Political Quotes

“I rise today to voice my opinions on the Labor-HHS-Education portion of the Omnibus package. Now that we have reached an agreement on this bill, I suggest that we take a look at what has changed from the bill that was practically a ``done deal'' in October to the piece of legislation that is before us. While the overall funding for education has risen approximately $6.5 to $6.6 billion over FY 2000, which would be the largest increase in education funding ever, funding was cut by over $1.3 billion from the figures agreed to in the October version of the budget. The whole Labor-HHS bill was cut approximately $2.5 billion from that agreement, so over half of the cuts to this bill come from education funding. Here is a sampling of the final funding levels for education programs in this bill: $1.2 billion for the School Renovation Initiative; funding for Head Start is at $6.2 billion, an increase of $933 million over FY 2000; $851 billion for 21st Century Community Learning Centers, an increase of $372 million; $1.62 billion for the Class Size Reduction and Teacher Assistance program; $8.8 billion for Pell Grants, which would set the maximum award at $3,750, an increase of $450 from FY 2000; and $295 million for GEAR UP, an increase of $100 million over FY 2000. While I applaud the increases in education funding that this bill represents, I am saddened that we have chosen to cut education funding from the agreement we reached in October 2000.…”