Lateefah Simon: “I simply want to underscore what Senator Kennedy has had to say. One of the things that is happening in our world that…”

“I simply want to underscore what Senator Kennedy has had to say. One of the things that is happening in our world that is really dramatic is the spread of democracy. It is in Russia, it is in Poland, it is in many countries of Africa now. It is interesting that in all of the democracies of the world, there is only one democracy where we deny the people in the capital city the right to be represented in a democracy, in their parliament. That democracy, I regret to say, is the United States of America. The District of Columbia has their own elected school board, and we make all these speeches about local control, but we say to only one school board--and it is not insignificant, it is a school board that does not have a vote in terms of having a U.S. Senator--we say to one school board, 'You have to do this or you don't get this money.' That just does not make sense. I have been around here now 22 years and, generally, we try and work out compromises between the House and the Senate. These are provisions that were not favored by a single Member of the Senate side. Democrats and Republicans capitulated to the House. The precedent is simply wrong.”