Jeff Johnson, CNSNews.com
Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2002

Cyndy Littlefield, president of the Committee for Education Funding (CEF), told lawmakers and supporters that her group opposes alleged Republican efforts to delay votes on federal education spending until after the November elections.

"We are also here to object to any long-term continuing resolution that goes until next year," she said. "Our education community would be directly impacted by every single day of delay."

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (HELP) Committee, said that Congress has "perhaps ten days left" to secure the funding he desires.

"It's an absolute abdication of responsibility for the Congress not to meet to spell out what kind of help and support that we here in the federal government are going to give to the communities all over this country," he complained.

"All of us are going to fight with every bit of our strength to make sure that that proposal comes to the floor of the United States Senate," Kennedy said.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who chairs the Senate subcommittee responsible for education appropriations, blames GOP lawmakers in the Senate for stopping his proposal to increase federal education spending by $3.2 billion.

"Last week, three times, I tried to bring up our education funding bill. Three times the Republican leadership said, 'No,'" he claimed, pointing to an orange traffic cone, which he called a symbol of the "Republican Roadblock" to education funding.

"This is a roadblock. And do you know what we're going to do? We're going to knock it over," he added. "We should not go home. We should not leave Washington. We should not let this election happen until we put every senator and congressman to the test of what they're going to do for the schools of this country."

As for the House, California Rep. George Miller, the ranking Democrat on the Education and Workforce Committee, also blamed Republicans for not acting.

Not Complicated

"Let us understand why it's happening," he charged. "It's happening because the right wing in the House of Representatives in the Republican Party has taken control of this bill and will not let it come to the floor. It's no more complicated than that."

Not so, according to Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee.

"In the House, Democrats voted against the president's budget this year but didn't offer an alternative plan of their own," Boehner said. "And in the Democrat-controlled Senate, they didn't even pass a budget resolution this year [for] the first time since 1974."

The Ohio Republican also wondered how Democrats would pay for the spending increases they propose.

"House Democrat leaders owe the American people an explanation of how they would pay for the spending increases they claim they're for while also fighting a war on terror, protecting the homeland and funding other priorities at the same time," he said.

"Which tax would they raise, and which programs would they cut, to provide the spending they say they're for?" Boehner asked.

Democrats are, in fact, considering increasing taxes lowered by Republicans prior to the Democratic takeover of the Senate.

"[Republicans] don't want any votes that expose ... the fiction that we can continue to afford the ridiculous tax package that they passed a year and a half ago," Rep. David Obey, ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, claimed.

Boehner cited an independent analysis of the White House budget by "National Journal," which indicated that elementary, secondary, and vocational education spending would increase by 40.8 percent over the next five years even with the budgetary constraints mandated by the costs of the war on terrorism and the short-term revenue reductions created by tax cuts.

"President Bush put forth a responsible budget that makes education a priority even in a time of war and economic turmoil," he said. "When it comes to funding education reform, Democrat leaders have no plan, no budget, and no credibility."

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