Patsy T. Mink: “today's legislation before the House, H.R. 3616, authorizes a very valuable and important Federal education program…”

“today's legislation before the House, H.R. 3616, authorizes a very valuable and important Federal education program known as Impact Aid. Impact Aid is a Federal formula grant designed to assist school districts that have lost property tax revenue due to the presence of tax-exempt Federal property or have increased expenditures due to the enrollment of federally-connected children. Children covered under the Impact Aid law include those residing on Indian lands, military installations, low-rent housing properties and other Federal properties, and whose parents are in the uniformed services or employed on eligible Federal properties. Impact Aid is the only Federal education program where funds are sent directly to the school districts. In a State like Hawaii, which has a very large number of military installations and over 150,000 military personnel at any given time, we have a very large dependence on the impact program. So I want to take this opportunity to thank the chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Goodling), for advancing this very important bill with the modifications that he described.”