[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 100 (Wednesday, June 30, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5700-S5702]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

      By Mr. BROWN of Massachusetts:
  S. 3551. A bill to provide a fully offset extension of emergency 
unemployment insurance assistance, enhanced Medicaid FMAP 
reimbursements, and summer employment for youth, and for other 
purposes; to the Committee on Finance.
  Mr. BROWN of Massachusetts. Mr. President, I rise to speak about 
legislation that I have introduced today in the Senate. The name of the 
bill is the Fiscally Responsible Relief for Our States Act of 2010.
  As you know, over the past week, the Senate has vigorously debated 
three different versions of the extenders bill, and we will be debating 
a version of it again today. Even though it is true each of these 
packages contained extensions of programs important to all of our 
constituents, especially in these tough economic times--such as 
emergency unemployment benefits, which I know we are trying to work on 
again today; increased FMAP reimbursements; and funding for summer jobs 
for the youth throughout America--it is also true that each of these 
packages contained billions of dollars of tax increases for businesses, 
and each added billions to our record $13 trillion and rising national 
debt which our kids and grandkids and great-grandchildren will have a 
difficult time paying back, and they will have the responsibility to 
pay it back.
  A lot of what I am proposing today in this bill, and other bills that 
we will probably be discussing, is whether we should use our bank 
account or we should put it on our credit card. That is all we are 
talking about. We are not talking about the viability of these 
proposals. Of course we want to help with summer jobs. Of course we 
want to help people who are hurting with unemployment insurance. Of 
course we want to provide FMAP and Medicaid reimbursements to help our 
struggling States. But do we use our checking account or do we use the 
credit card? I am in favor of using the checking account by using 
unallocated stimulus dollars, by finding other monies that are in the 
so-called slush funds that haven't been used in years or are still 
available or cutting across the board in various entities to come up 
with the money we need to fund these programs.
  As I said, no one is disputing the value of these very important 
programs, especially in my home State of

[[Page S5701]]

Massachusetts, but throughout the country as well. Our economy has 
shown signs of slowly recovering, but people out of work certainly need 
some help to search for new employment and, as I said, States need help 
in providing funding for some of the most vulnerable in our population. 
But we also have to make tough choices, and we have to live within our 
means.
  It is clear the American people want their elected Representatives in 
Congress to start paying for the initiatives and start exercising the 
type of fiscal responsibility as each and every citizen in 
Massachusetts and in America is already doing. They are looking to us 
for guidance to show a better way. They are challenging us to do it 
better, to look outside the box and pay for things with the checking 
account, not the credit card; to not continue to add to the debt, 
continuously adding to the debt.
  As evidenced by what the Banking Committee chairman did--and he is 
sitting in the Chamber of the Senate--they thought about it a little 
better. They found a way to pay for the financial reform bill. They did 
better. They thought outside the box. Why can't we do the same?
  Today I introduce the Fiscally Responsible Relief for Our States Act 
of 2010. It provides for an extension of emergency unemployment 
benefits through November 30, 2010. It also includes extension of 
enhanced FMAP reimbursements for States. But also, as has been 
previously discussed, it includes the gradual drawdown of the enhanced 
funding because we need to send a clear message to the State 
governments that they must get their own fiscal houses in order and 
they cannot always come to the Federal Government with a can saying: 
Please help us. So we need to ensure that we do the necessary reforms 
to ensure their future budgetary viability is real and so is that of 
the Federal Government.
  Last, this proposal I am making provides important summer jobs--
obviously summer is just starting--for the youth in our cities and 
towns.
  The cost of extending these programs is fully paid for through the 
rescission of unobligated Federal funds including stimulus funding as 
well as cuts in other areas. In fact, my legislation reduces the 
deficit, all of this accomplished without raising taxes on businesses 
at a time they cannot afford it, or when our economy is just about to 
recover, putting more and more burdens on businesses and individuals in 
the middle of a 2-year recession. Some of these pay-fors are even 
provisions the majority party has supported in previous bills.
  My legislation is an attempt to compromise, listening to the concerns 
of so many Americans who have called for us to extend these programs 
but also taking into consideration not burdening future generations. 
Some of them are sitting right here. It will allow us to provide for 
the needs of our citizens without putting more debt on the credit card. 
Once again, it is the checking account versus the credit card. 
Commending Senator Dodd for what they did with the bill we are going to 
be discussing next week, that is a perfect example of thinking outside 
the box and finding a way to pay for a lot of these things we are 
trying to do. If we use these commonsense steps, we can get our fiscal 
house in order, and we will continue to put our country on the path to 
recovery.
  Madam President, I have great respect for you and everyone in this 
Chamber. I have been in Washington a little over 5 months now. I have 
been following you and others--it seems that everybody is following my 
voting record. It speaks for itself in that I worked to work across 
party lines to solve problems. But the thing that is a problem is, it 
needs to be a two-way street. Bipartisanship is not just from the new 
Senator from Massachusetts. It needs to be with the majority party 
looking outside the box, as Senator Dodd and his team did, to find a 
realistic solution to pay for a lot of these things the people are 
requesting, that they expect. But they also expect us to use fiscal 
sanity and fiscal responsibility to do our very best, to get the job 
done. It is not only good for Massachusetts, it is good for this 
Nation.
                                 ______
                                 
