Max Baucus: “last week, I was successful in achieving the inclusion of a bipartisan amendment in the Manager's Amendment on Labor…”

“last week, I was successful in achieving the inclusion of a bipartisan amendment in the Manager's Amendment on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriation bill, on one of the most important issues we will deal with in this Congress-- the poor condition of our Nation's school buildings. Let me briefly describe this amendment before I talk about the larger problem this amendment is seeking to address. This amendment is co-sponsored by Senator Bingaman, Senator Domenici, and Senator Hutchison from Texas--this bipartisan group should send a very strong signal that this amendment is worthy of support. This is a very simple amendment. Both the House and Senate versions of the Labor-HHS Appropriations bill set aside $25 million for Impact Aid school construction. This amendment increases that amount to $10 million. It offsets the increase by reducing the administrative and related expenses of the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Education on a pro rata basis by $10 million.”