David Obey: “a few minutes ago we heard one of the speakers on the majority side of the aisle talk about this bill in terms of being…”

“a few minutes ago we heard one of the speakers on the majority side of the aisle talk about this bill in terms of being a bill which meets our promises. I am not quite sure what bill she was referring to, but it certainly could not have been this one because this bill is a monument to broken promises and is an embarrassment to the institution, in my view, if this institution pretends that it cares about making the long-term investments in our economy and in our kids that are necessary. If you take a look at what this bill does not produce, this bill falls $9.5 billion below the promises in the No Child Left Behind Act of just 3 years ago for Title I alone, which is the major program by which we attack poor education systems for disadvantaged children. For Title I alone, this bill is $7 billion short of the promises laid out in the No Child Left Behind Act. Special education: Both political parties posed for political holy pictures in terms of how much we are going to try to do for handicapped children, and yet this bill provides $2.5 billion less than the Republicans promised in their own budget of just 1 year ago. Then if we look at Pell grants, I was so flabbergasted, I practically fell onto the floor when I saw the President of the United States speak to the Republican convention and talk about his determination to increase Pell grants, when, in fact, the majority has frozen Pell grants for 2 years in a row, and this bill is part of that freezing process.”