Lisa Murkowski: “I am sure that the Budget Committee and its able chairman, Senator Domenici, will respond in detail to the…”

“I am sure that the Budget Committee and its able chairman, Senator Domenici, will respond in detail to the generalizations that have been expressed by my friend from Massachusetts. But let me just make one specific point. We have heard that the Republicans and the Republican budget do not invest enough in education; that they have not adopted the two key plans of the President's budget: $5 billion for school construction, and $7.3 billion to hire 100,000 more teachers over the next 5 years. The facts show that, indeed, the Republicans have kept their word. We have increased education spending by exactly what the President and the Congress agreed to do last year in the balanced budget agreement. We have provided $8 billion in additional discretionary education funding over the 5-year period, and in total we will provide close to $20 billion in kindergarten-through-grade 12 education funding this year. That is a 98-percent increase over the last 10 years. I would not take criticism relative to the Republicans' commitment to education.”