Political Quotes

“my only regret, as I leave this institution, is that the first 20 years I sat there in the minority trying to make everybody understand that the thing that is driving local school districts up the wall more than anything else is the fact that we are only sending them about 6 percent of the 40 percent we promised them in excess costs to educate special needs children. Let me review, however, the last 5 years. I am very pleased with the leadership of the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Porter). The President asked, in 1997, for $2.6 billion; the final appropriation $3.1. The President asked, in 1998, for 3.2 level funding; he got 3.8. Level funding means that he cut in his budget special education, because the increased numbers that came in to special ed, as well as inflation, of course, meant it was a cut. In 1999, again he sent a budget up here cutting IDEA. At a Christmas function, I asked him if he realized he was cutting IDEA. He said they were putting a lot of money in IDEA. I advised him that he was cutting it with the budget request that he was sending up. Fortunately, under the leadership of the gentleman from Illinois, not his 3.8 in 1999 but 4.3 billion. He cut it again in his fiscal year 2000 budget, again asking for level funding, which is a cut because of the increased numbers that have come in to special education and the costs of living increases. But thanks to the leadership of the gentleman from Illinois, he did not get that cut down to 4.3.”