Byron Dorgan: “Well, that makes my point. That is 30 minutes on each side to talk about the central issue in education, about the need…”

“Well, that makes my point. That is 30 minutes on each side to talk about the central issue in education, about the need for investment in infrastructure in education. You just can't expect these little kids to walk through a school door and say, ``By the way, we know this school is in disrepair, falling down around you.'' The Cannon Ball school I mentioned, they have a heater, but they don't have an automatic switch for it. And this school can't hook-up to the Internet because the wiring is so old. But back to the heater, they turn the heater on by climbing up a scaffold to the ceiling of the gymnasium and turning a manual switch. My point is that a half hour on each side is not enough. That is twice as much as I suggested, because that amendment gets a little more than others. But a half hour on each side is not nearly enough to debate the central problems of how much we should invest and how we invest in the needs of public education. That is my problem with the legislation the Senator from Georgia has offered. There are better amendments. I hope one will be approved as we move along, and I hope we will have a longer period of debate on education sometime later in this Congress.”