Senate Floor Speech
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
May 9, 2001 -- Page: S4552

MRS. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, it almost seems to me as if we are not reading the same pages. To say that there is no new money in this budget for education is incomprehensible to me.

In fact, this chart shows exactly what the increase in spending in education is. This is just the baseline. We are probably going to increase spending even above this.

But this is the Clinton request. This is the Bush request. This is what we are voting on right now. The difference is $40 billion, and the Bush request we are voting on as a baseline is $44 billion. We probably have $6 billion on top of that.

When we are talking about no spending increases when the President has clearly given an 11.6-percent spending increase, the largest of any Federal agency, I think it is just some vast miscommunication.

Senators understand what is in this budget resolution. We are increasing spending 5 percent above last year's level. That is bigger than the rate of inflation.

There is not a business or household in this country that considers a 5-percent increase a cut--a cut in our spending needs? I think what we have here is really a difference in basic philosophy and basic priority.

The budget we will be voting on today increases spending in priority areas, such as education at the 11-percent increase. It will also increase defense. It will increase other high-priority areas. It will bright-line some areas; there is no doubt about that.

Those are the kinds of choices that every American has to make in their own household budgets. Why shouldn't Government do the same thing with the American taxpayer dollars? Let's not forget whose money it is. Let's not forget our responsibility for the stewardship of other people's money. If we had our own choices, maybe we would spend it a little differently. But we must be careful stewards of taxpayer dollars. That is what this budget does.

It also makes sure that we return some of the excess money back to the people--$1.5 trillion in tax relief for the American people, which is about 25 percent of the projected surplus. It is not the whole surplus; it is approximately 25 percent of the surplus.

Social Security is going to be kept totally intact. All of the money that comes into the Social Security fund is going to stay with Social Security because we are going to need to reform Social Security to keep it from going into a deficit in the year 2038. We are going to keep the money in the Social Security trust fund, just as we said we would do, in order to prepare for the reform that will keep Social Security secure. And the downpayment on that is to keep the money that is coming in, in Social Security, right there and not allow it to be spent for any other purpose.

Yes, there is a difference in philosophy. We will see that coming forward. The difference is we believe the money that is coming into the coffers of the taxpayers of America should be carefully managed, should not be overspent, and should not be thrown around but should be carefully spent and carefully prioritized, just as the people who earned the money and send it to Washington do in their own budgets. That is our responsibility. That is what we are producing in this budget today.

Senator Domenici has been the most bipartisan and cooperative chairman of the Budget Committee I have ever seen. When I heard some of the comments about Democrats not having a role in this budget, I couldn't believe my ears because I have been watching Senator Domenici for the last month. I know he has been in meeting after meeting after meeting with the Republicans and the Democrats on the committee and, yes, with the White House to have the total input and, yes, with Members of the House of Representatives to try to see what we could do to pass a bill in a very evenly divided Senate.

I think what was produced by the Budget Committee under the leadership of this great chairman is a wonderful budget that shows we respect the taxpayers of this country and we are going to manage their dollars wisely. We are going to spend more on public education, on Medicare, and on defense. We are going to spend money in high-priority areas. We are not going to spend more money in every area. I think it would be irresponsible to do that.

Let's argue about those priorities. That is legitimate. That is a legitimate debate. But to say that we aren't increasing spending when we are increasing spending 5 percent, which is more than the rate of inflation and more than the spending increases in most households in this country, I think we have to get the truth on the table.

The fact of the matter is, in the area of education, we see the largest increase and the highest level of funding for education for disabled children. We are making a commitment to the disabled children in this country. We are increasing Pell grants for low-income college students. It is a clear priority in this bill that we would try to make sure every young person in this country will have the ability to go to college if that is his or her desire. If that is a goal of a young person in this country, through Pell grants, low-interest loans, we want to make it possible for those children to have that opportunity.

We have increased Pell grants every year I have been in the Senate. In fact, I submitted the amendment that made sure Pell grants went to needy students first rather than being peeled off by other interests.

New reading program: That is the basis of the increase in spending in the education bill, $1 billion, tripling current funding, because we believe that if a child can't read at grade level in the third grade, that child is going to fall behind. There is no doubt about it. If you wait until that child drops out of junior high school or high school, of course, the child is lost. Of course, the child is frustrated. In fact, that is exactly the cause of many high school dropouts today--not that the young people aren't smart. It is not that they can't learn. It is that they cannot read. If they cannot read, of course, they can't comprehend the math and the history and the geography: Of course, they can't.

That is why we are prioritizing getting to those young people at the early stages and finding out what the weaknesses are and correcting those weaknesses while they still have a chance to have the full benefit of their education.

There is $472 million to encourage school choice and innovation. We are increasing the spending for historically black colleges and Hispanic-serving institutions. That is an area where I have been involved since I have been here. We have been year after year after year increasing the spending in both of those areas, and this is going to increase what we have increased by 30 percent by the year 2005 because that is a priority.

Under the National Science Foundation, there will be $200 million for new K-12 math-science partnerships to try to encourage our young people to go into science and math because we know that is where the future is.

I commend the Senator from New Mexico. I appreciate that he has been a responsible steward of taxpayer dollars in our country. I would not want someone in the Senate who thought that just because the money was there it should be spent whether or not the program warranted the added expenditures. And continuing spending is still something that should be worth applauding. If we are continuing the spending for a program, if we are increasing it, then I think that we have determined it is a priority. I think we should look at this budget from the eyes of the people we are representing to determine what the priorities should be, and knowing that perhaps we did not increase in some areas, and we might have decreased in some areas, but that does not mean we will not be able to come back and do something later. But it does mean we are going to keep our eye on the ball, and we are going to increase education spending, we are going to increase defense spending, we are going to increase Medicare, we are going to keep Social Security secure, and we are going to do the things that people elected us to do; that is, to represent them and their tax dollars with respect for their hard work to earn that money.

The people of this country are hard working. They are productive. They should be able to keep as much of their money as we do not need for Government, to spend as they wish on their families. I do not think that is a bad priority.

So, Mr. President, I thank the Senators. I thank them for this budget. I hope we will have a budget adopted by a large majority because I think they have done a good job.