Joe Cunningham: “That is the California Duke, not the Louisiana Duke, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, can our colleagues imagine having a…”

“That is the California Duke, not the Louisiana Duke, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, can our colleagues imagine having a child with disabilities and no place to go, that the school refuses to teach that child, and they have no hope that that child will have a bite at the American dream? Well over 21 years ago, Madam Speaker, there was a program established to address this problem, IDEA. And it is said, well, why fix a program that is working good? First of all, IDEA was up for reauthorization. And today we live in a computer age. We do not use typewriters. It is time for a new approach, and like each bill that comes before us, the direction that we set forth was to try and do this in a bipartisan manner. I want to thank my colleague, the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Kildee]. When he was the chairman of my subcommittee, he was very fair and worked very closely with me, as he does now as ranking member. Second, I would like to thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Goodling]. As chairman, he led well. He did not micromanage. He gave me the reins that I needed to be able to go forth. I would like to thank especially the California legislature and all the principals and superintendents that I had meetings and hearings with on this bill. On IDEA, I had more meetings than I have had on national security. My colleagues cannot realize the different interest groups that come into play.”