David Obey: “Mr. Chairman, whatever amendments Democrats offer to try to help people, we get the same response from the Republican…”

“Mr. Chairman, whatever amendments Democrats offer to try to help people, we get the same response from the Republican side of the aisle: "It is all going to the bureaucracy." Let me tell the Members where the money is going. We are trying to provide help for 15,000 more kids for Head Start, so we do not have to reduce the number by 15,000 this year from last year. The last time I looked, first-graders were not bureaucrats, they were kids who needed help. We provide help for 450,000 kids under title I. Those are not bureaucrats, those are first- and second- and third-graders. We provide $250 million for school improvement. That goes to schools. It goes to neighborhood schools. We provide $233 million to restore the teacher training that they wiped out in the bill. That is 186,000 math and science teachers that will get the training they otherwise would not get. We restore $25 million for safe- and drug-free schools, not bureaucrats. I wish it could be $125 million. We restore $25 million to help 17,000 kids, not bureaucrats, get summer jobs. We restore $93 million in order to help 96,000 students, not bureaucrats. We provide $150 million so 50,000 American workers who have lost their jobs because of trade can get help to get retrained. So do not give me this baloney about money going to bureaucrats. This money goes to workers, it goes to kids, it goes to neighborhood schools, it goes to working families.”