[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15347-15350]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



APPOINTMENT ON CONFEREES ON H.R. 4577, DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND 
HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 
                                  2001

  Mr. PORTER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take from the 
Speaker's table the bill (H.R. 4577) making appropriations for the 
Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and 
related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2001, and for 
other purposes, with a Senate amendment thereto, disagree to the Senate 
amendment, and agree to the conference asked by the Senate.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Illinois?
  There was no objection.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.


                 Motion to Instruct Offered by Mr. Obey

  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I offer a motion to instruct conferees.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Fossella). The Clerk will report the 
motion.
  The Clerk read as follows:

       Mr. Obey moves that the managers on the part of the House 
     at the conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses 
     on the bill, H.R. 4577, be instructed to insist on no less 
     than the $42,674,645,000 in the Senate amendment for the 
     Department of Education which provides an increase of 
     $179,999,000 over the President's budget request; no less 
     than $7,353,141,000 in the Senate amendment for the 
     Individuals with Disabilities Act to help fulfill the 
     commitment the House of Representatives made on May 3, 2000 
     in adopting H.R. 4055, the IDEA Full Funding Act of 2000; no 
     less than $8,692,000,000 in the Senate amendment for the Pell 
     Grant Program to provide a maximum Pell grant award of 
     $3,650; no less than $6,267,000,000 in the Senate amendment 
     for the Head Start Program which provides the President's 
     budget request; no less than $817,328,000 in the Senate 
     amendment for the Child Care Development Block Grant which 
     provides the President's budget request for fiscal year 2001; 
     and no less than $20,512,735,000 in the Senate amendment for 
     the National Institutes of Health which provides an increase 
     of $2,723,399,000 over the President's budget request; and to 
     insist on disagreeing with provisions in the Senate amendment 
     which deny the President's request for dedicated resources to 
     reduce class sizes in the early grades and for local school 
     construction and, instead, broadly expands the Title VI 
     Education Block Grant with limited accountability in the use 
     of funds.

  Mr. OBEY (during the reading). Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent 
that the motion be considered as read and printed in the Record.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Wisconsin?
  There was no objection.

                              {time}  1815

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Fossella). The gentleman from Wisconsin 
(Mr. Obey) and the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Porter) each will 
control 30 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey).
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, this motion to instruct is very simple. It says that the 
conferees should bring back a Labor-HHS-Education conference report 
that provides the increased funding in the Senate bill for the 
Department of Education in total and for several key programs such as 
special education, Pell grants, Head Start, child care, the National 
Institutes of Health.
  The Senate provides a total of $42.6 billion for the Department of 
Education. That is $3.1 billion over the bill passed by the House. This 
motion instructs the conferees to provide at least every single one of 
the dollars that the Senate has added.
  Included within the overall total is $7.3 billion for special 
education authorized under the Individuals With Disabilities Education 
Act.
  Mr. Speaker, let me simply say that this motion to instruct with 
respect to special education would result in an increase of $803 
million in additional spending over the House bill for that item.
  I would point out when the House adopted on May 3 of this year H.R. 
4055, the IDEA Full Funding Act of 2000, it promised to provide an 
increase of $2 billion over last year for IDEA. Just about a month 
later, the Labor-HHS-Education bill adopted by the majority failed to 
keep that promise, and provided an increase of only $513 million over 
last year. We think that we ought to provide the full amount.
  The Senate bill also does not fully meet the promise that we made, 
but it would provide $1.3 billion over last year for IDEA to help reach 
the goal of a $2 billion increase in the Federal contribution toward 
the additional cost of educating children with disabilities. Every 
Member who voted for the IDEA Full Funding Act to increase funding for 
special education ought to support this motion to instruct.

