Kent Conrad: “first, there has now been agreement on a resolution with respect to Iraq. At least we had a caucus and there is…”

“first, there has now been agreement on a resolution with respect to Iraq. At least we had a caucus and there is agreement on the wording of the resolution. I hope very much we get on with that sometime soon. I personally think it is surrealistic to be talking about other issues and not talking about Iraq. I hope when we get on to the discussion of the war with Iraq, not for the purpose of delay, because we could dispense with that discussion hopefully throughout the day and perhaps tomorrow morning go back to the budget and complete the budget by early next week, which is long in advance of when we need to finish it, but to have our country at war and not be discussing that when the resolution has now been completed strikes many of us as incongruous. With that said, we are still on the budget. Let me go to the question of the amendment I have already announced I will send to the desk. The amendment I will be offering is on funding IDEA. We see that in 2002 and 2003, we enacted $2.5 billion. Full funding for that period would be $24.4 billion. When we say "full funding," that is not really full funding. That is funding the commitment the Federal Government made to provide 40 percent of the cost of that legislation, a commitment that we have never kept. As a result, we forced up local property taxes all across the country. The budget that has come before us in 2002 is far short of meeting the Federal commitment in 2003 and in 2004.”