Tom Harkin: “in all the years I have been on this committee and also on the subcommittee, which now numbers 16, this is the earliest…”

“in all the years I have been on this committee and also on the subcommittee, which now numbers 16, this is the earliest we have ever gotten this bill finished. If I am not mistaken, this may be the first time that this was not the last bill to be acted on, whether it has been Republican leadership or Democratic leadership. I thank Senator Specter for his great leadership. I thank him for working in such an open and bipartisan fashion with us on this side. I have never had a case where something was done on the Republican side that I didn't know about and that we weren't consulted with every step of the way. I want Senator Specter to know how much we really appreciate that. The working relationship has been great with our staff: Bettilou Taylor, Jim Sourwine, Mark Laisch, Mary Dietrich, Jon Retzlaff, Kevin Johnson, Ellen Murray, and Lisa Bernhardt. Our staff has a great working relationship. Again, as we now go into conference with the House, I make a commitment to my chairman that we will continue to work in a bipartisan fashion, as we have always, to make sure we can bring back a strong bill. I think we can be proud of the amount of money we have in education. We have more money in this bill for education than asked for by President Clinton. I believe we are making moves in the right direction.”