[[Page 15348]]

  The Senate bill also provides, Mr. Speaker, $8.3 billion to fund the 
maximum Pell grant of at least $3,650, an increase of $384 million over 
the House bill. This motion also instructs the conferees to agree with 
that increase.
  The Senate bill provides $6.26 billion for Head Start, which is the 
President's request, and $600 million over the House bill. With these 
additional resources, more than 53,000 disadvantaged children would 
benefit from early learning opportunities to get a good start in life.
  The Senate bill also provides the President's request for $817 
million in additional funding for the child care block grant in fiscal 
year 2001, while the House bill cuts the request only $400 million. 
This motion would go to the full Senate amount and would provide extra 
resources for an additional 80,000 low-income children.
  The motion would also instruct the conferees to adopt the Senate 
funding levels for NIH, which provide an additional $1.7 billion in 
real dollars for NIH research, unlike the House bill, which pretended 
to provide this increase in the front of the bill, but then took it 
away in the back of the bill.
  Mr. Speaker, my motion also instructs the conferees to insist on 
disagreeing to the Senate's provision concerning class size reduction 
and school construction. The Senate bill denies two of the President's 
highest education priorities by merging the funding requested for the 
class size and school construction initiatives into the title VI 
education block grant.
  Fundamentally, block grants are little more than revenue-sharing 
programs with little accountability for addressing Federal needs.
  Mr. Speaker, if we are going to provide funding for class size 
initiative, we really need to actually provide it for that initiative, 
rather than to have a ``let's pretend'' initiative which in fact allows 
money to be spent for something else.
  A large majority, 61 percent, feel that the Federal government spends 
too little on education. They support targeted Federal investments to 
hire new teachers, to reduce class size, and to repair and modernize 
our schools.
  So what we are asking in this motion is that we reject the Senate 
language, which prevents or which denies the President's request for 
dedicating those resources to reduce class size in the early grades and 
for local school construction, and instead, broadly expands the title 
VI education block grant with limited accountability in the use of 
those funds. This motion to instruct would ask the conferees to in fact 
reject that portion of the Senate action.
  I might point out that in the past, if we take a look at some of the 
uses that this money was put to by States or local districts, we will 
see that in the past some of this money was used for unnecessary State 
bureaucracy. It was used by one State or by one district to hire a 
mariachi band when we had the old Chapter II program in effect. 
Personal computers were bought for boards of education. Printing bills 
for a district were paid, the entire printing bill for one district was 
paid. Entertainment costs were paid. We think that there ought to be 
very specific targeting for these funds.


         Modification to Motion to Instruct Offered by Mr. Obey

  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to amend the motion to 
instruct to correctly reflect that the increase provided in the Senate 
amendment for NIH is $1.7 billion, rather than $2.7 billion over the 
Senate request.
  There is a typo in the amendment before us.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Fossella). The Clerk will report the 
modification.
  The Clerk read as follows:

       Modification to motion to instruct offered by Mr. Obey:
       Strike out ``$2,732,399,000'' and insert 
     ``$1,700,000,000''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Wisconsin?
  There was no objection.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The motion to instruct is modified.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I simply want to explain, it simply corrects the typo to 
make clear that the increase of the Senate over the President's budget 
request for the National Institutes of Health was $1.7 rather than $2.7 
billion.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. PORTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, as the gentleman from Wisconsin well knows, I did not 
support the budget resolution that passed the House of Representatives 
early this year because I felt it would not provide adequate funding 
levels for many of the priorities which are reflected in this motion.
  So when the gentleman proposes that we yield to the higher number in 
each case in the Senate bill for important national priorities, I do 
not disagree with that. We have consistently attempted, when we have 
had a good budget allocation, to be at or ahead of the President for 
the Department of Education because we place education at the very 
highest priority, and have funded it at the maximum number whenever we 
have had adequate fund to do so.
  Certainly no one has been a stronger advocate than our own chairman, 
the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Goodling), in increasing funding 
for special education under the IDEA program, and during the last 6 
years funding has been more than doubled, from 6 percent to 13 percent 
of the amount that we need to provide full funding at 40 percent for 
the IDEA program. So we certainly agree that this account should be 
plussed up, and we will support that higher figure.
  The Pell Grant program we have consistently increased at a higher 
number than the President, and I would again agree that this is a very 
high priority for our country, and $3,650 is a proper figure to accede 
to in conference.
  Head Start has been a high priority, and we agree that the number 
ought to be the Senate number rather than the House number, since the 
House was forced to mark up at a far smaller overall number than the 
Senate. Child care is, of course, also a very high priority. We support 
the higher Senate number as well.
  Finally, on the number side, if we look at the National Institutes of 
Health, we have done everything possible to double funding for the 
National Institutes of Health over 5 years, and for the last 2 years 
have provided 15 percent increases in each of those 2 years.
  If we provide a 15 percent increase this year, in the last 6 years we 
will have increased NIH by 82 percent, and we will, if 2 more years are 
added, have increased NIH from $11 billion in fiscal year 1996 to $27 
billion by fiscal year 2003.
  Now, I might add to my colleague, the gentleman from Wisconsin, 
during that time the President of the United States has vastly 
underfunded this account, in some years providing an increase in his 
budget as low as 1 percent. Thank goodness this past year the increase 
he suggested was at 4.5 percent. That is some improvement. But we have 
been consistent in our support for a 15 percent increase for biomedical 
research through the National Institutes of Health, and certainly would 
support the higher number in conference.
  Where the gentleman loses me on his motion to instruct is with the 
last few sentences that say, ``and to insist on disagreeing with the 
provisions of the Senate bill which deny the President's request for 
dedicated resources to reduce class sizes in the early grades and for 
local school construction, and instead, broadly expands the title VI 
education block grant with limited accountability in the use of 
funds.''

