Political Quotes

“I appreciate the gentleman's courtesy. H.R. 5 takes a U-turn for educational policy. It is interesting, our friends on the Republican side of the aisle in a farm bill a couple of weeks ago managed to unite environmentalists, farm groups, and taxpayer advocates in unanimous opposition to their proposal, and now they have done it again. They brought together business, education, civil rights groups, and a broad cross-section of organizations that don't agree with each other very often to oppose this bill. In part, it is what happens when you simply refuse to work in a bipartisan and cooperative fashion, as the committee used to do. I have a very vivid example of the impact of this shortsighted approach. I represent Grant High School in Portland, Oregon. They won the national competition for the U.S. Constitution contest. That project of ``We the People'' has been zeroed out by Congress, and programs like this are not going to come back if we approve the approach of this bill. It not only continues to undercut programs for education, the overall spending for education is, in fact, dramatically reduced. It keeps the sequestration cuts. We are going to lose over $10 million this year in Oregon, for instance. And worse, it locks in the post-sequestration funding level through 2019. In addition, it takes away protections for key priority programs, dismantling provisions that would ensure equity.…”