it--as Senator Kennedy indicated earlier, 
only one-half of

[[Page S14384]]

the eligible children in America today, because of inadequate funding, 
are able to get into the Head Start Program. So this is an important 
step forward. I congratulate all who have made this day possible. We 
have a long way to go to, in fact, keep the faith with the children of 
America.
  Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I yield 3 minutes to the Senator from New 
Hampshire.
  Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Wyoming and the 
Senator from Massachusetts. I rise to express my appreciation for their 
excellent work on this legislation. It has been a long time in 
gestation. I think it reflects their commitment to legislating in a 
bipartisan and effective way that the bill is now at this stage. I 
congratulate them.
  I think anybody who has been exposed to Head Start is impressed by 
the program. There have been studies and reports of that which can be 
done to improve the program, and hopefully this bill will work in that 
direction. But the underlying idea of giving low-income kids the 
ability to come into an atmosphere where they get nurturing, good 
nutrition, and now, because of this bill, where they get starting 
blocks for learning how to deal with an academic program is totally 
appropriate and something that has succeeded.
  If you look at what we are facing as a nation, as discussed here at 
considerable length--I heard the Senator from Tennessee make an 
excellent statement on the needs of education, and what our country 
really needs is the ability to bring into the educational mainstream 
children who today, unfortunately, are not able or do not come to 
school with the necessary skills to compete with some of their fellow 
students. Head Start gives those children that opportunity. It gives 
low-income kids the ability to start kindergarten and get into the 
first grade with an understanding of how, first, to be social and deal 
with an atmosphere where there are other children; secondly, to have 
the necessary nutrition to get through the day and be able to learn; 
and third, begin the building blocks of learning. This program works, 
and it has worked. It is something that should be continued to be 
supported by the Federal Government and also by the local communities 
that stand behind Head Start.
  That is one of the great things about Head Start. In my experience, 
when you go to a local Head Start center in New Hampshire--or 
anywhere--as chairman of the committee, I visited Head Start centers 
all across the country. They are usually community-oriented events. 
Behind those teachers and committed people, who are willing to spend 
the day with the children and try to make their lives better during the 
day, there are usually a lot of volunteers and people from the 
community stepping up to also make those programs work well.
  So Head Start is one of the success stories and one of the things we 
need as one of the building blocks in order to continue to make America 
a great place to live and give people the ability to participate in the 
American dream.
  Again, I thank the Senators for orchestrating this effort.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Who yields time? The Senator from 
Wyoming is recognized.
  Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, it has been a pleasure and an honor to get 
to work on this bill and to work with people on both sides of the 
aisle. You can see the unanimity from the Republican side and the 
Democratic side in making sure the bill came to pass.
  As I mentioned before, we have had a lot of false starts trying to 
get Head Start done. This time, we have gotten through the process. 
Today, we will have a positive vote and send it to the President for 
signature. I think you can tell from the debate that it has been a very 
positive process.
  The only distinction appears to be the few comments we have had about 
the Labor-HHS appropriations bill. I don't want to get into that issue 
because it will take a long time to discuss it. I ask unanimous consent 
to have the Wall Street Journal article from today called ``Return to 
Spender'' printed in the Record to counter some of the things talked 
about. It wasn't Head Start that he vetoed; it was the entire Labor-HHS 
budget.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                           Return To Spender

