[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 18174-18175]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             FUND MIGRANT AND SEASONAL HEAD START PROGRAMS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Grijalva) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I would like to associate myself with the 
comments that my colleague, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Linda 
T. Sanchez), just finished. Today I would like to deal with one 
specific aspect of H.R. 2210 dealing with Head Start and that specific 
aspect has to do with an effort that this House must undertake to 
provide true relief to the impoverished children of migrant and 
seasonal farm working families.
  Migrant and Seasonal Head Start programs successfully provide the 
infants and children of migrants and seasonal workers in this country 
with educational and health related services. These services and these 
support services provided by Migrant and Seasonal Head Start keep 
children out of the fields where they are exposed to pesticides, 
hazardous equipment, extreme heat and other related health dangers.
  Unfortunately, a severe funding shortfall leaves more than 80 percent 
of these eligible children without these vital services and protection.
  According to the study published by the U.S. Department of Health and 
Human Services, Migrant and Seasonal Head Start programs serve just 19 
percent of eligible migrant and seasonal children. By comparison, the 
regional Head Start programs serve approximately 60 percent of their 
eligible population. This shortfall leaves 130,000 children of migrant 
and seasonal workers and their families out of any opportunity in a 
Head Start program. Migrant and Seasonal Head Start programs serve both 
infants and toddlers. Early Head Start funds are only available to 
full-year programs and thus leave the migrant and seasonal programs to 
provide full-day services to both infants and toddlers without the 
benefit of extra program funds or technical assistance funds.
  Migrant and Seasonal Head Start is already spreading its funds thin 
in order to sustain these programs and serve these very needy kids.
  Migrant and seasonal programs are funded out of a 13 percent set-
aside in the Head Start annual appropriations along with Indian Head 
Start, children with disabilities, training and technical assistance, 
program review, and research and demonstrations. Over the last 8 years, 
Migrant and Seasonal Head Start programs have consistently received 4 
percent or less of the Head Start annual appropriations.
  The Republican Head Start bill now includes an amendment that claims 
to assist migrant and seasonal children. This addition, however, would 
take money away from popular training and technical assistance programs 
and provide only a marginal increase in funds to these needy children, 
less than a 1 percent increase in funding to address the needs of over 
130,000 children that are neglected by this bill. Moreover, this 
formula provides no guaranteed

[[Page 18175]]

funding to eligible migrant and seasonal children. It is a year-to-year 
gimmick, and what we need and these children need is a real and 
reliable increase in resources and a revenue source for these services.
  Based on current program funding, it would cost almost an additional 
$750 million to achieve near parity between Migrant and Seasonal Head 
Start and regional Head Start. Completely closing this funding gap 
between Migrant and Seasonal Head Start and regional Head Start may be 
unrealistic in the near future, but the recommendations are designed to 
move the programs toward parity by making a modest increase in funding 
for Migrant and Seasonal Head Start programs and Indian Head Start 
programs.
  Today, before the Committee on Rules, I proposed an amendment that 
would help solve this problem in a substantial way. My proposal would 
increase funds sufficient to provide services to an additional 10,000 
children of migrant and seasonal working families. The proposal would 
also stabilize funding for Migrant and Seasonal Head Start with the 
floor of 5 percent of the total appropriation. This amendment was 
drafted in such a way that it would have no negative effect on any 
other Head Start program. It would not take resources from any other 
community or any other program in Head Start.
  Though migrant and seasonal families are seemingly an invisible 
population, a population that puts food on our tables, a population 
that many times does not have the political attention or the voice in 
this House, they deserve equal access to the social services we provide 
other children suffering from poverty.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to listen to their consciences and 
join in my attempts to provide this relief to a neglected population in 
this country, a population of children that is left behind, continues 
to be left behind; and we have a historic opportunity to include them 
with the rest of the children of this country.

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