Pete Domenici: “I wish to applaud the subcommittee chairman, Senator Specter, and other members of the Appropriations subcommittee for…”

“I wish to applaud the subcommittee chairman, Senator Specter, and other members of the Appropriations subcommittee for receiving a consensus on this bill, and at the same time adhering to the important provisions of the bipartisan budget agreement. First, let me say this bill has a very exceptional provision in it which was not part of the budget agreement but, rather, was in the Republican budget resolution, and that was to add $5 billion for special education for the next 5 years that was for educating children with disabilities. The appropriations bill includes an additional $775 million for this program, the biggest increase in the history of the program. This is the program that many States were critical of our Government for because we started it and committed a share of the payment and we never lived up to our commitment in the shared expenses of the program but insisted that our rules and regulations be followed by the States. Now we are beginning to catch up.”