Tom Cole

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

I am very concerned about the civics issue.

We do, and I would be remiss not to point this out, have a fundamental disagreement overall with the President's budget in the sense that we think there is too little in defense, too much in domestic spending.

I am very heartened to hear about your determination in reopening schools full time.

But that registry notice did not unite us. It is doing quite the opposite.

I really want to flag this, because I can tell you, the political opposition to what I consider a bipartisan bill and something we ought to be working on together is growing and it is growing across the political spectrum.

I agree with your statement we should not be dictating curriculum at the Federal level.

I am deeply concerned by a Federal Register notice published last month by your Department proposing competitive priorities for the national programs in civics.

An annual increase that more than doubles the existing program does not strike me as a responsible or sustainable way to help these students.

I also believe in strong support for Pell Grant recipients.

I was pleased to see support for special education.

I believe we can do better than that for these students and for our future.

A proposed 41 percent increase for the Department of Education in a single year will leave the next generation saddled with the highest national debt our Nation has ever seen.

The level of proposed spending is simply unnecessary, irresponsible, and unacceptable.

I appreciate your remarks, by the way, honoring our teachers.

I simply think that is a wrong sense of priority.

I think most of my Republican colleagues share that view. We think we live in an extraordinarily dangerous world right now.

Tom, you can have a deal or you can have a fight, but you can't have both.

I will be very clear there, and I don't do this in any kind of way to try and start a fight or whatever.

I love the Appropriations Committee. I mean, I really tell people I don't care if you are on the left or the right, the appropriators are deal makers in the end.

I think that reflects, Mr. Secretary, partly a great deal of confidence in you on both sides of the aisle.

This proposal, in my view, exacerbates that.

I really want to work to keep those disagreements in balance to where we could still have a bipartisan outcome and a bipartisan budget.

Will you commit to the subcommittee particularly not to reduce the Conscience Division that we have in the Office of Civil Rights?

I think we can make those efforts bipartisan.