[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 20]
[House]
[Page 29181]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                        EDUCATION SPENDING BILL

  (Mr. SCHAFFER asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SCHAFFER. Mr. Speaker, there are few issues in America more 
important than education. And in fact, the White House and Congress 
really do not disagree on the amount of money that we ought to spend on 
schools in this year's appropriations process. But what is holding up 
the debate is the question of how to spend those dollars.
  The Republican party clearly believes that governors and State 
legislators, school board members, and principals and superintendents 
ought to be free to spend the dollars that we are appropriating as they 
see fit. But the President has a different idea. He wants to tell 
States specifically how they must spend the money.
  In some States, hiring more teachers makes sense. In other States, it 
might not. But here is the President's answer to the question put by a 
reporter: ``Mr. President, on the issue of funding for teachers, sir, 
you resent it when Congress tells you to spend money in ways which you 
do not deem appropriate. Why should a state governor who would like to 
spend that money differently feel any differently?''
  The President's answer: ``Well, because it's not their money.''
  When you have an attitude like that in Washington that the taxpayers' 
money belongs to Washington and not the taxpayers, it explains how the 
White House is willing to squander the American tax dollars in a way 
that neglects children and abandons our schools.

                          ____________________