Directing the Clerk of the House of Representatives to correct the enrollment of H.R. 1429.

Mr. President, I thank my friend and colleague, the Senator from Wyoming, Mr. Enzi, for his strong advocacy and extremely effective work on this legislation. I also thank the staff of the HELP committee for their work on this important piece of legislation. This is an important moment in the Senate because this reauthorization of Head Start focuses on the most vulnerable members of society, the children, and it delivers a message of hope for these children and their families.

HELP Committee members are extremely involved and active in all the matters that come before our committee, but never more than on issues of education and early childhood development. We have before us legislation that reflects a coming together of both parties and both chambers of Congress to address the needs of children in our society. Reflected in this legislation are the interest of some of those who aren't with us physically, colleagues who are involved in the Presidential campaign. Senator Dodd, who has been a longtime leader in the Senate on children and children's interests, has had important suggestions and recommendations. Barack Obama has followed this process very closely and has been in frequent communication with us. Senator Clinton has been very much involved in crafting this legislation, as well as a number of other pieces of legislation we approved in the committee earlier today.

We welcome an overwhelming vote this afternoon. There was an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote in the House of Representatives, 381 to 36. I am hopeful we will have a similar expression of support in the Senate.

We have an hour. I know I have several colleagues who want to talk. I will yield myself 12 minutes. I don't know how much I have used so far.

No, a total of 12. If the Chair will let me know when I have a minute and a half, I would appreciate that.

Planning for Head Start began in the early 1960s, before we knew all that we know today about how to best intervene and support the lives of young children living in poverty. At that time, as Attorney General, my brother Robert Kennedy decided to tackle the problem of juvenile delinquency. Research pointed to poverty as the root of the Nation's social and economic challenges. It was agreed that a strategy based on early education could be a significant part of the answer.

In August 1964, President Johnson and Congress launched the war on poverty by passing the Economic Opportunity Act. The Nation's poor numbered 10 million, with nearly half under the age of 12.

In the fall of that year, my brother-in-law, Sargent Shriver, convened a panel of experts in child development, education, public health, and social work to lay a foundation for the Head Start program. He envisioned a bold national commitment to prepare our neediest children for kindergarten and first grade. He conferred with experts like Dr. Edward Zigler, who is still a vigorous, forceful advocate for children, and they agreed that a comprehensive approach was needed. Preschool was the centerpiece of the plan, but a major emphasis was placed on health care and parent involvement, too.

The following year, Head Start came into being as an 8-week summer program. With the help of thousands of volunteers, it served 560,000 children through preschool classes, medical and dental care, and health services. Over the years, it would reach over 24 million.

Today the face of poverty and of America's neediest families has changed. The American workplace has changed, and our education system is being challenged to keep up with the global economy. Head Start has always adapted, finding new ways to respond to the demands on low- income, working families. But its mission has remained the same--to help our most vulnerable children succeed in school and in life.

When parents are asked what they most want to accomplish in life, their answer undoubtedly includes a desire to open the doors of opportunity for their children. They want a fair chance for their children to grow up in a healthy and safe environment, to graduate from high school and go on to college, and to achieve the American dream.

That dream should be available to every child in America. But far too often, families are still struggling to put food on the table, buy clothes for their children, pay the rent, or see a doctor. Poverty is again on the rise. Today, one out of every five children in America grows up poor.

Poverty has many dimensions. It is a labor issue, because pay is so low and workers are exploited. It is a civil rights issue, because so many African American and Latino families are often the ones left behind. It is a health care issue, because the health care that families in poverty receive is so substandard. Most of all, it is a children's issue, because the children of the poor have done nothing wrong. But they still pay the price.

It is our responsibility as a Nation to help those in need. The Federal bedrock of that commitment is Head Start. It has always been an important symbol of our responsibility to others. At its core are the values that shaped our democracy: Equity, opportunity, community empowerment, and economic progress.

Head Start is based on the premise that education is the key to the future and to breaking down the destructive forces of poverty.

It provides the starting point for a child's day, with a healthy meal each morning and a promise to parents that while they are at work and balancing two jobs, their children will see a doctor and dentist, and receive immunizations.

It provides children with the building blocks they need to enter school ready to learn. It teaches the social and emotional skills needed by children to pay attention in the classroom and get along well with others. It expands their vocabulary, gets them excited about reading, and teaches them to count.

It welcomes parents into its programs, gives them opportunities to make decisions about their child's learning and development, and sometimes helps families find a roof for over their head.

Over the years, with each new educational and developmental advance in research, we have learned more about how Head Start can be improved. And with that learning, modifications have been made to enable the program to be even more effective.

