Tom Harkin: “I compliment my dear friend and colleague from Minnesota. There is no one who fights harder for education with more…”

“I compliment my dear friend and colleague from Minnesota. There is no one who fights harder for education with more courage, compassion and conviction than Senator Wellstone from Minnesota. He comes from a background of having been an educator and in education for most of his life before coming to the Senate. Senator Wellstone is right. We are about to embark upon a lot of rhetoric. We are going to talk about reforming education, saving education in America, but without the resources it will just be empty rhetoric, one more time. We have to review where we have been on this bill. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act expired 2 years ago. Why are we on it now 2 years later? The other side wouldn't let us pass it last year. They blocked it. And now there is this rush to get it through. I am all in favor of passing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. As I understand it, the bill here is the one passed by committee. I understand they are working on another bill. We have not seen it yet and they will drop it sometime after we vote for cloture. I make the point that Senator Wellstone so eloquently made. This is an authorization bill. We can say all these flowery things about saving education, having testing and all that sort of stuff, but if we don't have the resources to back it, we are fooling the American people one more time. Where are the resources for this bill?”