Katherine Clark: “This amendment would decimate the ability of the Department of Education to meet the needs of Americans by…”

“This amendment would decimate the ability of the Department of Education to meet the needs of Americans by indiscriminately transferring $44 million to the spending reduction account. This does nothing to improve the bill, which is already underfunded. The majority has imposed a $5 billion cut to the Labor-HHS bill below the 2017 omnibus level. Further cuts are completely unnecessary. That is not all. This $5 billion is also below the nondefense levels allowed under the Budget Control Act. We have the resources available, but the majority refuses to allocate them to essential programs funded through this bill. The Department will simply have to do less with less. That is not good for the American people, and it is not good for our constituents. A Department with fewer resources to oversee the Student Aid portfolio, and as Mr. Scott pointed out, the Office of Inspector General's ability to promote efficiencies within the Department and investigate fraud, will be hampered. Mr. Chair, for these reasons, I oppose the amendment.”