Arlen Specter: “Mr. President, I join the chairman of the subcommittee in opposing the amendment by the Senator from Arizona. I believe…”

“Mr. President, I join the chairman of the subcommittee in opposing the amendment by the Senator from Arizona. I believe that impact aid is very important, beyond any question. We have the responsibility, as proponents of this bill, to make a lot of allocations. We try to do it as fairly as we can, recognizing all of the priorities which are present. Senator Harkin pointed out that we raised impact aid from $12.5 million last year to $68 million. It is difficult to follow all the matters. Another Senator approached us and has raised a concern. I made a statement that there would be an effort made in conference--that is always uncertain--to put back some of the money which was transferred by the amendment by the Senator from Oklahoma, Mr. Inhofe. As Senator Harkin has already noted, last year we did make an allocation from school construction money. Basically, this is a dispute about the role of the Federal Government in school construction. We had a very spirited debate on the amendment by the Senator from New Hampshire, Mr. Gregg, earlier today. A margin of 54-45 on a hotly contested issue is a fairly decisive margin. It is my view that we will try to improve the position of impact aid which the Senator from Arizona wants once in conference, but the allocations which we have made here, taking the bill as a whole, represent a fair allocation.”