Congress Budget for the United States Government for Fiscal Year 2009

Floor Speech

CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET FOR THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2009 -- (Senate - March 13, 2008)

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The PRESIDING OFFICER. Amendment No. 4151. There is 2 minutes of debate equally divided.

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, everyone is aware of the credit crisis and its impact on homeowners. This amendment is designed to ensure that the crisis does not impact students.

The amendment ensures that Congress can act to provide low-interest loans to students who need them. It will bring stability and security to our higher education system. My amendment strengthens the Federal Student Loan Program so that secure, low-interest student loans will always be available to Main Street America, even when Wall Street is in turmoil.

I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.

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AMENDMENT NO. 4350

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, we are going to have, in a moment, the Alexander amendment. This is an option which I hope the Senate will accept.

The Alexander amendment would undermine our civil rights laws. The Alexander amendment would cut the EEOC's budget at a time when they have reported a 9-percent increase in the charges of discrimination. We should be giving the EEOC more money to fight the problem, not less.

In addition, the kinds of cases the Senator from Tennessee opposes are extremely rare. The EEOC filed only 29 suits in the past 11 years involving English-only policies, and only when speaking English was unnecessary to do the job.

If we want to fund English literacy--and I favor that we should do it--we should do so, but not by harming the EEOC's ability to fight discrimination. So my amendment provides the needed support for English language education, and funds it across the board for the cut, without harming the EEOC's ability to fight discrimination.

Madam President, this is amendment No. 4350.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the amendment.

The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

The Senator from Massachusetts [Senator Kennedy] proposes an amendment numbered 4350.

The amendment is as follows:
(Purpose: To increase funding for the Department of Education's English Literacy-Civics Education State Grant program, with an offset)

On page 18, line 16, increase the amount by $1,000,000.

On page 18, line 17, increase the amount by $1,000,000.

On page 27, line 16, decrease the amount by $1,000,000.

On page 27, line 17, decrease the amount by $1,000,000.

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AMENDMENT NO. 4222

The PRESIDING OFFICER. There will now be 2 minutes of debate equally divided prior to a vote on amendment No. 4222, offered by the Senator from Tennessee, Mr. Alexander. The Senator from Tennessee is recognized.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Madam President, in the 1990s, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., a prominent Democrat, a great friend of the Senator from Massachusetts, wrote a book about the ``Disuniting of America.'' He deplored the balkanization of our country. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is balkanizing our country when it sues the Salvation Army, as it did, for requiring its employees to speak our common language on the job. Any employer may require any employee to speak whatever language, but that is our national language. Only a few things unite us--our common history, the principles in our founding documents, and our common language. We should be valuing rather than devaluing our common language. A vote yes is for uniting America, a vote no on this amendment is for disuniting America, in the words of Arthur Schlesinger.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts is recognized.

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, let's look at what the law is and what the Alexander amendment provides. The law currently says that if there is a need to speak English on the job, fine; employers can require that. But employers cannot use English-only rules as an excuse when they want to fire minorities who are performing the job correctly. In this fact situation, those employees had performed the job correctly for 5 years.

In addition, this amendment reduces the EEOC's ability to fight all forms of discrimination because it cuts the entire budget. That means race, age, religion, and disability cases will be harmed.

I hope the amendment will be defeated.

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