       Congressional Democrats spent the fall preparing for their 
     budget confrontation with the White House, and the strategy 
     they seem to have settled on is futility. They knew President 
     Bush would veto their first appropriations bill, as he did 
     yesterday, and they also knew they'd lack the votes for an 
     override. If they're wondering why the bottom's fallen out of 
     their approval ratings, here it is.
       Mr. Bush said the bill exceeds ``reasonable and responsible 
     levels for discretionary spending,'' and he was being too 
     kind. Ostensibly the $606 billion ``minibus''--combining 
     funding for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human 
     Services, and Education--is ``only'' $12.2 billion beyond the 
     President's budget request for discretionary spending. But 
     that's more than half of the $22 billion that Democrats want 
     to spend for 2008 above the Administration's top line. (That 
     $22 billion, by the way, swells to at least $205 billion in 
     additional outlays over five years.)
       Democrats are already feigning outrage. House 
     Appropriations kingpin David Obey complained, ``There has 
     been virtually no criticism of its contents,'' and if he's 
     only referring to Congress, he's not far off. The bill marks 
     a return to Capitol Hill's earmarks-as-usual spending 
     culture, assuming it ever abated. There are more than 2,200 
     earmarks worth some $1 billion.
       The pork includes $1.5 million for the AFL-CIO Working for 
     America Institute and $2.2 million for the AFL-CIO 
     Appalachian Council. There's $500,000 for a ``virtual 
     herbarium'' in New York and $50,000 for a Utah ``ice 
     center.'' Also check off $1 million for the Clinton School of 
     Public Service in Little Rock, and another $1 million for the 
     Thomas Daschle Center for Public Service and Representative 
     Democracy at South Dakota State University. Plus the usual 
     assorted millions for art centers, aquariums, aviation and 
     jazz museums, and so forth.
       The Members also reverted to habit by using a House-Senate 
     conference to ``airdrop'' $155 million in earmarks that were 
     not included in earlier editions--in violation of the 2006 
     ethics ``reform.'' The conference also clandestinely removed 
     a provision barring federal funding for the ``hippies 
     museum'' near Woodstock. All of this from Democrats who rode 
     into the majority promising to restore ``fiscal discipline.''
       Mr. Obey was especially instructive in a speech immediately 
     before the final House vote: ``I would ask every serious-
     minded person in this body, if they really think there is a 
     chance of a snowball in Hades that Members' earmarks on 
     either side of the aisle will survive if we wind up at the 
     President's level of funding.'' He concluded: ``The fate of 
     every project . . . is in your hands.''
       The Democrats were desperate for a veto-proof majority, and 
     for the sake of their earmarks some Republicans were content 
     to go along. The pork, of course, was cover for much larger 
     domestic spending excesses, including a $2.4 billion budget 
     gimmick for'' advance appropriations'' designed to circumvent 
     Democratic ``pay as you go'' budget rules. Thankfully, enough 
     GOP Members realized it, and maybe a few even hoped to 
     recover their credibility on spending.
       Since there aren't enough votes to override Mr. Bush, it's 
     back to the drawing board. Maybe next time Democrats should 
     try something new--say, spending less money.

  Mr. ENZI. I hope the vote today will display the unanimity we have 
had while working on this bill. I congratulate the Senator from 
Massachusetts for the way he is running the committee. We have not just 
done hearings on things--hearings are a little more divisive than the 
other mechanism, which has been his morning coffees. In hearings, the 
two sides bring people to testify, and we kind of beat up on each 
other's witnesses. In the coffees he has held, we get to bring in a 
bunch of people and hear what they think. We have the interaction of 
one person who has had experience, and he talks to another person who 
has had experience, and they talk about how the two experiences might 
come together. That has been helpful on this bill, as well as the other 
ones, the bookends I mentioned. This being the first part of the 
bookend, and the next one we will be working on is No Child Left 
Behind.
  We have already done the Higher Education Act on this side. I look 
forward to conferencing that and getting on to the Workforce Investment 
Act, which passed this body twice already but never has been 
conferenced. Our work is still cut out for us, but this is a day to 
celebrate the good work done on both sides of the aisle.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Massachusetts is 
recognized.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I thank my friend and colleague from 
Wyoming. He believes we ought to listen to experts before we actually 
legislate, which was a rather dramatic

[[Page S14385]]

thought to many around here. He certainly is right. He reminds us of 
our unfinished business in terms of higher education and the workforce 
legislation. We are strongly committed, and we will get a response on 
that.


