[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 7435-7436]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               FEDERALLY IMPACTED SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT ACT

  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I rise today to speak to the Federally 
Impacted School Improvement Act.
  As we all know, there is a very important debate going on in our 
country today concerning our Nation's schools. Schools all across our 
country are crumbling, in many cases in such disrepair that it affects 
the child's ability to learn or even feel safe. I hope and expect that 
this Congress will reach a consensus on a school construction bill very 
soon.
  I support and have cosponsored several bills in the last Congress 
that encourage a nationwide effort to rebuild our public schools. Quite 
simply, it is the right thing to do.
  But in a heated national debate, one group of children is continually 
left out in the cold; that is, students who live on federally owned 
land, usually an Indian reservation, very often a military 
installation. In my State of Montana, about 12,000 children are 
classified as federally impacted; that is, they live on Federal land.
  For almost 50 years, Congress has provided financial assistance to 
school districts that are impacted by a Federal presence. We call this 
Impact Aid funding. Unfortunately, it has been underfunded for the last 
15 years. And even worse, for the last 5 years Impact Aid schools have 
received zero dollars to help in paying for badly needed repairs and 
construction.
  This has created an underclass of schools with glaring infrastructure 
problems that border on dangerous and inhumane.
  How bad is it, you may ask? Let me tell you.
  In one school in Montana, the Hays Lodge Pole Elementary School on 
the Fort Belknap Reservation, they say that the high school has 
infrastructure problems that are so bad that saying it has problems is 
like saying that the Titanic had a small leak.
  Whenever it rains or snows, the roof leaks making classrooms 
unusable. The kindergarten is located on a stage, not in a classroom. 
The school nurse and counselor work out of a converted locker room 
shower with no ventilation. The decrepit sewage system regularly backs 
up into this same shower, filling the nurse's and counselor's office 
with raw sewage. And all special education services, which a large 
percentage of students use, are provided in a separate house requiring 
the children or staff to walk over an ice rink in high winds and 
adverse weather just to get to class.
  While some may say, OK, that sounds like a bad deal, shouldn't the 
local taxpayers pass a mill levy to build a new school? Or shouldn't 
they get help from the President's school construction bill which gives 
billions of dollars in bonding authority to school districts for just 
these sorts of problems? The answer, sadly, is no.
  The problem is that these schools have no bonding authority. Since 
the land is owned by the Federal Government, there is no local mill 
levy to raise. And since the Federal Government has, for 5 consecutive 
years, provided zero dollars for repairing Impact Aid schools, these 
problems have just gotten worse and more expensive. And it is our 
children who pay the price.
  So the Baucus-Hagel Federal Impacted School Improvement Act aims to 
fix that. Make no mistake, this is not some budget-busting Government 
handout. The act authorizes a small but meaningful $50 million a year 
appropriation for the next 5 years for Impact Aid school construction 
and repair.
  And 45 percent of the funds appropriated under the bill go to Indian 
lands. Another 45 percent is dedicated to military schools. The final 
10 percent is reserved for emergency situations.
  In order to make this small appropriation go further, our bill 
requires local school districts to match every Federal dollar except 
for the 10 percent reserved for true emergencies. The act also limits 
to $3 million the amount an individual school district can receive in 
any 5-year period. This is done to ensure that all--or at least more--
impacted schools will have the opportunity to use these grants to 
improve the lives of their children.
  Mr. President, this bill is vital to a vast number of children in 
Montana, Nebraska, and all across our country. I am hopeful that a 
comprehensive school construction bill can pass this Congress. But let 
me tell the Senate today, Senator Hagel and I plan to make sure that 
any school construction bill that passes this Senate will also take 
care of federally impacted school districts.
  We hope to pass this bill regardless of the larger debate. But if 
that does not happen, we will also work to include this act in a 
broader school construction bill.
  In closing, I want to reiterate that the children who attend schools 
on Indian lands or military installations are all of our children. We 
must not ignore them or allow their schools to fall into dangerous 
disrepair. They deserve the same education as every other child. Let us 
take this opportunity to redress our negligence in ignoring these 
children, and show them that we care. Let's pass this bill.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.

[[Page 7436]]

  The legislative assistant proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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