Dan Miller: “Mr. Chairman, as a fiscal conservative, my problem is this is a new program, $200 million of new spending that we do not…”

“Mr. Chairman, as a fiscal conservative, my problem is this is a new program, $200 million of new spending that we do not have. Where is the $200 million going to come from? We have a freeze on spending. We have pay-go type rules. We are going to have to take them from somewhere else. Are we going to take them from title I, from the Eisenhower program, from chapter 2? We do not have the money to create a totally new loan program. A lot of States are not going to be able to take advantage of this. In Florida, in my district, we do not have prevailing-wage laws, and all of a sudden we are going to enforce prevailing-wage laws in Florida. There is no school district in Florida that would even want this. The interest rate is 1\1/4\ percent of the taxable interest rate, 1\1/4\ percent below. School districts borrow it at a tax-exempt rate. Even the A-1 rating, the Congressional Research Service says, is lower than that 1\1/4\ below the taxable rate. This does not make any sense. It costs us $200 million a year. Let us focus our money on chapter 2, title I, on the Eisenhower program, and put the money where it is best needed.”