Jeff Bingaman: “the amendment I presented yesterday and that we are going to vote on first this morning is a simple statement that we…”

“the amendment I presented yesterday and that we are going to vote on first this morning is a simple statement that we should reduce the size of the tax cut that is proposed by $132 billion so that we will have funds available to maintain the current level of effort in support of education. It, I grant you, is a sense-of-the-Senate resolution. It does not ensure that the money is spent there, but to my mind it at least reserves those funds so we can maintain the current level of effort in support of education. In other words, I believe we should be on record for funding education at least at current levels before we settle on the size of the tax cut that we can afford. Some might ask why am I singling out education. Well, S. 1429 is more than just a tax bill; it is a reconciliation bill, which means, at least in rough form, it purports to set national priorities for the next 10 years. I believe that a very top priority should be providing quality education to the young people of this Nation. Our future depends more on that investment than it does on virtually any other investment we might make.”