                              {time}  1830

  Mr. Speaker, here is where we get into a very clear philosophical 
difference. We believe very strongly that all the wisdom does not 
reside in Washington at the Department of Education, and that the best 
decisions are made by those responsible for primary and secondary 
education in America. It is not the Government in Washington.

[[Page 15349]]

It is the States and the local school districts. They can make the 
decision best as to how these funds can be spent, whether they are 
needed for more teachers, whether they are needed for teacher training, 
whether they are needed to equip classrooms for computers, whether they 
are needed for construction. Those decisions should not be made by 
Washington mandate. We should give our local school districts maximum 
flexibility to make those decisions for themselves.
  So while I can agree with the gentleman on the higher funding levels 
reflected in the Senate bill that had a little bit more than $5 billion 
more than the House in its allocation, I certainly disagree with the 
gentleman in terms of giving less flexibility to the local school 
districts, less flexibility to the States, more control to Washington 
over education. There I think the gentleman is wrong, and I would 
oppose the motion to instruct for that reason.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, let me simply take a minute to respond to the gentleman 
from Illinois (Mr. Porter); and if he is inclined, I will then yield 
back my time, and we can have a vote.
  Mr. Speaker, I think it is important that this motion to instruct 
include the language to which the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Porter) 
objects. I want to be very clear about this. This motion, in addition 
to requiring the higher numbers for special education, Pell Grants, 
Head Start, child care, and the National Institutes of Health, it would 
also instruct the conferees to insist on disagreeing to the Senate 
provisions concerning class size reduction and school construction.
  The Senate bill purports to provide funding for the President's 
initiatives for class size and school modernization; and, yet, in 
reality, it denies the President's highest education priorities by 
merging the funding requested for class size and school construction 
initiatives into the title VI education block grant.
  As I tried to indicate earlier on the floor, fundamentally, in my 
view, block grants are little more than revenue sharing programs with 
little accountability for addressing Federal needs.
  The gentleman from Illinois refers to the need of local school 
districts and school officials to have flexibility. I certainly agree 
they need a significant amount of flexibility, but I think that when it 
comes to spending taxpayers money, we also need accountability.
  I did not come here to simply be the tax collector for some other 
level of government. I came here to try to help identify legitimate 
national priorities and direct hard-earned taxpayers funds to those 
priorities. That is why the motion to instruct is structured as it is.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. PORTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Fossella). Without objection, the 
previous question is ordered on the motion to instruct.
  There was no objection.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion to instruct 
offered by the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey).
  The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that 
the noes appeared to have it.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a 
quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not 
present.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Evidently a quorum is not present.
  The Sergeant at Arms will notify absent Members.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair announces that he will reduce to 5 
minutes the vote by electronic device on the motion to suspend the 
rules on which the yeas and nays were postponed yesterday. That vote 
will immediately follow the vote on the pending motion to instruct 
conferees.
  The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 207, 
nays 212, not voting 15, as follows:

