Keith Ellison: “Well, Chairwoman, thank you for yielding back. I want to say--and just to agree with you--that investing in our young…”

“Well, Chairwoman, thank you for yielding back. I want to say--and just to agree with you--that investing in our young people, young people going to Head Start is one of the very best investments that any society can make. And you can get conservative economists, you can get liberal economists, any kind of economists you want; they can tell you that the biggest bang for the buck is investing in early childhood education, programs like Head Start. You're right to point out as well, Madam Chair, that we have about 90 percent of the House and Senate bill is overlapping, but there's that 10 percent that we're here to advocate about. And I think it's important that the American people know that the Progressive Caucus is going to be in there fighting for an inclusive version that embraces all Americans. And I want to thank you and Chairman Raul Grijalva for writing that letter. That's the kind of leadership that the American people expect from you. And I just want to also add that education is a critical point. The House bill allocated 2.1 billion for funding for programs to prepare children. And that was cut to about 1 billion in the Senate side. But let me also talk about higher education. The House voted to provide about 6 billion for higher education while the Senate compromised, ultimately eliminated 3.5 billion for higher education facility modernization and purchase of instructional equipment.”