[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 22]
[Senate]
[Pages 30857-30860]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           PRESIDENTIAL VETO

  Mr. President, last week, Congress took bold action on behalf of 
American families by sending an appropriations bill to the President 
that has important new investments in the everyday needs and hopes and 
dreams of the American people. It is a bill that funds our investments 
in education, health care, and in American jobs. These are not optional 
investments. They are not just nice little programs that can be funded 
1 year and cast aside the next. These investments are about hope and 
opportunity for our children. They are about the dignity of middle-
class and working families all across America. They are about our 
national strength. Unfortunately, it appears once again that the 
everyday concerns of the American people have fallen on deaf ears in 
the White House. This morning, the President vetoed this pro-family, 
pro-child, pro-worker legislation.
  In fact, the White House says this bill is irresponsible and 
reckless. I ask: What is irresponsible and reckless about making sure 
our children receive the best education in the world? What is 
irresponsible and reckless about finding a cure for cancer so families 
no longer see that disease claim their mothers and fathers, brothers 
and sisters before their time? What is irresponsible and reckless about 
giving our workers the training and the skills

[[Page 30858]]

they need to get good jobs and support their families? If anything is 
irresponsible and reckless, it is the President's choices.
  The President insists on continuing to spend billions of dollars on a 
failed policy in Iraq, but he refuses to deliver the relief America's 
families need. This morning, the President signed a Defense 
appropriations bill that includes a 10-percent increase in funding 
compared to last year, but he vetoed a bill that includes an increase 
of half that amount that would fund cancer research, investment in our 
schools, job training, and protection for our workers.
  Let's take a closer look at what the President has vetoed.
  The bill provides long overdue funding for education. Year after 
year, the White House and the Republican leadership in Congress have 
failed to make the needed new investments for better teachers and 
stronger schools. In fact, under Republican control, commitment to the 
education of our children has continued to go down.
  This chart shows in 2002, the year No Child Left Behind was passed, 
there was funding at $7.7 billion. We wanted reform and resources. We 
got it that time once it was passed. This chart shows the gradual 
diminution of support for funding under Republican Congresses and a 
Republican Senate. Now we see the beginning of the Democratic 
resolution and now the Democratic conference report and an increase. 
The President's request, $1.5 billion less; the Democratic conference 
report, $3.2 billion. And we the find the legislation vetoed.
  This bill finally reverses that course of reductions over recent 
years under this administration. So it delivers the largest increase in 
title I funding since we passed No Child Left Behind. Again, we had the 
increase at the time of passage of the act and then a decline in 
resources, and now we see in 2008 there is an increase in the title I 
program for the neediest children in America. That was vetoed this 
morning.
  This bill delivers the largest increase in funding for education. 
That is funding that goes to the children who have fallen the furthest 
behind and need the most help. It pays for teachers, improved 
curriculum, tutors, and a whole array of actions that can help students 
do well in school.
  It provides $4.5 billion in additional funding in education compared 
to the President's budget. How can the President of the United States 
say he will leave no child behind when he has vetoed the very bill that 
will enable us to do that?
  We are working in Congress to renew the No Child Left Behind reforms 
and to make them work better, but we cannot do it with a ``tin cup'' 
education budget. This President seems to think we can improve our 
schools on the cheap. The President says $4.5 billion more to students 
is too much. Yet he is proposing 35 times that much for the war in 
Iraq. He wants us to say yes to $158 billion for Iraq, while he says no 
to $4.5 billion for American school children.
  In Iraq, anything goes. The sky's the limit. Billions and billions 
and billions of dollars for Iraq. But here in America, right at home, a 
modest investment in our school children gets a veto.
  This bill includes $1 billion for high-quality programs that help 
children after school; afterschool programs which are so important for 
children. Afterschool programs assist children with their homework, 
