Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, during the 103d Congress, we enacted major changes to the impact aid law. These changes focused the program on those school districts in greatest need and eliminated all the various exemptions, exceptions, et cetera which had been made to the program over the years. Before the enactment of these reforms, this program was losing its base of support in Congress and was the subject of a fair amount of criticism. At that time, I vowed that the only changes made to this program in the future would be those with broad, national application, or to clarify current law. The changes reported by my committee, and outlined by Chairman Duke Cunningham are just that. The Impact Aid program serves an important purpose. It assists those school districts whose ability to educate their student population is adversely impacted by a Federal presence. The legislation before you today, H.R. 3269, insures that the program will continue to effectively address the needs of those school districts. I urge your support of this measure.”