William Ford: “Mr. Chairman, I have discussed this amendment with the gentleman from Kansas [Mr. Roberts]. The gentleman from…”

“Mr. Chairman, I have discussed this amendment with the gentleman from Kansas [Mr. Roberts]. The gentleman from California [Mr. Miller] raises a very good question. When I first heard about the amendment, I put the gentleman on notice that I would have to make a point of order against the amendment because it would be establishing an entitlement. The gentleman went and checked, as I checked, and found out that indeed this is an entitlement. There is no guarantee that the States and local governments will ever get a nickel out of this language. It is mainly an authorization to appropriate money for that purpose. And if we never appropriate a nickel, the States and local communities will still have to put their money out, because if they do not put their money out to do this, they will not get money under this bill to educate the at-risk children in their school district from the Federal Government. Mr. Chairman, there is a cutoff if they fail to gather the information, but there is no cutoff of the requirement to gather the information if they fail to get the money. And that is the very strange situation.”