Last year 26 Senators cosponsored legislation to help the Cuban people and American farmers and businesses by allowing sales of food and medicine to Cuba. Later, with passage of the FY2001 Agriculture Appropriations Bill, the 106th…

In fact, this is why I made the statement I did at the outset. This is not uncharted waters at all. Mr. President, 30 years of research suggests that when background conditions and other factors are taken into account there are no…

I hope we will consider seriously this pending amendment and the implications. To clarify some of the record in terms of statistics that have been thrown about during this debate, there was mention on the floor early today that 63 percent…

I would add ``responsibility''--``accountability and responsibility.'' Students, parents, school principals, teachers, superintendents, and boards of education all have to be more accountable and more responsible if we are going to improve…

I accept that point. We do. My point being, my amendment has been called intrusive. Because I have suggested that the States be accountable and responsible, it is said that I am proposing a new Federal intrusion into what has historically…

Yielding for a question. As my colleague must be aware--and this is in the form of a question, Mr. President--we have had the word ``comparable'' on the books regarding school districts for 36 years. The law has said that within school…

Is that the words ``comparable'' and ``identical'' are not synonymous. ``Comparable'' allows for great latitude. We have mandated comparability within school districts. If you take the school districts of Los Angeles and New York, there…

I discussed the amendment with my good friend from New Hampshire. The way I have dealt with the modification is to take out the section that speaks to the specific kinds of comparability issues such as class size, teachers, and the like…

I am hopeful we can vote on this amendment. We debated yesterday afternoon, we debated yesterday evening, and this morning. I am fully prepared to have a vote and go to the next amendment and get the education bill done. The President…

What this amendment requires is that every child in a State have a comparable educational opportunity with other children in that same State. Last evening, I cited the supreme court decision in the State of New Hampshire, which makes the…

But let me go back a bit, if I may, and try to make clear that my good friend--he is a wonderful friend, and there are very few Members on either side of the aisle whose intelligence I respect more than the Senator from New Hampshire, Mr…

I want to pick up on this radical idea of equal opportunity of education. I know this is terribly radical----

This bill, if adopted, will require accountability of students because we will mandate a Federal test at the local level. It is Uncle Sam, the Federal Government, mandating a Federal test, a Federal standard. So accountability can be…

I want to get to the point of radicalness, which my friend raised as the hallmark behind this amendment. I address this to my colleague. Under existing Federal law, the question is, Do we not require State standards for curricula that are…

I regret that we are about to do that today with the vote on this tax bill. There are a handful of us here today who were on this very floor in this Chamber 20 years ago when a similar, although smaller, tax cut was being proposed. No one…

I rise for a couple of minutes to briefly discuss the change that occurred today in the Senate and to share some thoughts, if I may. First, I think I can safely speak for virtually all of us in this Chamber on both sides of the aisle in…

on behalf of myself, Senator Kennedy, and Senator Wellstone, I rise today to introduce the Leave No Child Behind Act, legislation that will address the needs of our nation's children to deliver them from poverty, violence, abuse, neglect…

I stood in that debate. I remember the debate well. When you compare this week's debate to that debate of 20 years ago when we had something like 115 or 116 amendments, maybe more, they were fully debated amendments. We had the give and…

It has been a little frustrating for this Member, and I suspect others over the past day or so, as we have dealt with what arguably would be the most significant piece of legislation we are likely to deal with for the next decade. And that…

In 1999, Federal estate tax liability. That is 2 percent of the adult deaths in the country. When it comes to family farms, the New York Times recently reported that an Iowa State University economist had not been able to find a single…

to underscore the point, we have voted now on several occasions over the past number of weeks for full funding of title I, full funding of the IDEA, special education. What we are saying is it is going to be difficult to meet those…

very briefly, what this amendment does is to try to provide some resources for reducing the level of the national debt. We are spending $220 billion a year in interest payments on the debt, a number that is vastly in excess of what it…

Here is something where just a modest change in the rates can make a huge difference to people. I am not talking about the poorest people, although some of them are, but people who are earning about $40,000, $50,000, or $60,000 a year. You…

I was shocked when I first discovered it. I couldn't believe she was actually doing it. I thought there must be some pool of resources that would allow for the accommodation of things such as pencils and boards and toilet paper, literally…

This is a modest amendment. We can't do enough with the ESEA bill. I wish we could to make up the difference. This small little piece, when we so value education and those who commit themselves to this, to say there is a small line here…