George Miller: “this legislation strikes at the very heart of the body of laws that bind us together as a progressive society, and with…”

“this legislation strikes at the very heart of the body of laws that bind us together as a progressive society, and with the highest standard of living in the world, the body of law that ensures that no matter where you live in this country, you can enjoy clean water; that no matter where you live in this country, local government and the private sector are working every day to improve the air that you breathe, so we no longer have to send our children indoors because it is too smoggy out. We no longer have to tell our senior citizens they cannot go out for a walk because the air quality is too bad, or we cannot drive to work because they do not want the automobiles on the road. These are the laws that accomplished those successes. These are laws that said ``Yes, if you take money from the Federal Government, we are going to put onto you an obligation to educate the handicapped children of this Nation,'' because before that was the law, the handicapped children of this Nation could not get an education in the public school systems run by the States and localities that we now say are so ready to do the job. But for that law, tens of thousands of handicapped children, because they have cerebral palsy, because they have Downs syndrome, would not be allowed in our public schools, but that is a Federal mandate.…”