Pete Sessions: “I share Senator Conrad's desire that we do more for IDEA. Under President Bush, we have done more than ever. We also…”

“I share Senator Conrad's desire that we do more for IDEA. Under President Bush, we have done more than ever. We also need reform of IDEA. If we listen to our teachers, principals, and school people, they will tell us that the Federal laws are driving them crazy, undermining their ability to discipline. We need some reform at the same time we put in some additional money. We have a chance to do that this year. What I want to express my concern about is this manufactured issue about the supplemental and that we cannot proceed with our budget without knowing what the supplemental is going to be. We have a budget law that says we have to have this done by April 15. We cannot sit around here and wait forever. I would just like to remind everybody how we got here. Last fall, in this body and the House--we voted 77 to 23 in this Senate to authorize the President of the United States to use force, if he deemed fit, to protect the security of the United States. After great care and every option being pursued, the President has concluded that we should use force. I am not aware that a single one of those 77 Senators wishes to change their vote. I also note that at that time the Democrats controlled this body. And at that time, while we voted to authorize the President to act, we debated the cost. We talked about the cost a great deal. People had all kinds of ideas about the cost. And when we voted to authorize him to act, we knew there would be a cost.”