DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006
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Mr. DODD. Mr. President, will the Senator yield?
Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I will yield to the Senator from Connecticut.
Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I wish to ask a question of my colleague from Iowa, in support of the amendment being offered by the Senator from West Virginia. It was only a few years ago that I offered an amendment, during the authorizing bill, to fully fund title I. That amendment carried with over 70 votes to fully fund title I in this Chamber. It was only a matter of months ago. That was an authorization bill. It was not the appropriations bill. All of us are certainly adults, and we know the authorizing levels do not always meet with the appropriations. But we have gone on record supporting this.
I wish to underscore the point the Senator is making and the Senator from West Virginia made; and that is, I hear it. My State, in fact, has filed a lawsuit on the No Child Left Behind Act because of restrictions being required of them.
Now, again, similar to the Senator from Iowa and the Senator from West Virginia, I have great respect for this law because it is a civil rights bill, in my view. It says we should no longer tolerate social promotions of children. We ought to be insisting there ought to be accountability at every single level.
The essence of the bill Senator Kennedy and others drafted, that we were a part of, I think is sound. I think history will prove it to be such. The great shortcoming is not the failure of the law. The law is sound. It is sensible. It makes sense. The failure is as the Senator from Iowa and the Senator from West Virginia pointed out; and that is, we have not lived up to the commitment we made.
Mr. HARKIN. That is right.
Mr. DODD. We turned around and voted overwhelmingly for that law. President Bush wanted it. The Department of Education wanted it. The Congress wanted it. We said: This is what we will do. Yet month after month, since enactment of that legislation, we have failed to meet that obligation. That is the great tragedy in all of this, not the No Child Left Behind law, but the failure of the Congress and the President to say to the people of our respective States: This is what you must do. And by the way, we will be here to see to it the funding is there to support those efforts. We have gone on record in this body, and we are now denying our own record if we turn down this amendment offered by Senator Byrd.
I wish to reinforce the point made by the Senator from Iowa.
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Mr. DODD. Madam President, I call up amendment No. 2254 and ask for its immediate consideration.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
The Senator from Connecticut [Mr. DODD], for himself, Mr. Kennedy, Mrs. Clinton, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Kerry, Mr. Lautenberg, Mr. Corzine, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Lieberman, Ms. Stabenow and Mr. Dayton proposes an amendment numbered 2254.
Mr. DODD. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The amendment is as follows:
(Purpose: To increase appropriations for Head Start programs)
On page 162, line 1, strike ``$9,000,832,000'' and insert ``$9,153,832,000''.
On page 162, line 7, strike ``$6,874,314,000'' and insert ``$7,027, 314,000''.
Mr. DODD. Madam President, the Head Start Program, which is what this amendment is about, is, of course, very familiar to all Members. The Head Start Program began some 40 years ago. Ed Zigler from the State of Connecticut, who hails from Yale University, was the father of the Head Start concept and idea. I think it goes without saying that with the reforms that have been instituted over the last number of years, Head Start has been a very successful program during the past 40 years.
There have been modifications to the program that I think have even strengthened it over the years. Literally thousands of American children, who would otherwise not get a good start in their educational process, have been benefitting as a result of Head Start.
Annually, there are some 900,000 children in the United States who are involved in some 18,000 programs across the country. That is serving about one in four of the eligible children under Head Start.
Over the years, there have been various amendments that have been offered to fully fund Head Start or to raise the amounts considerably to increase the number of eligible children who could receive a Head Start Program. That is not my amendment today.
I should have begun these remarks by thanking my colleague from Pennsylvania. He has been recognized already by the Senator from West Virginia and the Senator from Iowa for his support of these programs and ideas over the years. In fact, some 24 years ago, when he and I arrived as newly minted Senators in January of 1981, we formed together something called the Children's Caucus in the Senate. Senator Specter and I were the chair and co-chair of that caucus, to raise the level of awareness about issues affecting one in four Americans who are children. We had a variety of ad hoc hearings. We did not have any funding. We did not have the means to actually go out and solicit public support for our efforts to highlight some of these issues.
