Frank Riggs: “Mr. Chairman, I intend to come down to the well momentarily, but while I stand here at this podium, I want to thank my…”

“Mr. Chairman, I intend to come down to the well momentarily, but while I stand here at this podium, I want to thank my good friend and vice chairman of the subcommittee for claiming the time and for his eloquent statement in support of charter schools. Mr. Chairman, first of all, let me tell Members that I am pleased that I can rise in support of what I hope becomes, based on the final vote, a very strong bipartisan bill expanding public school choice for parents. I emphasize that at the outset, because I just want my colleagues to know that on the last vote we had, just about an hour or so ago, the idea of allowing State and local school districts around the country to use one particular category or source of Federal taxpayer funding for education to provide scholarships for low-income parents unfortunately was defeated in this Chamber by pretty much a party line vote. In fact, I have the numbers here. Eighty-two percent of House Republicans supported the HELP Scholarships bill, and 93 percent of House Democrats voted against it.”