On the recordMarch 22, 2013
I invite all Senators, before we start voting today, to read the Washington Post this morning, the front-page story: ``On Montana Reservation, Cuts Hit Hard.'' It talks about the Fort Peck reservation and what is going to happen there to these students and these families on this reservation. Please read it. Please. How can we be so cruel? How can we be so heartless? How can we be so immune from understanding the impact of the sequester and what is happening to poor kids? This is one classic example. As one teacher there said: You know, if you have a lot and you cut 5 percent, that is not much. But when you don't have anything, cutting 5 percent really hurts. The article talks about how much they are going to lose in their Head Start Program, how many students are going to lose because they do not have support systems on the reservation. It tears your heart out to read this. I think about the kind of votes we are going to be having today and the impact of those votes on these kids and these families on this reservation. They have no place else to turn. They have no place else to turn. It is not as though they have property taxes on the reservation. They do not have that. They do not have businesses there. They do not have anything. But you know what I would like most of all for colleagues to know? One person was quoted as saying: This is not something we are giving our Native Americans, this is something we owe them. This is something we owe them.…
