Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of the Motion to Concur to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 1586, which provides emergency education and Medicaid funding for the States. This $10 billion in education funding will save thousands of teacher jobs across this country. In my congressional district in Dallas, nearly 700 teacher jobs will be preserved with these emergency dollars.

In particular, I'd like to thank House and Senate Leadership for including within this bill Texas specific language that would prevent the State of Texas from misusing federally directed dollars for educational purposes. When Texas was awarded $3.25 billion for the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, this money never made it to the local education agencies. Instead, it was placed in a rainy day fund by the Texas Governor. This was not the intent of these funds, and it has forced Congress to prevent this situation from happening again.

Provisions inserted into this bill would prevent Texas from placing these emergency dollars meant for teachers into any other fund. It would tie funding to Title I schools, so that this money goes to our neediest schools. It would also prevent the State of Texas from making a severe and disproportionate cut to state education funding next year. We did this, so that the Texas Governor could not say to Dallas schools, since you received $39 million extra from the federal government last year, we're going to cut your funding by the same amount for 2011. If the State of Texas cannot abide by this and rejects the funding, then the Department of Education will provide the money directly to the local education agencies. No matter what this money will go to our schools and students.

The State of Texas has shown it cannot act in good faith when it relates to federal funding for our schools. These dollars are imperative and will save 14,500 teacher jobs across Texas.

I do have some concerns regarding this legislation and offsets that are made to fund this bill. In particular, I disagree with a funding cut to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. At a time when we have record enrollment in the SNAP program, a decrease in funding to this program is very disconcerting. We must not target the poorest among us in providing emergency funds for others in need. Despite my concerns I recognize the importance of this funding and support the passage of this legislation.

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