Barbara Boxer: “In fact, I decided not to do the sense of the Senate. We did the real thing. This Senate voted with about 60 votes to…”

“In fact, I decided not to do the sense of the Senate. We did the real thing. This Senate voted with about 60 votes to increase the funding for afterschool. We actually did a real amendment, not just a sense of the Senate, and for the first time in history this Senate actually voted to increase the funding. The reason I asked my friend to yield, if he would be willing to give me a minute of his time, I will pose a question. It has been a struggle, as he knows, because he has led the fight. When I came here, I joined him in this fight. We knew it did not take rocket science to understand that our kids are getting into trouble after school. We now have the exact percentages. That is why the police all over the country, as was pointed out, support this. We know it does help kids with their academic performance, although that is not the main reason we have afterschool. We know, as has been pointed out, there is an overwhelming number of applications for these grants. Now, finally, under President Clinton, we have seen this program go from $10 million to $600 million; and now with the amendment my friend helped me with, it is over $1 billion, and we will be able to help millions of kids. My question is, On the one hand, how can we vote to support real funding for this program and then turn around and vote to take it away and put it into some nebulous experiment which may turn out to be great--I have my problems with it--or may not?”