[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Page 22660]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                   BUDGET CAPS AND EDUCATION FUNDING

  Mr. BYRD. Madam President, shortly we will be debating two 
resolutions regarding education funding. Though there are differences 
in the approaches taken in the resolutions, the bottom line is 
similar--namely, this Senate and this Congress need to support 
education, and we need to find sufficient funding to meet our 
obligations to America's students. We need to support our struggling 
schools as they attempt to provide safe, disciplined environments in 
which our youth can learn both the fundamentals of history, literature, 
mathematics, and science, as well as the emerging fields of the next 
century--computers, satellite communications, advanced electronics and 
other information technologies that are reshaping the American 
workplace.
  On this bottom line, we all agree. The difficult part in this 
difficult appropriations cycle is, how do we get there? Our funding 
levels are too low to meet the administration's request, too low to 
meet the needs that we can all see and agree need to be met, but we are 
constrained by a budgetary straightjacket imposed in 1997. All year, I 
have advocated breaking the budgetary caps in order to meet our most 
pressing needs, but until that happens, the Appropriations Committee 
must play the cards it has been dealt. This evening, the Appropriations 
Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, will 
meet to mark up an appropriations bill that contains funding for 
education, among other things. When all is said and done, Madam 
President, I am very proud of the work of our Committee on 
Appropriations this year. I have served with many great Senators and I 
have served with a number of great chairmen of the Committee on 
Appropriations. None has handled their responsibilities any better than 
has our current Appropriations Committee Chairman, Senator Stevens of 
Alaska. He has worked closely with me throughout his tenure as chairman 
of the committee in as nonpartisan a manner as anyone I have ever 
worked with. We have handled these very difficult matters as best we 
could to the benefit of all Senators and for the American people. In so 
doing, despite these crushing spending caps, we have been able to pass 
in the Senate most of the appropriations bills. The final bill, namely 
the Labor-HHS appropriations for FY 2000, will be marked up in 
subcommittee this evening and, in all likelihood, in the full 
Appropriations Committee tomorrow.
  Madam President, frankly, I see no intellectually honest way to 
adequately provide for education without breaking the budgetary caps.
  I know neither side wants to suggest that the caps be broken. Each 
side wants the other side to be the first. I have no hesitancy to say 
how I feel because I am interested in education. I am interested in 
meeting the needs of the country and meeting the needs of the people. 
If it cannot be done without breaking the caps, then so be it.
  I cannot support these two resolutions, not because I disagree with 
their intent, but because I cannot voice my support for increasing 
education funding on the one hand while in the same breath saying that 
the budget caps cannot be broken. Education is important. If it is 
important, it is worth breaking the budget caps. And it is. It is worth 
breaking the budget caps. Budgetary gimmicks that add months to the 
fiscal year or that take funds from other critical programs like 
heating assistance for the poor and the elderly will not hold up over 
time. They are very frail reeds, very weak reeds, to which to cling in 
the face of hurricane force winds of need.
  Madam President, I yield the floor.

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