      By Mr. DODD (for himself, Mr. Durbin, and Mr. Kerry):
  S. 3557. A bill to provide for Kindergarten Plus programs; to the 
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I rise today to reintroduce legislation to 
jump-start the chances for success of low-income children entering 
school. Today, I am introducing the Sandy Feldman Kindergarten Plus Act 
of 2010.
  The Kindergarten Plus Act will provide children below 185 percent of 
the poverty line with additional time in school during the summers 
before and after the traditional kindergarten school year to ensure 
more children enter school ready to succeed.
  Too many low-income children enter school unprepared because they 
have not had the same resources as their more affluent peers. As 
exhibited by the nation's achievement gap which is already well-
established prior to kindergarten, it becomes difficult for them to 
ever catch-up.
  We must do a better job of preparing less fortunate children for 
school. To do this, we should expose them to classroom practices, 
introduce them to critical educational concepts, and familiarize them 
with school activities such as story time or circle time. Ultimately, 
we need to provide them with a solid foundation that allows them to 
enter school with the skills necessary to become strong students.
  Only 39 percent of low-income children, compared to about 85 percent 
of high-income children, can recognize letters of the alphabet upon 
arrival in kindergarten. Moreover, low-income children often have a 
more limited vocabulary. By the time they are in first grade, children 
in low-income families have on average 5,000 words in their vocabulary. 
In contrast, children from more affluent families enter school with 
vocabularies of about 20,000 words. These startling discrepancies 
should tell us that more needs to be done to help all children enter 
school with an equal opportunity for success. This legislation strives 
to provide these opportunities and to lessen the achievement gap by 
giving low-income children more support and exposure to quality 
education.
  This legislation was named after Sandy Feldman who was a tireless 
advocate for children and public education. Her commitment to social 
justice and her focus on early childhood education led her to develop 
the concept for this legislation, and it was Sandy who spent countless 
hours developing the details to ensure this would be a high-quality 
initiative.
  This bill is supported by the American Federation of Teachers. I urge 
my colleagues to join this effort and cosponsor this legislation. I 
encourage them to help give low-income children a jump-start on school 
success. .
                                 ______
                                 
      By Mr. DODD:
  S. 3558. A bill to improve the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, and 
for other purposes; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 
Pensions.
  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, 9 years ago I and many of my colleagues 
supported the No Child Left Behind Act because every American child 
deserves an education that opens up opportunities for success and 
prepares him or her for the 21st century economy.
  Today, because the high hopes we had for this law have not been 
realized, I rise to reintroduce the No Child Left Behind Reform Act.
  The objective of the law we passed nearly a decade ago was the right 
one. Students, parents, teachers, principals, and other stakeholders 
all agree that educators and schools should be held accountable for the 
results they are getting on behalf of our children.
  But instead of rewarding excellence, No Child Left Behind has turned 
out to be a law that punishes our schools, further straining those that 
already were in need of help. At times, the law has been implemented 
rigidly and with little regard for what is actually going on in 
schools. The previous administration's repeated failure to live up to 
funding promises has robbed our efforts to improve our education system 
of the resources that would make success possible.
  We can have accountability without a regime of draconian punishments 
for schools that fall behind. What we cannot have is an inflexible and 
unfunded mandate that fails school districts, teachers, and, worst of 
all, the very students whose futures are at stake.

