Joe Cunningham: “I have spent 12 years in this body, both in the authorization and the Committee on Appropriations. My sister-in-law is…”

“I have spent 12 years in this body, both in the authorization and the Committee on Appropriations. My sister-in-law is in charge of all special education in San Diego city schools. She works for Alan Bersin. And what he has stated that he has got two basic problems. One is that it is improper to say that the governor is taking Federal education money and cutting IDEA. What he is doing is reducing the State funds for IDEA and the Federal funds are supposed to go above that to enhance the IDEA funding, and the governor is doing that to balance his budget. This amendment prevents that. There is much more that we could do in this body. I wish that we could reduce the maximum amount of paperwork. In California it is unbelievable. I wish we could cap lawyer fees, and put the money directly towards students. We cannot do all of those things. We do not have the votes on some of these issues. But this one is not only very thoughtful, and I would like to thank the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) and the gentleman from California (Mr. McKeon), it is not only thoughtful, but it is needed to protect the funds that we have appropriated in a bipartisan way for IDEA.”