                             [Roll No. 415]

                               YEAS--207

     Abercrombie
     Ackerman
     Allen
     Andrews
     Baird
     Baldacci
     Baldwin
     Barcia
     Barrett (WI)
     Becerra
     Bentsen
     Berkley
     Berman
     Berry
     Bilbray
     Bishop
     Blagojevich
     Blumenauer
     Bonior
     Borski
     Boucher
     Boyd
     Brady (PA)
     Brown (FL)
     Brown (OH)
     Capps
     Capuano
     Cardin
     Carson
     Clayton
     Clement
     Clyburn
     Condit
     Conyers
     Costello
     Coyne
     Cramer
     Crowley
     Cummings
     Danner
     Davis (FL)
     Davis (IL)
     DeFazio
     DeGette
     Delahunt
     DeLauro
     Deutsch
     Dicks
     Dingell
     Dixon
     Doggett
     Dooley
     Doyle
     Edwards
     Engel
     Eshoo
     Etheridge
     Evans
     Farr
     Fattah
     Filner
     Fletcher
     Forbes
     Ford
     Frank (MA)
     Frost
     Gejdenson
     Gephardt
     Gonzalez
     Gordon
     Green (TX)
     Gutierrez
     Hall (OH)
     Hastings (FL)
     Hill (IN)
     Hilliard
     Hinchey
     Hinojosa
     Hoeffel
     Holden
     Holt
     Hooley
     Hoyer
     Inslee
     Jackson (IL)
     Jackson-Lee (TX)
     Jefferson
     John
     Johnson, E. B.
     Jones (OH)
     Kanjorski
     Kaptur
     Kennedy
     Kildee
     Kilpatrick
     Kind (WI)
     Kleczka
     Klink
     Kucinich
     LaFalce
     Lampson
     Lantos
     Larson
     Lee
     Levin
     Lewis (GA)
     Lipinski
     Lofgren
     Lowey
     Lucas (KY)
     Luther
     Maloney (CT)
     Maloney (NY)
     Markey
     Mascara
     Matsui
     McCarthy (MO)
     McCarthy (NY)
     McDermott
     McGovern
     McIntyre
     McKinney
     McNulty
     Meehan
     Meek (FL)
     Meeks (NY)
     Menendez
     Millender-McDonald
     Miller, George
     Minge
     Mink
     Moakley
     Mollohan
     Moore
     Moran (VA)
     Morella
     Nadler
     Napolitano
     Neal
     Oberstar
     Obey
     Olver
     Ortiz
     Owens
     Pallone
     Pascrell
     Pastor
     Payne
     Pelosi
     Peterson (MN)
     Phelps
     Pickett
     Pomeroy
     Price (NC)
     Quinn
     Rahall
     Rangel
     Reyes
     Rivers
     Rodriguez
     Roemer
     Rothman
     Roybal-Allard
     Rush
     Sabo
     Sanchez
     Sanders
     Sandlin
     Sawyer
     Schakowsky
     Scott
     Serrano
     Sherman
     Shows
     Sisisky
     Skelton
     Slaughter
     Snyder
     Spratt
     Stabenow
     Stark
     Stenholm
     Strickland
     Stupak
     Tanner
     Tauscher
     Taylor (MS)
     Thompson (CA)
     Thompson (MS)
     Thurman
     Tierney
     Towns
     Turner
     Udall (CO)
     Udall (NM)
     Velazquez
     Visclosky
     Waters
     Watt (NC)
     Waxman
     Weiner
     Wexler
     Weygand
     Wise
     Woolsey
     Wu
     Wynn

