Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman from Florida for speaking and for yielding on this important issue. The gentleman and I do not have any beef with the program, and if Members want to do the program in their districts, more power to them, because obviously in some cases it has worked, although with Even Start the statistics are in and children are not falling behind as a result. So we have no beef about the program. What the beef is is about a program that is so narrowly targeted that only 30 school districts in America receive benefit for it. All of this talk we heard on the floor this afternoon would lead one to believe this was a large nationwide project. But the fact is that what we have heard from today are Members who happen to have a grantee, one of these 30 grantees in their districts. I do not blame them for standing up on the floor here defending the program, trying to keep that money coming into their districts. We are all familiar with pork in Congress. We all think it all happens in the appropriations bills, but it does not. This is nothing more than educational pork that ends up in 30 school districts in America. When we are trying to focus some attention on how to help disadvantaged children in title I, this is the last thing that we ought to be doing--taking out an authorization for $10 million in order to benefit just 30 school districts in America. That is my problem. It is not the program in general.”