In 1972, the Child Development Associate program was established, to provide a standard of quality for Head Start teachers and aides.

In 1974, the reauthorization of Head Start established the comprehensive Program Performance Standards to guide Head Start centers in providing essential educational, health, and social services, and achieving parental involvement. The reauthorization also paved the way for a network of training and technical assistance activities to help Head Start agencies enhance the quality of their programs.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, the Indian and Migrant Head Start programs were formed, and family service centers were established to combat illiteracy, substance abuse, and unemployment in Head Start communities. At that time, Head Start also began its important focus on improving transitions for preschool children to public schools.

In 1994, we created Early Head Start to serve low-income infants and toddlers in the first 3 years of their development. That legislation also led to the development of improved performance measures to assess outcomes in Head Start and new guidelines for monitoring Head Start programs.

The current reauthorization applies the lessons learned from the past with the new knowledge of child development and early education to enable Head Start to be even more successful in the years ahead.

There is no question that Head Start is effective. Our own federally mandated study of Head Start found that it expands children's vocabularies, and makes the greatest difference for those with the greatest needs. Head Start improves children's writing skills, and helps children grow in their social skills and behavior.

By the time Head Start children complete their kindergarten year, their skills and developmental abilities are near the national average, with scores of 99 in early literacy, 98 in early writing, 95 in early math, and 95 in vocabulary.

We are talking about the most disadvantaged children in America. They are often well behind in terms of their ability to enter school ready to start. Look at the results at the end of kindergarten. Head Start children catch up to their peers, to the national norm. It brings the children up so, hopefully, we will be, as a country and society, more equitable, more fair.

This reauthorization maintains high standards and comprehensive services in Head Start. It upgrades educational components of the program, and ensures that it delivers the skills and support that children need to succeed in kindergarten and the early grades. It promotes greater partnerships between Head Start programs and local schools, and ensures that services continue to be framed by the highly effective Head Start Child Outcomes Framework. It also provides a needed bridge for parents to their local schools, to promote greater coordination and ease the transition of children from preschool to kindergarten.

We also terminate the flawed National Reporting System, and ensure that new educational standards and measures used in Head Start will be informed by the National Academy of Sciences. Two years ago, the Government Accountability Office confirmed many of our long-standing concerns with this assessment, concluding that the test is not valid to make determinations about programs and students. The study also confirmed that the test was inconsistent with nationally-recognized testing standards, and unclear in its purpose.

This reauthorization ensures that any assessments used in Head Start will be valid and reliable, fair to children from all backgrounds, and measure the whole child. Head Start children and their families deserve nothing less.

Head Start teachers and staff are the heart and future of the program. They help children learn to identify letters and arrange the pieces of puzzles. They teach them to brush their teeth, wash their hands, make friends, and follow rules.

This reauthorization sets important and unprecedented goals for enhancing the skills and qualifications of Head Start teachers and staff. In this reauthorization, we are striving to help all teachers earn their associate's degree over the next 6 years, help half of all teachers in Head Start earn their bachelor's degree, and help all assistant teachers work toward completing a CDA or another early education credential.

These are ambitious goals. But we know that learning and development of young children require good teachers and that there is a strong link between educational qualifications and the quality of programs.

The quality of a program doesn't just depend on the educational background of its teachers, which is why we are also calling for professional development and a career advancement plan for every Head Start employee including family service workers, assistant teachers, and curriculum coordinators. We have established new partnerships to increase staff in Head Start who are prepared to serve the diverse children enrolled in the programs.

Most of all, we have worked to ensure that Head Start agencies have a dedicated stream of funds to provide needed training for teachers. The reauthorization dedicates $2 million this year to local training and improvement efforts, much of which will be used to improve and strengthen the Head Start workforce. We commit to confronting the persistent challenge of compensating Head Start teachers as the professionals that they are. Head Start teachers earn half the salary of kindergarten teachers, and turnover is about 11 percent per year.

This conference report commits 40 percent of new funds in Head Start to program quality and teacher salaries, to do more to attract and retain caring and committed leaders. It ensures that each Head Start Center will receive an annual cost-of-living increase to keep up with the rising costs of operation and overhead.

We grant additional flexibility in this reauthorization for Head Start to serve thousands of additional low-income children in need, by including families just above the Federal poverty level. It is essential for Head Start to prioritize its services to the neediest families in their communities. But this new flexibility enables those living near poverty and earning less than what they need to get by to receive assistance too. It is the right thing to do, and it is what Head Start is all about.

