Arlen Specter: “I applaud President Clinton for proceeding with the State of the Union tonight. Some say that Capitol Hill is…”

“I applaud President Clinton for proceeding with the State of the Union tonight. Some say that Capitol Hill is schizophrenic with impeachment proceedings in the Senate Chamber, and across the Rotunda we will hear the President's State of the Union speech in the House Chamber. But I believe that it is very important that we take care of the Nation's business. I think that can be accomplished at the same time that we move forward with the Senate being constituted as a Court of Impeachment to decide that issue. I have noted the advance text of the President's statement commenting on education and his desire to set up incentives to be a condition for Federal funding. I chair the Appropriations' Subcommittee on Education and we will proceed very promptly with hearings on that subject to make a determination, legislatively, as to whether, at least in the view of our subcommittee, those kinds of standards and those kinds of conceptions are appropriate or whether they may constitute too much Federal interference with education which traditionally has been left to the State and local levels.”