Frank Pallone: “I wanted to focus on education this afternoon, because I am very concerned about the consequences of the House…”

“I wanted to focus on education this afternoon, because I am very concerned about the consequences of the House Republican leadership and their spending proposals with regard to education, the cuts that they have implemented or they are trying to implement in education. Essentially what we are seeing now is that these cuts are hitting home. I am going back to my district, and I know others have heard from their districts and their hometowns, are hearing back from the school boards and from local residents about the fact that teachers now have to be laid off or taxes have to be raised in order to provide for education programs that the Federal Government will no longer fund under these Republican proposals. I have said before that education is one of the priorities that the President and the Democrats in Congress have stressed should not be severely impacted during these constant budget battles on the floor. Yet once again we face the situation where the House passed a spending bill a few weeks ago for the remainder of this fiscal year that would severely cut, provide the largest cut in educational programs in the history of the Federal Government. This is basically amounting to a 13-percent reduction from the last fiscal year, a $3.3 billion cut in education programs.”