Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this amendment. All of us know there is a great value to pre-school, and the Federal Government already spends as much as $20 billion per year on early childhood programs, including Head Start. This amendment would call for $66 billion over 10 years, so it is just $6.6 billion per year. But we already spend $20 billion, which is almost as much as we spend on kindergarten through 12th grade. How many programs do we need? We have 45 at the moment. One year ago, when we reauthorized the child development block grant, I offered an amendment to reduce the number of programs to five and put them all under one agency. That would save enough money to do this. Elementary and secondary education will be marked up, I think, when we get back. That committee process would be the appropriate place to consider this proposal, not in the budget. I would ask for a ``no'' vote. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the Murray amendment No. 951. The yeas and nays have been ordered. The clerk will call the roll. The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll. The result was announced--yeas 46, nays 54, as follows: [Rollcall Vote No.…”