John Spratt: “Mr. Speaker, this motion has four purposes. First of all, it says to the conferees on the budget resolution, go as close…”

“Mr. Speaker, this motion has four purposes. First of all, it says to the conferees on the budget resolution, go as close as they can to what the Senate provided for education. Basically, the House resolution endorses and puts forth the President's budget. The President's budget provides an increase in education next year, fiscal year 2002, of 5.8 percent. That is an increase, but it pales in comparison with last year where the increase was 18 percent and the last 5 years over which the increase in education has averaged 13 percent. The Senate, given a choice, a choice we did not have here on the House floor, between a higher tax cut and less for education, opted to do more for education on four different occasions. As a consequence, their plus-up for education over and above the President's baseline budget is nearly $300 billion. We are simply saying go as far as they feasibly can toward the Senate on education. Secondly, with respect to Medicare, and in particular with respect to Medicare prescription drugs, the President's proposal again was to put $147 billion out for the next 10 years to provide for a temporary helping-hand benefit and eventually to have some kind of benefit possibly integrated with Medicare.”