Political Quotes

“I represent the urban areas of Arizona, Phoenix, Tucson, and these areas are surrounded by Indian reservations, and because the economic opportunities on many of these reservations are very poor, lack of jobs, lack of opportunities, many of my native American constituents move into the urban areas. I have to tell my colleagues that they are people who do not have the highest education, do not have the talents to get the best-paying jobs, and so they tend to live in areas, in school districts, that do not have the highest resources, and that translates into that many of these young native Americans who are in our elementary schools or secondary schools have special needs, have special problems which the public school needs to address, and these moneys which service native Americans who are living in urban areas are much needed. If there is one thing we need to do as adults, that is to ensure that our children are well educated, and these native Americans need these programs, need these resources, and I would think that all of us would want to ensure that the native Americans of this country would have the opportunities to better themselves. So I would ask all of my colleagues to support the Obey amendment because it brings hope, it brings opportunities, to native Americans who want to better themselves, and they live in the urban areas.”