Kay Bailey Hutchison: “Mr. President, I will discuss some of the issues raised by the Senator from Illinois. First, he says the number and…”

“Mr. President, I will discuss some of the issues raised by the Senator from Illinois. First, he says the number and quality of attorneys who take special education cases has declined since the imposition of the cap. This is not supported by the facts. The number of attorney representations in 1997 before the caps were put into place was over 2,000. Last year, there were 1,700 such representations. We have not seen a steep decline in the number of attorneys willing to take these cases. Most certainly, $125 an hour, which is what used to be the cap, and $150, which we are proposing, makes a good living for a person. A lawyer working 2,000 hours in a year earns $300,000 with a $150-an-hour fee structure. It is not as if we are looking at people who would not be able to have a quality of life. This is a reasonable amendment. Second, he made the statement that access to special education will be inhibited, that the disabled students will not be able to get access to this education. Access to special education in the District has improved since the imposition of attorney fee caps in 1999. The backlog of IDEA initial assessments shrank from 1,805 before the caps to 143 as of March 2001. The backlog of hearings has been reduced from 900 to 20 during the same period.”