Hilda L. Solis: “for 6 years, Americans have felt left behind by this administration and a Republican Congress that did not prioritize…”

“for 6 years, Americans have felt left behind by this administration and a Republican Congress that did not prioritize issues important to many Americans. With the November elections, we had hoped that President Bush would get the message that Americans wanted change. Unfortunately, the President's budget, in my opinion, is no different than many of the budgets of his last 6 years; it leaves too many people behind. Six years ago, the President vowed to leave no child left behind, but his budget underfunds our schools by $15 billion. How can the President hold schools accountable when he refuses to give them the funding necessary to make those improvements? The President's budget will also force States to eliminate health care coverage for children because he refuses to provide enough money to the SCHIP program to cover more than 9 million kids now enrolled in the program. At a time when 1 million more Americans are joining the ranks of the uninsured every year, do we really want to take health care coverage away from the most vulnerable populations, the children and low-income parents? Mr. Speaker, the President's priorities are different than ours, and our budget will look significantly different.”