give them extra tutorial work, and give support when their parents are 
at work.
  These funds will help 1.4 million needy children who need a place to 
go after the school day ends. These are programs that help hard-working 
parents, improve student lives, and keep communities safe by decreasing 
drug use and violence.
  We can help these school children after school for the cost of 2\1/2\ 
days in Iraq. But the President says no.
  The bill includes $3 billion to improve the quality of our teachers. 
Those funds will be used to hire 30,000 more teachers to reduce class 
sizes. How many days of hearings have we had that demonstrate smaller 
class sizes and well-trained teachers are absolutely essential? How 
many times do we have to learn that lesson? We understand that lesson. 
We have tried to, with bipartisan support, get these funds into this 
legislation to improve the support for our teachers.
  These funds, as I mentioned, hire 30,000 more teachers. They will be 
used for mentoring 100,000 beginning teachers and professional 
development for an additional 200,000 teachers who will go into 
underserved communities across this country. We can do all of that for 
the cost of a single week in Iraq. But the President says no.
  This bill includes $500 million to help our struggling schools turn 
around. Improving our schools means supporting them. We can provide 
support for our neediest schools for about the cost of a day in Iraq. 
We can take those schools that are falling further behind for a range 
of reasons--they may need restructuring, they may need additional 
assistance or targeted assistance, but whatever they need, they need to 
have this kind of assistance. But the President says no.
  The bill includes $7 billion to provide high-quality early education 
through Head Start. This week, the Congress will pass a Head Start bill 
that will strengthen the program to make Head Start even better. Those 
funds will be used to ensure that nearly 1 million children are ready 
to learn when they enter kindergarten. These funds build a basic 
foundation for learning that will help these low-income and minority 
children for the rest of their lives. We can fund this program for the 
cost of a little more than 2 weeks in Iraq.
  We are going to have a conference report, virtually a unanimous 
conference report where we have worked out the differences, that we 
will pass in the Senate at the end of this week. The House is taking it 
up on Thursday. We will pass it the end of this week or the early part 
of next week. It includes so many of the recommendations of early 
education. We need high-quality individuals working in Head Start and 
working on the curriculum. We need to coordinate the various services 
for our children in the early years, to smooth out the transition 
process from early education programs to kindergarten.
  We are beginning to get that seamless web of services that we all 
understand are critical. We are providing assistance in education and 
supports for children at the earliest ages. This continues on to 
kindergarten through 12th grade so children are ready for college and 
work. That is what we are desirous of, a continuum. Read that 
magnificent book of Jack Shonkoff, who is now at Harvard, formerly with 
the Heller School at Brandeis, ``From Neurons to Neighborhoods.'' It 
brings together the three great studies that were done by the Institute 
of Medicine about the developing of a child's brain, the synapsis, the 
cognitive and social abilities to deal with their social conditions, 
the development of knowledge, a sense of inquiry and curiosity that 
develops and settles in a child's brain.
  One cannot read that book and not understand that some of the best 
investments we make in education is in early education. We have taken 
so many of the lessons of that extraordinary document and have worked 
them through, Democrats and Republicans alike, in our conference. We 
will make real progress, but we need to invest the resources to do 
that. But when we came to do it and even as we work in Congress to 
improve the vital program, for the equivalent of 2 weeks in Iraq, the 
President said no.
  This same misguided rationale applies to other investments in the 
bill as well. The President's veto means squandered opportunities for 
progress on the major health challenges the American people face. I 
recently spoke to a gathering of leading cancer researchers who are 
making extraordinary progress against this deadly disease. They have 
helped cancer become, in many cases, a treatable illness instead of a 
death sentence. Every day, they are fighting to help Americans with 
cancer live longer and longer and healthier lives.
  We have seen for the first time, in recent years, where the total 
number of cancer cases are going down. In the previous 20 years, we saw 
some modification of those numbers going up.

