S.Amdt. 796

SA 796. Mr. CASEY submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the concurrent resolution S. Con. Res. 13, setting forth the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2010, revising the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal year 2009, and setting forth the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2011 through 2014; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

On page 49, between lines 3 and 4, insert the following:

SEC. 2__. DEFICIT-NEUTRAL RESERVE FUND FOR PREKINDERGARTEN OPPORTUNITIES.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Budget may revise the allocations of a committee or committees, aggregates, and other appropriate levels in this resolution for one or more bills, joint resolutions, amendments, motions, or conference reports that augment or establish a Federal program that provides--

(1) assistance to States that--

(A) offer not less than 1 year of free prekindergarten to children of families who meet the low-income criteria established by the program; and

(B) offer not less than 1 year of subsidized prekindergarten to children of families who meet any other income criteria established by the program; and

(2) as much flexibility as is practicable to the States in carrying out the prekindergarten programs described in paragraph (1), within a construct of incentives and requirements that each such prekindergarten program shall include a strong pre-academic curriculum, employ qualified prekindergarten teachers, and provide for strong program accountability measures, provided that such legislation would not increase the deficit over either the period of the total of fiscal years 2009 through 2014 or the period of the total of fiscal years 2009 through 2019.