             Unanimous-Consent Agreement--H. Con. Res. 258

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that upon the 
adoption of the conference report to accompany H.R. 1429, the Senate 
proceed to the consideration of H. Con. Res. 258, a correcting 
resolution; that the concurrent resolution be agreed to and the motion 
to reconsider be laid upon the table.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection? Without 
objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Finally, I would take a few moments to mention the staff 
who worked on this bill. I want to personally mention those who have 
worked so hard on this legislation. Some have been working on this for 
4 years. I will not get into the reasons for that. This has been a very 
long and, in the past, contentious piece of legislation and without 
them, there is no way we could have completed this bill.
  I would like to thank Michael Myers, Carmel Martin, Roberto 
Rodriguez, David Johns, Lily Clark, Liz Maher, and Raquel Alvarenga 
from my staff.
  I would like to thank Katherine Graham Hildum of Senator Dodd's 
staff; Janelle Krishnamoorthy of Senator Harkin's staff; Mildred Otero 
of Senator Clinton's staff; Michael Yudin of Senator Bingaman's staff; 
Robin Juliano of Senator Mikulski's staff; Seth Gerson of Senator 
Reed's staff; Kathryn Young of Senator Murray's staff; Will Jawando of 
Senator Brown's staff; Huck Gutman of Senator Sanders' staff; and Steve 
Robinson of Senator Obama's staff.
  This has been a bipartisan process all the way. I would also like to 
thank Senator Enzi's wonderful staff, specifically Katherine McGuire, 
Beth Buehlmann, Lindsay Hunsicker, and Adam Briddell.
  I would also like to thank David Cleary and Sarah Rittling of Senator 
Alexander's staff; Celia Sims of Senator Burr's staff; Juliann Andreen 
of Senator Hatch's staff; Allison Dembeck of Senator Gregg's staff; 
Elizabeth Floyd of Senator Coburn's staff; Karen McCarthy of Senator 
Murkowski's staff; Suzanne Singleterry of Senator Allard's staff; Glee 
Smith of Senator Isakson's staff; and Alison Anway of Senator Roberts' 
staff.
  It is important to mention the work done by our colleagues in the 
House and I would like to thank Ruth Freidman of Congressman Miller's 
staff; James Bergeron, Kristen Duncan and Susan Ross of Congressman 
McKeon's staff; Lloyd Horwich of Congressman Kildee's staff and Jessica 
Gross of Congressman Castle's staff for all of their work on this 
legislation.
  I would like to thank especially Roberto Rodriguez and David Johns 
who have taken the lead on Head Start in my office. Their good work has 
made all the difference. I know Roberto is especially pleased to see 
the Senate and House pass this conference report, as he has worked on 
this legislation for several years now. I commend him for his 
expertise, diligence, good nature and all of his efforts.
  Mr. President, finally, the Head Start Program reaches the neediest 
children in this country. It reaches them to help and assist by 
providing health care, teaching proper nutrition, and by supporting 
proper development of cognitive abilities to ensure that children are 
ready to successfully transition to school.
  Head Start is targeted to the neediest children in this country. Even 
with the small numbers we reach--we only reach a million, and there are 
4 million poor children who are between ages 0 and 5--we see the 
difference it makes. Head Start raises them to a level playing ground. 
That is what our country is really about--trying to raise people to a 
level playing ground. Head Start alone does not guarantee success, but 
it gives them the opportunity to be successful.
  If we have a group in our society that needs this kind of support, it 
is our children. As pointed out in this debate, through no fault of 
their own many children are born into difficult and challenging 
circumstances. As a nation we have a responsibility to get them up to a 
point where they can succeed in school and in life. That is what Head 
Start is about--a recognition that our Nation believes that children 
who are living in poverty, in some of the most challenging 
circumstances, should have the opportunity to be on a level playing 
field.
  Finally, there is one thing we have learned in the area of education; 
that is, the more resources are targeted to early education, the better 
the opportunities these children have to succeed.
  In this reauthorization we have taken advantage of the lessons we 
have learned from Head Start's successful history and built upon 
excellent recommendations made by members of our committee. This is a 
very solid and important piece of legislation that will make a 
difference in the lives of millions of children. I urge the Senate to 
support it.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following three 
letters in support of the Head Start reauthorization conference report 
be printed in the Congressional Record following my remarks on the 
conference report.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:


