Timothy H. Bishop: “the Labor-HHS appropriations bill we will continue debating later today is a stunning example of the impact that this…”

“the Labor-HHS appropriations bill we will continue debating later today is a stunning example of the impact that this Congress's misplaced priorities can have on what most consider to be a basic human right, access to a quality education. With this bill we have made a conscious choice. While we give away tax cuts worth $140,000 dollars a year to millionaires, families earning $30,000 a year will not be able to afford sending their children to college. It is an unconscionable choice that defies our values. The bill turns its back on priorities like No Child Left Behind and IDEA, which have been cut by $40 billion and $4 billion respectively, as well as College Work Study and Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, which are frozen for the second year in a row. Before I was elected to Congress, I spent 30 years as a college administrator. I came to understand just how difficult it is for students and their families to afford college. Every day I worked with them to scrape up the money, grants, scholarships, whatever we could find to help them realize part of the American Dream, the opportunity to earn a college education. Mr. Speaker, with this bill we have made a conscious choice to provide more comfort for the comfortable at the expense of those who are trying to make a better life for themselves. Our students deserve better. ____________________”