The very first ad hoc hearing Senator Specter and I ever held dealt with latchkey children, afterschool programs, childcare, the related issues for single parents or both parents working. We were trying to get those children to have a good start to provide some resources and support for them. We went on to hold a variety of different hearings over the number of years thereafter. He was a great advocate and a great supporter of those programs. He continues to be today.
Today I recognize that in fact the committee has had a modest increase in the Head Start Program of some $31.2 million. I am appreciative of that. My amendment merely raises that amount by $153 million to make sure we do not have a decline or loss in services for the 900,000 children being served. This amendment is designed to protect about 20,000 children who would fall out of the Head Start Program if we were not able to keep pace with the rising costs of administering these programs.
Also, I ask unanimous consent that Senators KENNEDY, CLINTON, DURBIN, KERRY, MURRAY, CORZINE, LAUTENBERG, LIEBERMAN, STABENOW, and DAYTON be listed as cosponsors of this amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. DODD. Madam President, I said about $100 million.
The idea is just, if we can, to get these levels of support and funding up because of the rising costs of running these programs.
Energy costs are going up on the average in Head Start Programs by 15 percent. Transportation costs are going up 16 percent. Health insurance in some places has gone up as high as 25 percent. Training for staff is up 4 percent. Facility maintenance is up 9 percent. Services for children with special needs, of course, continues to rise.
This amendment does not expand the program. It is not going to add 100,000 children to the Head Start Program. It is just designed to make sure that we do not see the program deteriorate, that we do not force children presently in the program to be dropped because we are unable to meet the predictable inflationary costs of about 2.7 percent in Head Start Programs across the country. That is the rationale for it. It is not an excessive amendment at all. It is a realistic effort to try to do what we can to see to it that these children are going to get the kind of start they deserve.
To make my case, I want to point out two studies. One was done a number of years ago. It was a survey done of kindergarten teachers throughout the United States. These were asked, How ready are children when they come to kindergarten? How ready are they to learn? Over 50 percent of kindergarten teachers in the United States, when surveyed and asked that question, responded that the majority of children were not ready to learn when they entered kindergarten.
There are a variety of reasons for that. We are not going to solve the problem overnight. But we do know now, after 40 years, that children who are in a Head Start Program clearly benefit and have a much higher degree of success than children in similar circumstances who do not participate in programs.
We know, for instance, that Head Start children are more likely to maintain grade level performance in elementary schools and on into secondary schools. We know that Head Start children stay out of the juvenile justice system to a far higher degree than children who are not in those programs. We know that children in the Head Start Program are less likely to become abusers of substances, either alcohol or drugs. We know these children, who are involved in Head Start Programs are less likely to become teen mothers.
In statistic after statistic, we find these children who get the benefit and advantages of a Head Start Program have a greater likelihood of success. It is not a guarantee of success. There are obviously children who do not make it. But we know after 40 years this program works pretty well.
Again, I am not suggesting today we expand the program. I have tried that in the past. All I am asking my colleagues today is to say for the coming fiscal year can we do what is possible to avoid some 20,000 children who are presently in the program from falling out of it?
The second study I want to point out has just come out in the last several days. I do not know if my colleagues have yet received these in their offices. My colleagues, Senator LAMAR ALEXANDER and JEFF BINGAMAN of New Mexico, went to the National Academy of Sciences a couple of months ago. If I can paraphrase their request, they said to the National Academy of Sciences: Would you mind telling us, over the next number of years, what are the 10 things we ought to better prepare to handle the math, the science, and the technology demands of our Nation?
I am not going to recite the full study here, which is entitled ``Rising Above the Gathering Storm.'' I will just list some of the authors. The chair is Norman Augustine, the retired chair of Lockheed Martin; Craig Barrett, chairman of the board of Intel Corporation; Rick Levin, the president of Yale University; the president of MIT, the president of DuPont company, the president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute--it is just an incredible list of distinguished Americans and academicians who worked over a period of time, I think 3 or 4 months, to come out with a series of recommendations.
I will not go through all of their report. You will get it and it is worth looking at. There were some very dramatic recommendations and ones we should take very seriously.