[[Page 30859]]

When evaluated against the change in the age of our population and 
other indicators, it showed we were making some progress that was 
encouraging. But the most important and significant has been in recent 
years, where we see the total number of cases are going down.
  You cannot tell me that is not the result of the extraordinary 
investment that was made in the Congress in recent years in doubling 
the NIH budget, with all of the progress we have made in mapping the 
human genome, sequencing the genes, various extraordinary breakthroughs 
that have come about. There are so many well-qualified, peer-reviewed 
projects that are on the desk at the NIH that will not be funded. These 
could offer hope for families in this country who have been touched by 
the devastation of cancer.
  We provided in this legislation nearly $5 billion to fund more than 
6,800 research grants to help win this fight. The President's veto 
tells Americans battling cancer that their fight for life is not a 
priority for the Nation. He tells patients they must wait a little 
longer, dream a little less, and hope a little more faintly for the 
breakthroughs that this research can bring.
  On and on down the line, the President vetoed urgently needed 
research in heart disease, diabetes, asthma, infectious disease, mental 
health, and many other areas. The President would rather squander 
billions in Iraq than invest in the research that could bring progress 
against these diseases and relief for millions of our fellow citizens.
  But the damage does not stop with the impact of this veto on the 
cures of the future. Patients today will feel the bite of the 
President's veto.
  Community Health Centers make quality health care possible for 
millions of Americans who cannot afford health insurance. A veto of the 
$2 billion for community health centers included in this bill means 
that 15 million low-income people will be denied their opportunity for 
health care. This, at a time when we are seeing the total number of 
uninsured increasing. The only reason it has not increased more is 
because of the CHIP program. If we didn't have the CHIP program, the 47 
million with no coverage would have been increased a good deal more. 
But if we look at the total number of Americans who are without health 
insurance over the course of the years, it is 75 million Americans out 
of a population of 300 million who sometime during the course of the 
year who lack adequate coverage, including 45 million who have no 
health care coverage at all. Those numbers are going up.
  Where do individuals go? They go to their neighborhood health 
centers. We have had remarkable bipartisan support in the expansion of 
these programs, but when we tried to put in the resources, some $2 
billion for these centers included in this bill, it was vetoed. The 
Centers for Disease Control are on call to protect us 24 hours a day, 7 
days a week. When there is an outbreak or disaster, CDC is there.
  In my own community, in Massachusetts, over the weekend our water 
supply was closed down because E. coli had penetrated the water system. 
And here, with all of the various health challenges we have going on 
there is obviously a role for the FDA, but there is also a role for the 
Centers for Disease Control, which is extremely well led at the present 
time. They provide such importance when we are considering the pandemic 
dangers for this country, let alone the pandemic dangers as a result of 
terrorism with biologics and chemicals. It will be the Centers for 
Disease Control that we are going to call on; our first responders. 
But, no, the President's veto means our Nation's health readiness will 
be weakened and our progress against disease will be halted.
  Training of new doctors and nurses, assistance to hospitals in rural 
and underserved communities, improving health information technology, 
immunizations programs, and on and on. The President has the same 
response to each of them: veto, veto, veto.
  The President's veto will also be devastating to America's workers. 
With globalization and layoffs and corporations cutting benefits, 
Americans are worried about their jobs. The least we can do is make 
sure they are safe on the job and treated with dignity.
  This bill provides the funds needed to enforce the labor laws that 
keep our workers safe and give them a level playing field. This bill 
has a very modest increase for OSHA, the Occupational Health and Safety 
Administration. Since the implementation of this law, the number of 
deaths has been cut by more than half in America. This is from $490 
million to $501 million. This is the very minor increase in MSHA, the 
Mine Safety Health Administration, from $313 million to $340 million. 
Have we forgotten what happened in the Sago mines in West Virginia or 
out in Utah, where scores of individuals lost their lives? And here we 
have the agency that is challenged with new legislation that reflected 
a bipartisan effort here in this body, Republicans and Democrats coming 
together making the recommendations, and making these recommendations 
as well, in order that we would have safety in the workforce. Yet that 
is vetoed.
  Just last week, three workers were killed in an explosion in a 
powerplant in Salem, Massachusetts. Terrible incidents like this are 
all too common. Every year, more than 5,700 workers are killed, with 
more than 4,000 injured or made ill on the job. Workers everywhere--at 
powerplants, coal mines, hospitals, and construction sites--rely on our 
Federal agencies to protect them and make sure they can return home to 
their families each night.
  But the President's veto takes bad employers off the hook and puts 
American workers at risk. We won't have the needed funds this bill 
provides to inspect workplaces and enforce our safety laws. Millions of 
workers' safety and very lives will be at risk.
  The veto of this bill is also devastating to veterans. We just 
observed Veterans Day. Each year, nearly 320,000 brave servicemembers 
return to civilian life, many coming from Iraq and Afghanistan. Sadly, 
our hearing in the Labor Committee last week showed they faced daunting 
challenges.
  Tens of thousands of Reserve and National Guard members have lost 
their benefits, and even their jobs because they served their country. 
That is why this bill provides $228 million to help our veterans find 
jobs, receive training--and protect their right to return to their 
former jobs. This is guaranteed in the law but not adequately fulfilled 
at this present time. The President's veto takes away this modest 
welcome mat and slams the door in our veterans' faces.
  All Americans are certainly familiar with what happened at Walter 
Reed, but there are so many other aspects that we are continuing to 
support. Senator Murkowski, Senator Murray, and many of our colleagues 
on the appropriate committees are making extraordinary efforts to help 
address these issues for our service men and women. But we must all 
recognize that one out of four of the homeless today is a veteran. One 
out of four of the homeless is a veteran. And if veterans return to the 
United States without a job, with lost backpay, or lost health 
insurance, there is a rapid spiral right down into destitution and 
poverty and homelessness and, in some instances, suicide and other 
horrific behavior.
  What about other American workers who want to upgrade their skills to 
compete and win in the global economy? This bill says we should not 
cast workers and their dreams aside. It rejects the President's cut and 
includes $2.9 billion for job training. But the President's veto, 
again, leaves these hard-working Americans out in the cold.
  In my State of Massachusetts, there are 92,640 jobs that needed 
workers at the end of last year, and there are 178,000 people who 
didn't have jobs and were on the unemployment lists. It should be 
pretty understandable that if we can get those people trained and place 
them into productive employment, they are going to be productive, 
useful, and valuable workers in our communities. Their hopes and dreams 
for their families will be enhanced. And, through taxes, they will 
increase additional tax revenues for the future. That kind of 
investment is necessary. But what happens, Mr. President? We

[[Page 30860]]

see those programs have been effectively vetoed.
  This appropriations bill is about the strength and the well-being of 
American families. By vetoing the bill, the President is turning his 
back on the priorities of America's families--their hopes, their 
dreams, and their opportunities. But we will not give up on providing 
the solutions that are so desperately needed. We will continue to work 
with our colleagues in the Senate and the House and chart a new course 
and fight for the real needs of all Americans.
  This battle is not over. It has only just begun.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, am I allotted a certain amount of time in 
morning business?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is to be recognized for up to 30 
minutes.

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