                              National Head Start Association,

                                Alexandria, VA, November 13, 2007.
     Hon. Edward Kennedy,
     Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & 
         Pension, Washington, DC
       Dear Chairman Kennedy: On behalf of the National Head Start 
     Association, the children, parents, staff and teachers of 
     Head Start and Early Head Start programs, and the Board of 
     Directors, I would like to take this opportunity to 
     congratulate you, the members of the Senate Committee on 
     Health, Education, Labor and Pension for supporting the 
     reauthorization of Head Start--truly a bipartisan effort and 
     success story for America's premier preschool program, Head 
     Start.
       As the national association representing the Head Start 
     community, we represent more than 1 million children and 
     their families, 200,000 staff, and 2,700 Head Start programs. 
     With the assistance of over 1 million volunteers, these 
     programs comprehensively meet the early childhood 
     development, educational, health and family needs of our 
     children.
       Head Start as you very well know, was established in 1965 
     as part of President Lyndon Baines Johnson's ``Great 
     Society'' program, and is the most successful, longest 
     running, national school readiness program in the United 
     States. Head Start has served over 25 million preschool-age 
     children, infants, toddlers, and pregnant women since its 
     inception. Your successful reauthorization of Head Start 
     signals the continued legacy for future low-income children 
     and families.
       The Head Start reauthorization bill is a lesson in 
     bipartisan cooperation and leadership in addressing a 
     critical priority need of our country--the preschool 
     readiness of our children. In short, the ``Improving Head 
     Start Act'' addresses income eligibility, where the working 
     poor are supported and provided incentives to work; 
     terminates the National Reporting System; helps more programs 
     operate full-day and year round; reaffirms the accreditation 
     of teachers in early childhood; provides expansion for 
     Migrant and Seasonal Head Start and American Indian/Alaskan 
     Native populations; and underscores the importance of 
     parental involvement in the education of their children.
       Therefore, I call upon our longtime friends and supporters 
     in the U.S. Congress to approve overwhelmingly the 
     ``Improving Head Start Act of 2007'' and send it to the 
     President for his signature.
       Again, congratulations on your success and that of our 
     children and families.
           With great gratitude,
                                                     Sarah Greene,
     President and CEO.
                                  ____

                                                      Fight Crime:


                                               Invest in Kids,

                                Washington, DC, November 14, 2007.
       Dear Senators Kennedy, Enzi, Dodd and Alexander: The over 
     3,500 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and violence 
     survivors of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids know from the front 
     lines--and the research--that investments in Head Start are 
     critical to our nation's public safety. Head Start helps kids 
     get a good start in life so that they avoid later criminality 
     and grow up to become responsible citizens. But the maximum 
     crime reduction impacts--and many other benefits of Head 
     Start--can only occur when programs reach more of the at-risk 
     kids and are comprehensive and of the highest quality.
       We are pleased that the final conference report version of 
     the Improving Head Start Act of 2007 (H.R. 1429) includes the 
     following:
       Funding authorization: We are pleased the bill includes 
     increased funding authorizations in Fiscal Years (FY) 2008-
     2010, with ``such sums'' funding levels for FY11-FY12. A $750 
     million increase in FY08--beyond the FY07 level--is needed to 
     simply restore funding to the FY02 service level. And that 
     level would only serve a small portion of the eligible, poor 
     kids now left out of Head Start. These increases are an 
     important first step in the right direction.
       Teacher qualifications: We are pleased the bill includes a 
     quality improvement requirement that 50% of classroom lead 
     teachers

[[Page S14386]]

     have at least a bachelor's degree by 2013. The requirement is 
     crucial to Head Start program quality, since no peer-
     reviewed, scientific research study has found an early care 
     and education program that demonstrated significant, long-
     term crime reduction and education results without a 
     bachelor's degree teacher requirement.
       Quality improvement set-aside: We are pleased the bill 
     directs 40% of annual increases over the prior year's funding 
     level to quality improvement, with half of those funds 
     directed toward improved teacher compensation rates. Improved 
     teacher compensation is critical to attracting and retaining 
     better-educated individuals--who would otherwise flock to 
     higher-paying opportunities, including K-12 schools.
       Targeting to serve the poorest children: We are pleased the 
     bill maintains Head Start's priority for serving the poorest, 
     most at-risk children by ensuring that children living in 
     poverty are served first as income eligibility is expanded to 
     130% of the Federal Poverty Level.
       Early head start: We are pleased that bill adds flexibility 
     for Head Start programs to serve zero-to-three-year-olds if 
     they meet the Early Head Start quality standards. In 
     addition, we are pleased that the bill directs half of new 
     expansion funding toward Early Head Start enrollment 
     increases.
       The bill also includes several provisions that will 
     continue to strengthen Head Start's quality:
       No state block grants, state waivers, or state application 
     authority that might have endangered current quality 
     standards;
       Training/technical assistance activities (including through 
     a 2.5%-3% set-aside);
       Strengthened research-based school readiness elements of 
     Head Start (of course, it is critical to maintain and 
     strengthen all eight of the domains of Head Start's outcomes 
     framework);
       Strengthened parent education and home visiting provisions;
       A requirement that Head Start agencies utilize high-
     quality, research-based developmental screening tools to 
     identify children with early emotional and behavioral 
     problems, so kids can receive the treatment they need to 
     prevent later delinquency;
       Improvements in fiscal and program accountability among 
     grantees, including improved monitoring and termination of 
     grantees that are significantly and/or systemically 
     deficient;
       Enhanced outreach to at-risk kids;
       Enhanced collaboration and coordination efforts 
     requirements between local Head Start grantees and other 
     early education providers though collaboration grants;
       Increased state-level coordination through State Advisory 
     Councils on Early Childhood Education and Care;
       The development of an integrated data collection system to 
     provide complete information about children served by the 
     programs and the services offered; and
       Suspension of the National Reporting System, and provisions 
     for any future assessment approaches to be based on the 
     results the National Academy of Sciences study regarding 
     appropriate, comprehensive and scientifically valid and 
     reliable child assessments.
       We appreciate the efforts of the Health, Education, Labor 
     and Pensions Committee and the Education and Labor Committee 
     to strengthen Head Start through this reauthorization 
     legislation. This bill will benefit at-risk kids now and help 
     ensure safer communities in the years to come. The result 
     will be generations of disadvantaged children progressing 
     toward school success and graduation rather than later arrest 
     and incarceration.
           Sincerely,
                                                    David S. Kass,
                                                        President.
                                                 Miriam A. Rollin,
     Vice President.
                                  ____


