Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006
DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006 -- (House of Representatives - June 23, 2005)
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Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I too would like to associate myself with the comments from the Congressional Black Caucus. I would want to assure the chairman of the caucus that I think that what we are doing now is most appropriate.
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Mr. Chairman, let me first say thanks to you and the Ranking Member for your work on this bill.
Despite the hard work that went into this bill, I will not be voting in favor of the bill.
More specifically, the bill cuts all funding for Area Health Education Centers, Health Education and Training Centers, and Health Professions Training Programs. All of these programs fall under Title VII and are very important to my constituents. These programs have been addressing the needs of medically underserved communities in Texas since 1991 by playing a key role in providing health services and health care professionals for our most vulnerable populations.
The bill also cuts funding in other important programs. For example, the bill provides the smallest increase for NIH in 36 years. It reduces the overall Centers for Disease Control and Prevention budget. Further it ends HHS contributions to the Global AIDS Fund. The bill also cuts substance abuse prevention and treatment and produces a continued decline in the number of research grants. While the bill provides a small increase for Head Start, it does not adopt the President's proposal to spend $45 million on new pilot programs under which State governments would take over management of the program in nine States. The bill also freezes appropriations on the Child Care Block Grant at the FY05 level of $2.083 billion, making it the fourth year in a row which this program has been either frozen or cut.
Unfortunately, the bill only provides $14.7 billion for the Education for the Disadvantaged Children Program. It saddens me to say that this amount is $115 million less than the current level and $1.7 billion less than the Administration's request. I hope more funding can be provided for this important program during conference.
Before closing, I would like to express my dismay with the $100 million decrease in funding for Corporation for Public Broadcasting. A loss in CPB funding would seriously hamper PBS' ability to acquire the top quality children's educational programming that is used in classrooms, day care centers and millions of American households to educate, entertain and provide a safe harbor from the violent, commercial and crass content found in the commercial marketplace. PBS provides valuable services that improve classroom teaching and assist homeschoolers. These could be reduced or eliminated if federal funding is cut. These services include PBS TeacherSource, a service that provides pre-K through 12 educators with nearly 4,000 free lesson plans, teachers' guides, and homeschooling guidance; and PBS TeacherLine, which provides high-quality professional teacher development through more than 90 online-facilitated courses in reading, mathematics, science and technology integration. We must not cut funding for this valuable program.
Let me also take a moment to speak on the Congressional Black Caucus Closing Disparities Agenda. Closing the achievement and opportunity gaps in education, assuring quality health care for every American, focusing on employment and economic security, building wealth and business development, ensuring justice for all, guaranteeing retirement security for all Americans, and increasing equity in foreign policy are all important issues that we as members of the Congressional Black Caucus strive to make advancements in every day.
The CBC acknowledges the unfortunate fact that disparities between African-Americans and white Americans continue to exist in 2005 in every aspect of our lives and that the historical mission of the CBC has not yet been fully accomplished. It is important to note that providing high-quality education to all public school students is very critical to achieving our objectives in all areas of our Agenda.
More specifically, we must continue supporting early childhood nutrition, Head Start and movements toward universal pre-schools. Providing education and assistance appropriate to the needs of each individual student to fulfill the promise of No Child Left Behind, dropout prevention, after-school programs, school modernization and infrastructure and equipment enhancement is important.
Increasing the availability of Pell Grants, scholarships, loan assistance and other specialized programs to enable and provide incentives to more African-American students to obtain college, graduate or professional degrees or otherwise receive training and retraining to meet changing job needs is also very important. The preservation and improving of Historically Black Colleges and Universities is also essential to our growth as a people. The following are some of the dramatic disparities that the CBC believes would be reduced by the above priorities:
In 2003, 39 percent of African-American 4th grade students could read at or above a basic reading level compared to 74 percent of white 4th grade students, and 39 percent of African-American 8th grade students performed at or above a basic math level compared to 79 percent of white 8th grade students;
High school completion rates--83.7 percent for African-Americans, and 91.8 percent for whites;
Bachelor Degree recipients--16.4 percent for African-Americans, and 31.7 percent for whites; and
Digital Divide--41.3 percent of African-Americans are capable of accessing the Internet, compared to 61.5 percent of whites.
Another important area of the CBC agenda centers on health care disparities. The twentieth century saw major advances in health care, health status, and longevity. Despite these gains, differential morbidity and mortality between Caucasian populations and people of color persist; creating what the CBC believes is one of the most pressing health problems affecting America today. Recent reports on racial and ethnic health disparities document the relatively poor health of African Americans, American Indians, Latinos, Asian Americans, and other underrepresented groups when compared to white Americans. Not only are these groups often less healthy, but they also tend to have shorter life expectancies, greatly increased rates of infant mortality, high rates of chronic disease such as diabetes, worse outcomes once diagnosed with an illness, and less access to health care.
Among the dramatic disparities the CBC believes could be reduced by taking action are:
In December 2004, the American Journal of Public Health reported that 886,000 more African-Americans died between 1991 and 2000 than would have died had equal health care been available;
While African-Americans comprised approximately 12 percent of the U.S. population in 2000, they represented 19.6 percent of the uninsured;
African-American men experience twice the average death rate from prostate cancer;
In 2002, the African-American AIDS diagnosis rate was 11 times the white diagnosis rate (23 times more for women and 9 times more for men);
African-Americans are two times more likely to have diabetes than whites, four times more likely to see their diabetes progress to end-stage renal disease and four times more likely to have a stroke; and
African-Americans are only 2.9 percent of doctors, 9.2 percent of nurses, 1.5 percent of dentists and 0.4 percent of health care administrators, yet African-Americans comprise 12 percent of the population.
As Congressional Black Caucus members, we will continue to work towards closing the gaps in education, health care, and employment.
I thank the Chairman for my time.
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Mr. WATT. Mr. Chairman, solely for the purpose of a unanimous consent request, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. AL GREEN.)
(Mr. AL GREEN of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I too would like to associate myself with the comments from the Congressional Black Caucus. I would want to assure the chairman of the caucus that I think that what we are doing now is most appropriate.
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