[[Page S5702]]

  Although the legislation I am introducing today does not deal with 
the issue of funding, I do want to note that it simply will not work if 
we treat education as anything less than an urgent budget priority. 
This administration has made a solid commitment to education funding, 
and I was pleased to see that commitment bear fruit in the form of 
funding through the Recovery Act.
  I am also heartened to see that the administration supports 
comprehensive reform of No Child Left Behind. Reform does not mean 
repeal. The fundamental aim of the law was right. Accountability is as 
important now as it was when we passed the law.
  The two main reforms my legislation makes are designed to enforce 
accountability with measures that accurately reflect student 
performance and to encourage better teacher performance without the 
imposition of mandates that make it harder to ensure that students are 
taught by qualified and dedicated educators.
  First, my legislation will allow schools to be given credit for 
performing well on measures other than test scores when calculating 
student achievement.
  Test scores are important measures of what students know. But they 
are not the only, or even necessarily the best, measures of how much 
progress a school's student body has made. Dropout rates, participation 
in advanced placement courses, individual student improvement over 
time--these are metrics that can tell us not just where students are, 
but how far they have come.
  Unfortunately, current law only allows these measures to show how 
schools are failing, not to reflect how schools are succeeding. When 
more kids are taking advanced courses or fewer are dropping out, a 
school is doing something right--and it should receive credit for doing 
so.
  Second, my legislation reforms the teacher certification process.
  The next student, parent, or, indeed, teacher I meet who does not 
believe educators should be highly qualified will be the first. But 
under the current law, ``highly qualified'' is poorly defined.
  For instance, a high school science teacher could be required to hold 
degrees in biology, physics, and chemistry to be considered highly 
qualified. In small schools where there may be only one 7th or 8th 
grade teacher teaching all subjects, these teachers could similarly be 
required to hold degrees in every subject area.
  The result is a shortage of teachers and a surplus of confusion.
  My bill will allow states to create a single assessment covering 
multiple subjects for middle school teachers and allow states to issue 
a broad certification for science and social studies.
  No Child Left Behind was supposed to challenge our schools to do 
better. Instead, it has become an obstacle to progress, a struggle that 
often distracts from the business of education. As we reauthorize the 
law--and we should--we must reform it so that it encourages students, 
educators, and school administrators to do better instead of punishing 
them when they fall behind.
  Every American child deserves to be taught by a great teacher in a 
great school. Until we reach that goal, we must always dedicate our 
time and resources towards helping students succeed. Until our laws are 
moving us towards that goal, we must continue to reform them.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this important 
legislation.
                                 ______
                                 
      By Mr. DODD:
  S. 3559. A bill to amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act 
of 1965 to strengthen mentoring programs, and for other purposes; to 
the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, today I rise to introduce the Mentoring 
America's Children Act of 2010, which will help promote positive youth 
development for children.
  Approximately 17.6 million young people, which is nearly half the 
population between ages 10 and 18, live in situations that put them at 
risk of not living up to their potential. Without intervention by 
caring adults, these young people could make choices that undermine 
their future as well as the economic and social well-being of our 
Nation.
  Mentoring programs that provide youth with support, advice, 
friendship, positive reinforcement, and constructive examples have 
proved to be a powerful tool for enhancing positive development among 
youth. I, myself, was a mentor in the Big Brother Program in 
Connecticut, and I saw first-hand the impact these programs have on the 
children involved. Research has found that mentored youth have fewer 
school absences, better attitudes towards school, less drug and alcohol 
abuse, fewer incidents of hitting, better relationships with their 
parents, and more positive attitudes towards helping others. Mentored 
youth are also more likely to graduate from high school and go on to 
higher education. Thus, mentoring invests not only in the individual 
child, but our Nation's future success. However, approximately 14.6 
million young people are in need of mentors; they are part of what we 
call our nation's ``mentoring gap.''
  The Mentoring America's Children Act of 2010 amends the Elementary 
and Secondary Education Act of 1965 ESEA, in order to strengthen the 
mentoring program is several ways. First, it will update the purpose of 
the program to include character education and school connectedness, 
which has been found to reduce school absentee rates and improve 
academic performance. This bill broadens the scope of mentoring to 
include special populations such as indigenous youth, delinquent and 
neglected populations, and programs targeting middle and high school 
migrant youth. All of these special populations are at increased risk 
of not reaching their potential.
  The Mentoring America's Children Act of 2010 also provides training 
and technical assistance to grantees, tracks student outcomes, and 
improves the sustainability of grant recipients. Finally, it 
strengthens the research related to school-based mentoring to help 
inform future mentoring programs in order to best meet the needs of our 
youth.
  Mentoring plays a key role in improving the lives of youth, 
especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. It is critical that we 
invest in our youth and help provide them with the opportunities to 
reach their potential. Thus, I urge my colleagues to join me in 
supporting the Mentoring America's Children Act of 2010. Together we 
can invest in the lives of our youth and improve the future of our 
nation.

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