Tom Harkin: “first I thank Senator Specter for his help through all this debate and developing this bill. I thank Senator Byrd for…”

“first I thank Senator Specter for his help through all this debate and developing this bill. I thank Senator Byrd for his usual eloquence tonight. I think he encapsulated what this is all about. This is a bipartisan bill. It passed the committee by a vote of 26 to 3. Frankly, I think at least two, maybe all three of those were opposed to the stem cell portion we had in there, which is no longer in the bill. Nonetheless, this passed 26 to 3. To echo a little bit what Senator Byrd said, if you vote to commit, you are voting to cut community services block grants, to zero it out, and your social services block grants that go to your States will be cut by 30 percent. You would cut NIH, as Senator Byrd said, by $279 million. How about special education? That would be cut by $748 million. How about community health centers? That would be cut by $250 million. A ``yea'' vote means you agree with the President that we do not need any more community health centers, you agree with the President we don't need any more money to go to the States for special education, you agree with the President that we can cut funding for NIH, you agree with the President we can zero out the community services block grants and cut the social services block grants to the States by 30 percent. That is what a ``yea'' vote means. Frankly, I hope we have an overwhelming vote to reject this motion to commit and keep this a strong bipartisan bill with which we can go to conference.”