James M. Jeffords: “this is a scaled-down, in fact, a way scaled-down version of an amendment that I offered in the Finance Committee…”

“this is a scaled-down, in fact, a way scaled-down version of an amendment that I offered in the Finance Committee markup. It failed on a very close vote, with the full amount of close to $900 million. This is an attempt to ensure that this next winter we do not have the kinds of emergencies we have faced with the inability to finance the school repairs necessary to keep the DC schools open. This amendment is to the provisions in the bill dealing with the District of Columbia. What this will do--hopefully, if accepted--is also place in the hands of those at the conference an amendment to help in the most critical area this city faces, and that is the decreasing capacity of its schools to even stand up, to keep the kids out of rain, and to protect the boilers from blowing up, and everything else. It is a modest start of only $70 million, but it will open a path, hopefully, that may be utilized in case these emergencies continue to increase.”