Their findings come in this smaller pamphlet entitled ``Rising Above the Gathering Storm.'' In the first paragraph, these distinguished Americans say:
We are worried about the future prosperity of the United States. Although many people assume the United States will always be a world leader in science and technology, this may not continue to be the case inasmuch as great minds and ideas exist throughout the world. We fear the abruptness with which a lead in science and technology can be lost, and the difficulty of recovering a lead once lost if, indeed, it can be regained at all. This Nation must prepare with great urgency to preserve its strategic and economic security.
It continues, but I think that language directly bears on the amendment I am offering today. The No. 1 suggestion they make--I don't think they necessarily prioritize it, but the first suggestion is to train and put into the field 10,000 teachers a year in math and the sciences. The goal is that each one of these teachers might educate 1,000 students over a career, so that over time a million students in our country would benefit from a tremendous education in science and math and engineering.
If America is going to avoid exactly what these distinguished Americans have warned us against we must prepare teachers and children. Let me go back to the statistic I mentioned a moment ago, that if the kindergarten teachers of America are right, half of children entering kindergarten today are not ready to learn. It is one thing to have teachers, but what if you don't have the students who are ready to learn? If we know that Head Start kids are more likely to be prepared for school, stay in school, stay out of trouble, avoid substance abuse, don't become teen parents, then we ought to be doing what we can to keep those 900,000 kids in the program. We know full well that Head Start, after 40 years, does make a difference.
We can do a lot better. We can do so much better if we start making these modest investments. We know the modest investments in these programs pay huge dividends. Should we not try to stop some erosion in this program? That is all I am offering today, a modest 2.7-percent increase, a little more than $150 million to just keep the number of children in the program there for the coming fiscal year. Then, I hope, in the coming years when our fiscal condition is much stronger and better certainly than it is today, we can do more to see that these children have a chance to go on.
Someday I want to come back and offer an amendment again, as I did years ago, to make sure every eligible child can get in a good program like Head Start and Early Head Start. I wouldn't try that today. I know my colleagues cannot accept that. I understand the budget realities. But can we not find $153 million? We are spending $6 billion a month in Iraq. That doesn't include Afghanistan. My colleague from Tennessee and I and Senator Enzi and Senator Kennedy recently worked on a package for 1 year to help out some 400,000 students who have lost their schools as a result of Katrina and Rita--mostly Katrina. It was a great idea. Let's put aside our differences. Let's make sure these kids can get going so they do not miss a year because the schools have been washed away or destroyed.
But there are not hurricanes and natural disasters all over our country, thank the Lord. But these children in Head Start, in many ways, live in a disastrous situation every day. They live in chaos, many of them. They live in families and neighborhoods where it is amazing that anyone can come out of them intact. Head Start has reached into these communities and provided a safe place, a harbor for children with talents and abilities. If you go to a Head Start Program you see the children are bright and they want to learn and they overcome obstacles, as their parents do every day, to give them a chance to get going. I don't want some kid in a Head Start Program to be dropped out this year who could have become that engineer or that scientist who becomes that CEO of Intel or who becomes the head of Lockheed Martin or becomes the president of RPI or Yale University. And they are there. These kids are not just in the private schools. They are not just in the affluent neighborhoods. Talented Americans are in every neighborhood in America, and we ought to be able to do better for these children. We ought to be able to say: This year things are tough, we can't expand the program. But we are not going to lose any kids. We are not going to leave any child behind in a Head Start Program.
Listen to the warnings of this report. It can happen with abruptness, and once lost, very difficult to regain. So while we expand the pool of teachers, while we do everything we can to give kids a chance to learn, we have to make sure these kids are ready to learn. Head Start, for 40 years has done that.
It has made it possible for kids to become ready to learn. Not that they make it in every case, again, but we know without any question today that the difference between a child who is in an Early Head Start or Head Start Program and a child who is not is the likelihood the Head Start participant will avoid the obvious pitfalls that can happen so quickly in a young person's life. There is a greater likelihood they will go through it.