The reauthorization also makes a long-overdue commitment to expanding Head Start programs in Indian country, and programs for migrant and seasonal farmworkers. By reserving up to $20 million annually to expand services in these programs, we can hopefully reach an additional 5,500 migrant children and an additional 5,100 Native American children living in poverty. New provisions are also included to enhance services for homeless children, children who are English language learners, and children with disabilities in order to ensure that these populations receive the care and attention they deserve.

Accountability is a cornerstone of excellence and should start early. Head Start should be accountable for its commitment to provide safe and healthy learning environments, to support each child's individual pattern of development and learning, to build community partnerships in services to children, and to involve parents in their child's growth.

This reauthorization makes significant progress in increasing accountability and investing in excellence in Head Start. It continues the comprehensive monitoring that has become a hallmark of Head Start, and ensures that reviews are fair and balanced in order to account for challenges and strengths in programs. It also establishes a new system for the designation of Head Start grants, to be phased in over the next several years.

We know that the vast majority of Head Start programs provide outstanding services--fewer than 20 percent of programs are found to be deficient each year. But where serious deficiencies exist, we must see that substantial problems do not languish at the expense of children. If a local program is unable to meet Head Start's high standards of quality, timely action should be taken. This new system will facilitate accountability and funding decisions, and do so in a manner that is transparent, fair, and responsive to the local needs of families and children.

We have established greater accountability for enrollment in programs and delineated a clear system of governance in Head Start.

The reauthorization also takes important steps to expand Early Head Start. Since its inception, results have proven that Early Head Start is one of the most effective programs of the Department of Health and Human Services. In this legislation, we improve the training and assistance network serving Early Head Start and guarantee a dedicated expert in each State to work with programs to meet the needs of infants and toddlers. We also expand the screening available to infants exposed to trauma, violence, or other circumstances detrimental to their development. We commit to expanding Early Head Start to serve an additional 8,000 low-income infants and toddlers over the next 5 years.

As in elementary and secondary education, reform in early childhood education requires resources. Today, half of all children eligible for Head Start have no access to it. Early Head Start however, serves only 3 percent of eligible infants and toddlers--we leave behind a shameful 97 percent.

When Sargent Shriver discussed the war on poverty, he said ``You have to put immense resources into winning a

war.'' He was right, and he wasn't talking about wars like Iraq. He was talking about the war on poverty. This conference report increases authorizations for Head Start to $7.3 billion in fiscal year 2008, $7.6 billion in fiscal year 2009, and $7.9 billion in fiscal year 2010. On a bipartisan basis, the conferees have signaled a commitment to invest more in our youngest children, and to assist Head Start in responding to the changing and evolving needs of the communities it serves.

Research shows that the first 5 years of life make an immense difference for a child. Those who attend high-quality early education programs are more likely to do well when they reach elementary school, are less likely to be held back a grade, and are more likely to graduate from high school and go on to college.

Our Federal investment in early childhood education clearly pays off-- for every dollar invested in high-quality early education, there is a 16 dollar return later in life.

All children--regardless of their background--deserve to learn and develop. We need to strengthen early childhood for young children, in order to help them succeed later in school and in life.

A comprehensive curriculum and a stable and well-qualified workforce are cornerstones of a good early education. I am especially pleased that this reauthorization of Head Start includes a blueprint to strengthen the array of early childhood programs and services for young children.

The bill establishes an Early Childhood Advisory Council to examine needs of early childhood programs, develop a plan to improve professional development, upgrade standards, enhance collaboration among programs, and improve data collection.

More than 40 States have early learning standards in place or under development. States such as Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Illinois have developed the systems needed to improve program quality and expand access to programs in the early years. We need to build on that progress. States that are ready to take on the challenge of implementing needed improvements in their early education programs will qualify for incentive grants to get such improvements under way.

One of our highest priorities in Congress is to expand educational opportunities for every American. In this age of globalization, every citizen deserves a chance to acquire the skills needed to compete in the modern economy. That challenge begins at birth, and accelerates in the early years of life well before children even begin kindergarten.

This reauthorization helps us reach this essential goal. It keeps Head Start on its successful path, and enables it to continue to thrive and improve.

We still haven't won the war on poverty in America. But thanks to Head Start, we are getting closer. Day by day, and one child at a time. This conference report continues that indispensable progress, and I urge my colleagues to approve it.

Mr. President, we have others who desire to speak at this time. I will have a chance with the remaining time, perhaps, to get into some of the additional items.

Mr. President, I reserve the remainder of my time.