          Community Action Agencies Welcome Head Start Renewal

       Washington (Nov. 14, 2007).--The nation's Community Action 
     Agencies applaud the work of Senate and House conferees on 
     Head Start reauthorization and look forward to passage of 
     this national child development legislation later this week.
       Community Action Agencies (CAAs) administer 30 percent of 
     Head Start grants and a third of all enrollments nationwide. 
     Children and families participating in programs offered by 
     CAAs also benefit from the comprehensive services offered by 
     these organizations to help them secure housing, gain 
     employment, and build assets to help them achieve economic 
     security.
       ``Low-wage working families who turn to Community Action 
     Agencies to prepare their children for school with Head Start 
     leave with a variety of resources to help them improve the 
     lives of the entire family,'' said National Community Action 
     Foundation Executive Director David Bradley.
       The conference agreement expands access for more eligible 
     children, increases classroom quality, enhances the Head 
     Start workforce, strengthens governance and provides more 
     tools for greater accountability.
       ``It is commendable that this Congress has focused so much 
     of its agenda on domestic issues that are important to 
     American voters, and, in this instance, has been able to do 
     so with strong bipartisan cooperation to assist low-wage 
     working families,'' Bradley said.
       ``Once these important enhancements are adopted for the 
     Head Start program, we hope that Congress will next turn its 
     attention to the remaining Human Services initiatives: the 
     Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and the 
     Community Services Block Grant,'' he said. ``These programs 
     make key investments in the daily lives of low-wage working 
     American families, and are long overdue for reauthorization. 
     NCAF hopes its proposals to strengthen and modernize these 
     programs will be considered soon.''

  Mr. KENNEDY. I yield back whatever time remains, and I ask for the 
yeas and nays.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The question is on agreeing to the conference report to accompany 
H.R. 1429.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Biden), 
the Senator from New York (Mrs. Clinton), the Senator from Connecticut 
(Mr. Dodd), and the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Obama) are necessarily 
absent.
  Mr. LOTT. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Arizona (Mr. McCain).
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Are there any other Senators in the 
Chamber desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 95, nays 0, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 409 Leg.]

                                YEAS--95

     Akaka
     Alexander
     Allard
     Barrasso
     Baucus
     Bayh
     Bennett
     Bingaman
     Bond
     Boxer
     Brown
     Brownback
     Bunning
     Burr
     Byrd
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Chambliss
     Coburn
     Cochran
     Coleman
     Collins
     Conrad
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Craig
     Crapo
     DeMint
     Dole
     Domenici
     Dorgan
     Durbin
     Ensign
     Enzi
     Feingold
     Feinstein
     Graham
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hagel
     Harkin
     Hatch
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Inouye
     Isakson
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Kerry
     Klobuchar
     Kohl
     Kyl
     Landrieu
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Lincoln
     Lott
     Lugar
     Martinez
     McCaskill
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Mikulski
     Murkowski
     Murray
     Nelson (FL)
     Nelson (NE)
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Roberts
     Rockefeller
     Salazar
     Sanders
     Schumer
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Smith
     Snowe
     Specter
     Stabenow
     Stevens
     Sununu
     Tester
     Thune
     Vitter
     Voinovich
     Warner
     Webb
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--5

