Joe Cunningham: “8 years ago I was put on the Subcommittee on the District of Columbia, and I am still on the Subcommittee on the…”

“8 years ago I was put on the Subcommittee on the District of Columbia, and I am still on the Subcommittee on the District of Columbia, because I volunteered to stay there. This was during the time of Marion Berry, and I thought what better place can we make some changes. I set out in three specific areas. One, the education system. You recognize, the fire department had to take over control. The roofs, the schools did not open because the roofs were unsafe and the schools were unsafe. We got in a new school board, we reorganized, we took some of the board members off who were totally unqualified, and the new board has done a good job with charter schools, et cetera. The one area that I am disappointed in this bill is that for two of those terms I was enabled to take the trial lawyers, liberal trial lawyers that were ripping off the system within the special education program, and they had charter organizations that would literally take millions of dollars out of the special education program. We stopped that. We capped the trial lawyers' fees and put in valuable programs for special education and children, but yet no child was left without representation. I hope that the Senate takes that up.”