Mr. President, I yield 5 minutes to the Senator from Washington, Mrs. Murray, who has been particularly involved in making sure parents are going to be included in this program. She has been such an outspoken advocate for the homeless and foster children who so often get left out and left behind. She is a former schoolteacher herself and member of a school board. She brings extraordinary knowledge, experience, and understanding to this problem. We are very fortunate to have her on our committee, and the Senate is very fortunate to have her as well. I hope they listen to her message.

Mr. President, I yield 5 minutes to the Senator from Washington.

Mr. President, as I understand, we have 9 minutes left. Am I correct?

I yield 3 minutes to the Senator from Ohio and 3 minutes to the Senator from Vermont, and I will take the last 3 minutes, and we will alternate with our Republican colleagues.

Mr. President, I thank my friend and colleague from Wyoming. He believes we ought to listen to experts before we actually legislate, which was a rather dramatic

thought to many around here. He certainly is right. He reminds us of our unfinished business in terms of higher education and the workforce legislation. We are strongly committed, and we will get a response on that.

Unanimous-Consent Agreement--H. Con. Res. 258

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that upon the adoption of the conference report to accompany H.R. 1429, the Senate proceed to the consideration of H. Con. Res. 258, a correcting resolution; that the concurrent resolution be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Finally, I would take a few moments to mention the staff who worked on this bill. I want to personally mention those who have worked so hard on this legislation. Some have been working on this for 4 years. I will not get into the reasons for that. This has been a very long and, in the past, contentious piece of legislation and without them, there is no way we could have completed this bill.

I would like to thank Michael Myers, Carmel Martin, Roberto Rodriguez, David Johns, Lily Clark, Liz Maher, and Raquel Alvarenga from my staff.

I would like to thank Katherine Graham Hildum of Senator Dodd's staff; Janelle Krishnamoorthy of Senator Harkin's staff; Mildred Otero of Senator Clinton's staff; Michael Yudin of Senator Bingaman's staff; Robin Juliano of Senator Mikulski's staff; Seth Gerson of Senator Reed's staff; Kathryn Young of Senator Murray's staff; Will Jawando of Senator Brown's staff; Huck Gutman of Senator Sanders' staff; and Steve Robinson of Senator Obama's staff.

This has been a bipartisan process all the way. I would also like to thank Senator Enzi's wonderful staff, specifically Katherine McGuire, Beth Buehlmann, Lindsay Hunsicker, and Adam Briddell.

I would also like to thank David Cleary and Sarah Rittling of Senator Alexander's staff; Celia Sims of Senator Burr's staff; Juliann Andreen of Senator Hatch's staff; Allison Dembeck of Senator Gregg's staff; Elizabeth Floyd of Senator Coburn's staff; Karen McCarthy of Senator Murkowski's staff; Suzanne Singleterry of Senator Allard's staff; Glee Smith of Senator Isakson's staff; and Alison Anway of Senator Roberts' staff.

It is important to mention the work done by our colleagues in the House and I would like to thank Ruth Freidman of Congressman Miller's staff; James Bergeron, Kristen Duncan and Susan Ross of Congressman McKeon's staff; Lloyd Horwich of Congressman Kildee's staff and Jessica Gross of Congressman Castle's staff for all of their work on this legislation.

I would like to thank especially Roberto Rodriguez and David Johns who have taken the lead on Head Start in my office. Their good work has made all the difference. I know Roberto is especially pleased to see the Senate and House pass this conference report, as he has worked on this legislation for several years now. I commend him for his expertise, diligence, good nature and all of his efforts.

Mr. President, finally, the Head Start Program reaches the neediest children in this country. It reaches them to help and assist by providing health care, teaching proper nutrition, and by supporting proper development of cognitive abilities to ensure that children are ready to successfully transition to school.

Head Start is targeted to the neediest children in this country. Even with the small numbers we reach--we only reach a million, and there are 4 million poor children who are between ages 0 and 5--we see the difference it makes. Head Start raises them to a level playing ground. That is what our country is really about--trying to raise people to a level playing ground. Head Start alone does not guarantee success, but it gives them the opportunity to be successful.

If we have a group in our society that needs this kind of support, it is our children. As pointed out in this debate, through no fault of their own many children are born into difficult and challenging circumstances. As a nation we have a responsibility to get them up to a point where they can succeed in school and in life. That is what Head Start is about--a recognition that our Nation believes that children who are living in poverty, in some of the most challenging circumstances, should have the opportunity to be on a level playing field.

Finally, there is one thing we have learned in the area of education; that is, the more resources are targeted to early education, the better the opportunities these children have to succeed.

