Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I have been working hard to get Federal support for our schools. Although this White House talks a good game about education, when it comes to the budget, the devil is always in the details; and the details of the Bush budget certainly provide tremendous cuts to vital education aid in my military communities. I want to talk about just one area tonight: those communities. Mr. Speaker, President Truman established Federal support known as Impact Aid for school districts that are impacted by heavy Federal presence because they do not pay property taxes. In my district, Forts Bragg and Pope are two major bases; and other people can talk about theirs, where thousands of soldiers, airmen, and their families are based. Because these Federal entities do not pay taxes, we provide for something called Impact Aid to help with books, teachers' salaries, buildings and the like. Impact Aid was designed to compensate for the revenue losses. Well, in these areas across the country, they have seen devastating cuts this year because of State budgets being put in trouble because of this administration's policies. In this budget they are proposing to cut $173 million from Impact Aid, a 14.5 percent cut, at the very time when we are asking our men and women to deploy and go overseas, and leave their children back home for an education.”