                               NAYS--212

     Aderholt
     Archer
     Armey
     Bachus
     Baker
     Ballenger
     Barr
     Barrett (NE)
     Bartlett
     Bass
     Bateman
     Bereuter
     Biggert
     Bilirakis
     Bliley
     Blunt
     Boehlert
     Boehner
     Bonilla
     Bono
     Brady (TX)
     Bryant
     Burr
     Burton
     Buyer
     Callahan
     Calvert
     Camp
     Canady
     Cannon
     Castle
     Chabot
     Chambliss
     Chenoweth-Hage
     Coble
     Coburn
     Collins
     Combest
     Cook
     Cooksey
     Cox
     Crane
     Cubin
     Cunningham
     Davis (VA)
     Deal
     DeLay
     DeMint
     Diaz-Balart
     Dickey
     Doolittle
     Dreier
     Duncan
     Dunn
     Ehlers
     Ehrlich
     Emerson
     English
     Everett
     Ewing
     Foley
     Fossella
     Fowler
     Franks (NJ)
     Frelinghuysen
     Gallegly
     Ganske
     Gekas
     Gibbons
     Gilchrest
     Gillmor
     Gilman
     Goode
     Goodlatte
     Goodling
     Goss
     Graham
     Granger
     Green (WI)
     Gutknecht
     Hall (TX)
     Hansen
     Hastings (WA)
     Hayes
     Hayworth
     Hefley
     Herger
     Hill (MT)
     Hilleary
     Hobson
     Hoekstra
     Horn
     Hostettler
     Houghton
     Hulshof
     Hunter
     Hutchinson
     Hyde
     Isakson
     Istook
     Jenkins
     Johnson, Sam
     Jones (NC)
     Kasich
     Kelly
     King (NY)
     Kingston
     Knollenberg
     Kolbe
     Kuykendall
     LaHood
     Largent
     Latham
     LaTourette
     Leach
     Lewis (CA)
     Lewis (KY)
     Linder
     LoBiondo
     Lucas (OK)
     Manzullo
     Martinez
     McCollum
     McCrery
     McHugh
     McInnis
     McKeon
     Metcalf
     Mica
     Miller (FL)
     Miller, Gary
     Moran (KS)
     Myrick
     Nethercutt
     Ney
     Northup
     Norwood
     Nussle
     Ose
     Oxley
     Packard
     Paul
     Pease
     Peterson (PA)
     Petri
     Pickering
     Pitts
     Pombo
     Porter
     Portman
     Radanovich
     Ramstad
     Regula
     Reynolds
     Riley
     Rogan
     Rogers
     Rohrabacher
     Ros-Lehtinen
     Roukema
     Royce
     Ryan (WI)
     Ryun (KS)
     Salmon
     Sanford
     Saxton
     Scarborough
     Schaffer
     Sensenbrenner
     Sessions
     Shadegg
     Shaw
     Shays
     Sherwood
     Shimkus
     Shuster
     Simpson
     Skeen
     Smith (NJ)
     Smith (TX)
     Souder
     Spence
     Stearns
     Stump
     Sununu
     Sweeney
     Talent
     Tancredo
     Tauzin
     Taylor (NC)
     Terry
     Thomas
     Thornberry
     Thune
     Tiahrt
     Toomey
     Traficant
     Upton
     Vitter
     Walden
     Walsh
     Wamp
     Watkins
     Watts (OK)
     Weldon (FL)
     Weller

[[Page 15350]]


     Whitfield
     Wicker
     Wilson
     Wolf
     Young (AK)
     Young (FL)

                             NOT VOTING--15

     Baca
     Barton
     Boswell
     Campbell
     Clay
     Greenwood
     Johnson (CT)
     Lazio
     McIntosh
     Murtha
     Pryce (OH)
     Smith (MI)
     Smith (WA)
     Vento
     Weldon (PA)

                              {time}  1854

  Messrs. GOODLING, KINGSTON, CALVERT, CHAMBLISS, NORWOOD, WHITFIELD, 
SIMPSON, LINDER and COX changed their vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
  Mr. RODRIGUEZ and Ms. WOOLSEY changed their vote from ``nay'' to 
``yea.''
  So the motion to instruct was rejected.
  The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
  Stated against:
  Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 415 I put my card 
in the voting box but it failed to register. I would have voted 
``nay.''
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Fossella). Without objection, the Chair 
appoints the following conferees: Messrs. Porter, Young of Florida, 
Bonilla, Istook, Miller of Florida, Dickey, Wicker, Mrs. Northup, 
Messrs. Cunningham, Obey, Hoyer, Ms. Pelosi, Mrs. Lowey, Ms. DeLauro, 
and Mr. Jackson of Illinois.
  There was no objection.

                          ____________________