I am offering this amendment today, pleading with my colleagues, let's not lose 20,000 kids. We have not yet even begun to discuss this ``Rising Storm'' report. I like big ideas, and one of the reasons I am so fond of my colleague from Tennessee is because he likes big ideas. He wanted to come to the Senate to grapple with a big idea, and this is a big idea. I am sure he has not, nor am I, endorsing every dotted I or crossed t here. But it is a very big idea. Head Start is a big idea that Ed Zigler had 40 years ago, and today there are some 900,000 children in this country who benefit from it, less than 50% of those who are eligible. It is a big idea that needs to be protected. We need to be thinking about both parts of the equation--we need teachers and we need students. We can do a lot better, in my view, if we try to do both. We are not going to deal with this report this year. But it seems to me we know Head Start works and the success we have had with it, and knowing the costs that the nearly 19,000 programs across the country are facing--energy, transportation, health insurance, training for staff; all of these increases ranging from 15 percent to 25 percent in the next year. Just to try to keep these programs whole, to hold them harmless, is something I think is worth doing.
Therefore, I offer this amendment on behalf of myself and my colleagues with the hopes that there will be enough votes maybe to overcome the budget considerations. Again, I say to my colleague from Pennsylvania and my colleague from Iowa, you have a thankless job. I know it is not easy to have Members like myself coming over, making these cases to you. But my hope would be in some instances, particularly this one, that we would undertake the responsibility of trying to at least keep the program alive.
Barbara Tuchman wrote a wonderful book years ago. She is no longer with us. She wrote a number, but one of them is called ``The March of Folly,'' and it mostly dealt with strategic military questions, going throughout past history. Her point was that nations commit folly when they engage in behavior they know is unwise yet they pursue it anyway. This is a different kind of problem than a mistake you make when you didn't know it was a mistake until later. But the follies, according to Barbara Tuchman, were when you knew you were making a mistake and you went ahead and did it anyway.
In a sense, for us not to keep these programs whole is the ``March of Folly'' when it comes to America's future. We know, we know it as well as we know anything in this body, that the key to America's success has been based, throughout its 220-year history on an educated population. I have said this maybe 1,000 times; 201 years ago, Thomas Jefferson said:
Any nation that ever expects to be ignorant and free expects what never was and never possibly can be.
If that was true in the beginning of the 19th century, here we are in the beginning of the 21st century with all the explosions of advances around the globe. If we don't make these investments, if we don't do everything possible to educate our children, knowing that the failure to do so puts this Nation at risk on every level, is in fact the ``March of Folly.''
It could be a new chapter for Barbara Tuchman were she alive today and writing the sequel to her own book. To not support these efforts, I think, leads us on a path that these distinguished academicians and others have strongly identified in their report.
Again, read their words on the opening page, if you will, of ``Rising Above the Gathering Storm.''
We are worried about the future prosperity of the United States. Although many people assume the United States will always be a world leader in science and technology, this may not continue to be the case. Inasmuch as great minds and ideas exist throughout the world, we fear the abruptness with which the lead in science and technology can be lost and the difficulty of recovering a lead once lost, if indeed it can be regained at all. This Nation must prepare with great urgency to preserve the strategic and economic security.
Those words are about as clear as they could be. Head Start is an integral part of that, in my view. There is a sense of urgency that ought to be about it.
My hope is again that my colleagues will see their way through to supporting this amendment.
I thank the Chair.
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Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I will, if I may, take a few minutes in support of the amendment by my colleague from New York. I am a cosponsor of this amendment. As she very graciously pointed out, over a number of years, a number of us have worked on this issue. But my colleague is much too humble. The fact that she has only been in this Chamber a little short of her first term belies her interest in this subject matter, which goes back years.
As she pointed out, she was a lawyer working with the Children's Defense Fund. I know our mutual friend, Marion Wright Edelman, has had this issue on the agenda for years and years and years. While the Senator from New York is a relatively new Member of this Chamber, she is not a newcomer to this issue. I am delighted she is taking the lead on this issue this year to highlight the importance of this issue.