     Biden
     Clinton
     Dodd
     McCain
     Obama
  The conference report was agreed to.
  (At the request of Mr. Reid, the following statement was ordered to 
be printed in the Record.)
 Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, I rise to applaud the Senate 
passage of the Head Start Improvement for School Readiness Act of 
2007--a product of hard work by my colleagues on both sides of the 
aisle.
  For more than 40 years, Head Start has provided comprehensive 
services to poor families--health, nutrition, academic skills, family 
literacy, and more--ensuring children get the cognitive, social-
emotional, and academic skills they need to succeed in kindergarten and 
later in life. In New York, almost 50,000 families benefit from Head 
Start services.
  This bill takes several steps forward in strengthening Head Start 
programs across the country. It dramatically expands Early Head Start--
a program created under the Clinton administration to reach children 
from birth to age 3. Though we have decades of research underscoring 
the importance of this stage of development, Early Head Start has only 
been able to reach 3 percent of eligible infants and toddlers. This 
conference report doubles Early Head Start funding from 10 percent to 
20 percent to ensure more infants and toddlers receive services and 
arrive at kindergarten ready to learn.
  The conference report increases Head Start authorization by 6 percent 
in the first year and 4 percent in the following 2 years. For years, 
our Head Start providers have had to make difficult decisions in the 
face of President Bush's budgets that have included flat-funding or 
funding cuts, as well as the effects of inflation. Many centers had to 
cut back on comprehensive services that Head Start families rely on. In

[[Page S14387]]

New York, programs have been forced to eliminate vital transportation 
services. This much needed increase in funding will finally give Head 
Start agencies the resources they need to maintain enrollment, improve 
quality service levels, and provide for the necessary cost of living 
increase for teachers.
  The Head Start Improvement for School Readiness Act of 2007 enhances 
teacher quality. Research has shown that the right teaching training 
and successful instruction lead to successful Head Start programs. 
Right now, about a third of Head Start teachers hold a bachelor's 
degree. This bill will help increase the skills and training of more 
Head Start teachers and increase the quality of instruction for Head 
Start children. I am also pleased this conference report retains the 
important roles parents have always maintained in Head Start programs, 
including ensuring parents' voices are heard in Head Start's daily 
operations.
  The bill also increases a portion of the income eligibility 
guidelines from the current 100 percent of poverty level to children in 
families with income up to 130 percent of poverty. This is particularly 
important for States like New York, where the cost of living is higher 
than most States'. Many programs need flexibility in serving these 
families earning just slightly above the poverty line, including the 
ability to assist families who have moved off welfare and are now 
working and struggling to make ends meet. For New York City, this 
provision means thousands more children will be able to participate in 
Head Start programs. This bill will give those hard working families 
support as they become self sustainable.
  This bill also terminates use of the National Reporting System, NRS. 
I have expressed my concern about this test for several years now. In 
2003, I joined my colleague Senator Bingaman in offering an amendment 
during the markup of Head Start to suspend NRS. In 2005, the Government 
Accountability Office produced a report underscoring our concerns when 
it called into question the validity and reliability of the NRS. I am 
pleased this bill suspends the unfair NRS test and asks the National 
Academy of Sciences to make recommendations on an appropriate 
assessment for young children.
  Head Start is critical to ensuring our most vulnerable children enter 
school ready to learn. Head Start has provided comprehensive services 
to low-income families--from health and nutrition, to academic skills 
and family literacy. I am pleased that we were able to move this bill 
forward in this session in a bipartisan fashion. The Senate passage of 
this bill is a victory for our neediest children and the Head Start 
community that serves them.
  Mr. KENNEDY. I move to reconsider the vote and to lay that motion on 
the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, H. Con. 
Res. 258 is adopted, and a motion to reconsider that vote is considered 
made and laid on the table.
  The resolution (H. Con. Res. 258) was agreed to.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the 
quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Salazar). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

                          ____________________