Robert Aderholt

I think that has a ramification. Because if you don't invest in those children, they become not necessarily taxpayers, but tax takers.

Nor do I hear that we want to have 2 million of the most vulnerable people in America not have access to healthcare centers.

Nor have I heard anybody saying that they want 105,000 less children cared for while their parents are at work.

If you give us more authority and more resources, we could do more.

It is unconscionable that there are companies, there are employers in America who are employing 12- and 13-year-olds to do work that even is dangerous for an adult.

We provide them with the care that we can while we are in the process of trying to find a suitable sponsor.

I support programs that provide quality early education, access to quality healthcare, and programs to help people with disabilities live independent lives.

I support biomedical research that will help cure cancers, dementias, and the other chronic health diseases.

And to dismiss that completely and act as if it is not an issue I think would be doing a disservice to the American people.

We must respect their dignity, what they have put into it.

We must cut the size and the scope of the Federal Government.

Every dollar spent by the Government is a dollar that is taken from hard-working Americans.

I understand that mental health is really a serious issue in this country, and sometimes it is the hidden illness that we don't see so much of the time.

The abortion issue is one that probably divides Congress more than anything else.

These appropriation riders are essential to protect conscience.

A bipartisan majority of Members that has supported abortion funding restrictions for 46 years has understood that funding restrictions are critical to support for other social welfare appropriations.

Funding restrictions are an important safeguard for taxpayers' conscience rights.

It makes no sense for Congress to fund elective abortion with tax dollars.

So, but this program, 21st Century Learning Centers, is named after Nita Lowey, who was the chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee, who was very, very much committed to the afterschool program, as I am as well.

I urge you to increase funding for 21st Century Community Learning Centers by $750,000,000 in fiscal year 2024.

We have had to learn many times without sufficient materials for the task at hand.

But who is kidding who? The blind students will be teaching the teachers.

I, too, am saddened by the fact that museums are not eligible to apply for Community Project Funding because it is a real need.

But this, the vision is that it would be in the hands of every blind student that wants to learn?

What we are hoping is that the committee will be able to make an investment...$53,000,000 this year.