She made all the important arguments. Again, I think the Senator from New York and I both agree, saying to our friend from Pennsylvania: We don't want you to go anywhere. We like the fact you are the chair. You won't mind if the Senator from New York and I might prefer that Senator Harkin were the chairman of the committee and you were the ranking member of that committee. You will appreciate our desire to be in the majority, not in the minority, on these issues. But we appreciate immensely the deep commitment of the Senator from Pennsylvania on these issues, not just intellectually but passionately as well. And that is understood.
But, certainly, as you understand and we understand the situation you are in, you must understand, as well, the position we feel so strongly about; and that is, the people who rely and count on us to come up here and raise these issues to try to see if we can't do a bit better.
I know within the Budget Act the restraints are there. But we all know as well that we can make choices here in this Chamber. We can make choices about revenue raising, about different priorities within our overall budget. I don't want to leave anyone with the impression that it is impossible for us to do this. It is not impossible for us to do this. If the will of a majority here exists--or in this case a supermajority to overcome the Budget Act--we can do this.
It is a matter of choices we all get asked to make every single day. They are not easy choices--I understand that--from time to time, although I think the case for special education is so profoundly clear that it ought not be that difficult. We all appreciate the position the manager of the bill is in when he offers, as he must, a point of order because what we are suggesting does break the ceiling. But that should not be a restraint on anyone else who has the opportunity to make a choice about whether they think this issue has merit.
The Senator from New York has pointed out there has been a number of people over the years--Republicans and Democrats--who have supported increasing funds for special education. The Senator from New York rightly goes back and talks about a not too distant history--this is not ancient history--when millions of our fellow citizens, merely because they were confined to a wheelchair, because they had a physical disability, had a learning disability, were deprived the opportunity to receive an education in our country.
It was only 30 years ago we decided it was important we provide an opportunity for every child--every child--to reach his or her potential and that our educational system ought to be able to accommodate those children, and to see to it they have the opportunity to become as independent and as successful as their God-given talents would provide them. That has been a great success in our country.
Back not that many years ago, only 20 percent of children with disabilities ever got an education. Imagine that. It is not that long ago. The Senator from New York has pointed out how she met children, when she was doing her work early on, who were in wheelchairs, children who were blind.
My oldest sister Carolyn--whom many of my colleagues have met; I know my colleague from New York has met--was born legally blind. She just retired after 41 years of teaching. She holds two masters degrees in early childhood development. She ran and taught in Montessori schools, and taught, in the late 1950s, in the Whitby School in Greenwich, CT, with Nancy Rambusch, for those who follow Montessori and educational issues.
But for the financial situation of my family and my parents, who could go out and provide an opportunity for my sister Carolyn who was born in the 1930s, I would hate to think what might have happened to my sister under different economic circumstances. What I also regret, as well, is what those children over those 41 years would have lost from a remarkable human being who taught them.
Today, many of these children across our country who have a physical disability, a learning disability, can go out and achieve great success. I know, for instance, a great new airline in the country--JetBlue, I think it is called--the man who started that company lives in my State of Connecticut. He has nine children. He is dyslexic. Nelson Rockefeller, who presided over this Chamber as Vice President of the United States, who was a former Governor of the State of New York, which my colleague who has offered this amendment represents, was dyslexic. He had a difficult time reading a speech. Yet think of the achievements he reached. Again, economic circumstances gave him opportunities.
What we are saying today is we do not want to deprive these families, these individuals, of the opportunity to achieve their potential and to serve our country, not just themselves because we have all benefited as a result of the last 30 years of educational opportunities.
My colleague from New York makes a very good point. I have often said if you go back to any community, any county in the United States today and ask them: What could we possibly do to be of help to you?--now, there are unique circumstances. There may be a road or a bridge or a dam or some special project. But I promise you, I don't care whether you go from New Hampshire to Pennsylvania to South Dakota to New York, walk into a county or small town and ask, What are the things we can help out with, and you will hear about No Child Left Behind. That may come first. But I will tell you what is either first or second, unless there is some special need that exists in that community. It is special education, and particularly if you go to rural communities, small towns.
