Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006-- Continued

Floor Speech

DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006--Continued -- (Senate - October 27, 2005)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I will use a very short amount of time, knowing colleagues are anxious to get moving on this bill.

I feel heavy in my heart because this Senate is such a wonderful institution when we authorize afterschool programs in the United States of America. We did that, and we have had a very sad response in terms of the funding that does not match the authorization.

I think my colleagues know full well the FBI says there is no program that does more to keep our kids out of trouble than afterschool programs. That is why Senator Ensign and I teamed up originally to get the first of afterschool programs authorized by this Congress. But it has been very sad.

I know the Senator from Pennsylvania supports this program. I know the Senator from Iowa, who heads this important subcommittee, supports these programs. Most Senators support these programs. But right now is a moment when we have to stand up for our kids.

Look at what has happened. Despite the fact we are supposed to be going toward $2.25 billion, we are actually now funding afterschool at less than $1 billion--less than we were in 2002 because the afterschool programs have not been exempted from across-the-board cuts.

What we will do today with this amendment is add back--this is very important--$51.9 million, which will get it back to the $1 billion area. At least we will take it back to where it was in 2002.

This is a very sad day.

I want to say something to my friend from Pennsylvania, the chairman of the subcommittee and someone whom I admire greatly, Senator Specter. What we have here is a real sadness for our children. We have a situation where we are actually cutting the funding of afterschool programs year after year after year while our children cry out for attention after school. The FBI tells us this is the best.

The Bush administration's Drug Enforcement Agency takes taxpayer money and places ads all over America's televisions that say, It is 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Do you know where your children are? It is 3 o'clock, 5 o'clock. Make sure you know where your children are. They spend taxpayer dollars with one hand warning our families to take care of their kids after school and with the other hand we and they are complicit in cutting the afterschool programs.

We are covering 1.3 million children. There is another couple million to 3 million who need afterschool care. The least we can do is add roughly $51 million to protect this program from inflationary costs and at least get it back to where it was in 2002.

For the sake of our children, for the sake of our families--I am talking here about our poor families, our working poor families, our middle-class families, and our upper middle-class families, and, yes, frankly, even our wealthier families who also support these programs, I urge you to please vote aye on this amendment.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

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