David Obey: “Mr. Speaker, the gentleman just said that obviously all of us on the House floor agree with the first part of the motion…”

“Mr. Speaker, the gentleman just said that obviously all of us on the House floor agree with the first part of the motion that asks the conferees to fund education at the highest possible level. But, in fact, the conferees yesterday repeated early and often the fact that they were not willing to go one dime above the level now contained in their bill for the Labor, Health, and Education budget. It is true that our friends have now, belatedly, after 5 years of trying to savage the education programs, it is true that at this point they are above the President on some aspects of the education budget. But that is largely due to the additions in Pell Grants and the additions in special education, both of which we support on this side of the aisle. We have no quarrel with that. We believe that this country is wealthy enough that there ought to be room enough for both Republican priorities and Democratic priorities when it comes to education. When it comes to the disadvantaged, for instance, the fact is that the majority party is $85 million in total below the President's budget for Title I, and within that reduced number they have eliminated the President's request for $250 million to use to fix schools that are in the most trouble and are failing. On vocational education they are above the President on State grants, but they are $200 million below the President on voc-ed tech prep programs. And the list can go on and on.…”