Waiving Points of Order Against Conference Report on H.R. 4850, District of Columbia Appropriations Act, 2005

WAIVING POINTS OF ORDER AGAINST CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 4850, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2005 -- (House of Representatives - October 06, 2004)

Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 822 and ask for its immediate consideration.

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Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and I thank the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Linder) for yielding me the customary time.

Mr. Speaker, this rule is typical of that for most conference reports, and I will not oppose it.

Mr. Speaker, there is no perfect legislation and certainly not when it comes to funding matters. The underlying conference report providing appropriations for the District of Columbia in fiscal year 2005 includes a variety of provisions that are controversial and detrimental to the District's residents and, frankly, the country as a whole.

I do not have to tell my colleagues about the uniqueness of the District of Columbia as a Federal city. It is the only place in the Nation where constitutionally Congress can exercise micromanagement at the highest and lowest of levels.

Taking into consideration the fact that the District of Columbia has no voting representation in Congress, we should be mindful of this privileged duty and careful not to put our parochial agendas on the table when considering this conference report.

As the gentleman from Georgia mentioned, the report approves the expenditure of a total of $8.3 billion in local funds for the District and directly appropriates $560 million for various District programs and projects. It includes $25.6 million for a tuition assistance program for college-bound students, $3 million for improvements to the Anacostia waterfront area, $6 million for a new public school library initiative, and $5 million to improve foster care in the District.

While there are many quality programs funded by the conference report, such as the ones I just mentioned, the report also includes legislative riders that are a smorgasbord of controversy. The report prohibits the use of funds for abortions, registering same-sex couples, and for the distribution of clean needles and syringes. None of these prohibitions were sought by the District, and they represent nothing more than the ideological impositions of the majority.

Furthermore, deep down inside the conference report is what the majority has dubbed a three-pronged school choice program. This program is heralded by school voucher advocates as a way to improve academic performance while promoting school choice. The reality is, however, the approach is a direct cut in Congress' funding commitment to the District's public schools.

That, Mr. Speaker, is an embarrassment to this institution.

Our education system will never improve if we continue to divert our attention away from improving public schools, the schools that are free of cost and guaranteed to every child in America. Our public schools will never improve if we continue to underfund the No Child Left Behind Act. If the majority wants to point fingers at who is to fault for failures in our education system, then it ought to stop pointing fingers at the District of Columbia and start pointing them at all of our districts that have failing schools.

In less than 3 years after its passage, the No Child Left Behind Act has been underfunded by President Bush and Congressional Republicans by more than $27 billion. Let me repeat that. In less than 3 years after its passage, the No Child Left Behind Act has been underfunded by President Bush and Congressional Republicans by more than $27 billion.

If we want to have a real discussion about education, then let's have one. But let us be honest with the American people about what we are doing to the entire Nation's education system. Let us start telling the American people the truth and stop using the District as a petri dish of ideological shortcomings when considering the needs and lives of the residents of the Nation's Capital.

It is high time that we as lawmakers in this great body stop playing political chess games with our responsibility to this process. We should allow the people of Washington, D.C., to govern themselves, and they should have a voting privilege in the House of Representatives.

Funding for the education of the Nation's children and overall healthy well-being of its citizens should be our primary focus and goal. The D.C. appropriations bill is not the stage to act out our experimental projects that will not necessarily prove beneficial in the end.

We must be mindful of the District's citizens that we have been given charge over. They are silenced in this process by the Constitution, and we must be responsible in our actions on their behalf.

I urge my colleagues to consider this responsibility when voting on the underlying conference report.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I am privileged to yield 7 minutes to my good friend, the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton), the non-voting Delegate that should be voting like all of us, especially on this subject, who on behalf of this community has pursued outstanding legislation.

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Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.

The previous question was ordered.

The resolution was agreed to.

A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.