I know in my own State, if you go to meet with the first selectman or selectwoman and ask, What is the cost, you may find that you have one or two special needs children whose educational costs distort the local budget. And it can throw their budget all out of whack. What it does, unfortunately, as well, is it sort of singles out these families and children as if somehow they are culpable for creating financial difficulty to their community or their county.
We made a promise 30 years ago. We made a promise that we would pick up the cost of 40 percent of the special educational costs. We are now at about 18 percent. What the Senator from New York offers us would get us to a little more than 24 percent, for 1 year, by the way. This is not an amendment that provides the funding in the succeeding years. It would result, without any question, I can tell you, in rural communities in my State, in lowering property taxes, without any question whatsoever. I suspect that would be true in larger communities as well, but certainly in smaller communities, in rural areas in the country, if we could begin to meet our obligation.
We are not creating an obligation here. We are merely fulfilling one. We could actually make a huge difference in a tax that is very onerous to most people in the country--rising property taxes. That occurs because of, primarily, education costs, in most areas. It is the education budget that drives the property tax increases more than anything else.
So if you are interested in reducing some of the taxes on our people, particularly on one that affects middle-income and lower income people, who could really use the break, then you ought to be supporting the amendment offered by the Senator from New York; not to mention, of course, the advantage and the benefit that our country receives because we are providing an opportunity for children who can make such a difference in our society.
The other day I was talking with my colleague, Senator Burr. I think Senator Burr made this point. If he didn't then I stand corrected. But I believe it was Senator Burr. We were talking about special education and the importance of these programs, and I was recalling that not that long ago I went to a program in Connecticut where there is an effort to integrate special needs children with mainstream children. Part of the day these children are also in special classes. Seeing special needs children interacting with their peers was a wonderful thing to see.
I wish all of my colleagues could have been with me that morning to see the children who are not special needs children and what an education they are getting sitting in a classroom with children who have learning disabilities or other special needs. You can see these children defend, understand, help, reach out, and recognize the talents of their fellow classmates--in a wheelchair or having a learning disability because of some mental retardation--and see how proud they are to be in a classroom with these kids, how proud they are of their accomplishments and what they can do, even under limited circumstances.
I cannot put a line item in the budget for you on that one. There is no way I can calculate the cost of what it means for a child to understand that a fellow classmate of theirs--in an elementary school, by the way--is learning and doing their best. What a better citizen, what a better person that child without those needs is because of that experience. It is an incredible thing to see, to watch children caring for each other. What better adults they are going to be when they are grown up in society, understanding that not everyone who is a part of this country--with all the great success we attribute to our own Nation--are without problems.
This amendment is designed to do what we can to see to it that we provide more help to these communities and to these families and these children whom we all agree and understand deserve our support. We don't want to go back, obviously, to the days when we excluded as many as 80 percent of the children in this country with disabilities from receiving an education. We are not doing that, but we have a choice now, in the next few hours.
We have a choice to make on Head Start. We have a choice to make on special education. It can be done. Don't go home to constituents and say it was impossible for us to do it. It is not impossible. It is possible. It is a question of whether you want to make the choice to make it possible. That is the difference. That is what we are asking here to do.
Again, I commend my colleague from New York and thank her immensely for offering this amendment. I look forward to someday getting some real success in all of this. But this is a major step forward, and I commend her for it.
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Mr. DODD. Mr. President, we discussed this amendment sometime ago. In the past, I have offered amendments to fully fund Head Start. This amendment does not do that. This amendment adds $153 million specifically to deal with the inflation that will affect the cost of the 19,000 Head Start Programs across the country.
There are 900,000 children in Head Start. If this amendment is not adopted, the estimates are that 20,000 to 25,000 children will be dropped from the Head Start Program across our country.
We all know that a Head Start child is more likely to finish school, less likely to end up in the juvenile justice system, less likely to be a substance abuser, less likely to become a teenage parent. We know it is not perfect, but after 40 years, Head Start works. This is not to expand the program, but let us not lose the children today who are part of that program.
I urge the adoption of this amendment.
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