In this reauthorization we have taken advantage of the lessons we have learned from Head Start's successful history and built upon excellent recommendations made by members of our committee. This is a very solid and important piece of legislation that will make a difference in the lives of millions of children. I urge the Senate to support it.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following three letters in support of the Head Start reauthorization conference report be printed in the Congressional Record following my remarks on the conference report.

I yield back whatever time remains, and I ask for the yeas and nays.

I move to reconsider the vote and to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. President, I thank Senator Kennedy for that excellent recap of what has taken us months, in fact, years to get done.

I am pleased after many years of false starts, we have finally reached agreement on Head Start reauthorization. This conference agreement is a bipartisan, bicameral effort that focuses on improving the lives of low-income children and their families. We need to ensure that children, regardless of their circumstances, have the opportunity to get the preparation they need to enter school ready to learn and be successful.

The Head Start Program was established in 1965 as part of the war on poverty to level the playing field for low-income children. The purpose of the program was, and remains, to provide educational and other developmental services to children in very low income families. It recognizes that children do not start school with the same set of experiences or knowledge. Head Start programs provide low-income children with a solid base of experiences and knowledge that enables them to start their elementary school experience on par with their more affluent peers.

Since its creation, Head Start has been a comprehensive, early childhood development program that provides educational, health, nutritional, social, and other services to low-income, preschool-aged children and their families. Head Start currently provides services to over 900,000 children and their families through a network of over 1,600 public and private agencies. This program also recognizes the important role that families play in a child's development and encourages their regular participation in the program.

I do thank Senator Kennedy and Congressman Miller for their commitment to working together on a bipartisan basis. That commitment has resulted in a conference report that meets the needs of children and families who participate in Head Start programs throughout our Nation. I also thank my other colleagues, particularly Senators Alexander and Dodd, and Congressmen McKeon, Kildee, and Castle, for their fine work and dedication to this important legislation.

The conference agreement before us today builds off legislation we developed last Congress when I was chairman of the HELP Committee. Senator Kennedy agreed to use that legislation as the base for this year's bill to build on the bipartisan support it had received. Senator Kennedy and I understand that to get anything done, especially in the Senate, you have to have bipartisan support.

Years ago, I established an ``80-percent rule'' to help guide my work in committee and on the Senate floor. It means that 80 percent of what Congress works on we agree to. The other 20 percent is the stuff we may never agree on. But that is what always seems to get the attention. I do think we do our best work when we focus on the 80 percent. Legislation seems to move more quickly when we work together in a bipartisan way.

I am pretty certain people in Massachusetts are cringing, and people in Wyoming are cringing and saying: Oh, no, Kennedy and Enzi are doing it again. But that is the way things get done, and we have quite a track record of doing things that wind up pretty unanimous on both sides of the Capitol because they figure with our two backgrounds it has to be reasonable or we will not agree. That is exactly how it works out.

So this bill probably will not make headlines, and it is not the most sensational sound bite. However, this is work Congress can and must do to improve the lives of children and families across America.

Today, with the passage of the Head Start conference report, we begin to fulfill this obligation. But our work is far from done. This is just the first in a number of education and training bills we have to complete this Congress.

With the reauthorization of the Head Start Act, the first bookend is in place. I hope we can continue to work together on legislation to reauthorize No Child Left Behind, the Higher Education Act, and the Workforce Investment Act. These four bills represent the continuum of education and workforce training legislation supported by the Federal Government--with Head Start as one bookend and the Workforce Investment Act as the other.

These acts support programs from preschool, through elementary and high school, into postsecondary education and the workforce, and are critical to maintaining our global competitiveness. We cannot afford to let those programs fall victim to election year politics.

I am pleased the House Education and Labor Committee has moved forward with the markup of the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. It is my hope we can continue this momentum and move into a conference on that important legislation in the very near future.

Head Start provides the building blocks children need for success later in life. The Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007 before us today helps ensure that children in Head Start programs will be better prepared to enter school with the skills necessary to succeed. We have always worked hard to improve and strengthen this act because we believe in the future success of all children.

I am particularly pleased with the accountability provisions in this conference report. The conference agreement includes important changes related to the evaluation and review of grantees. We have taken steps to increase the quality of Head Start, and there is now greater clarity for grantees as to what constitutes a program deficiency.

The roles of governing body and policy councils have been clarified and strengthened, while also preserving the important role of parents. It is absolutely necessary and vital that a single entity, the governing body, has fiscal and legal control of the Federal grant dollars. That said, we maintain the equally vital and necessary role of the policy councils in setting program priorities, classroom activities, and classroom personnel changes. We believe this will help ensure the continued integrity of the Head Start Program for years to come.

Parents are their children's first teachers. It is vital we continue to encourage and strengthen the role parents play in Head Start programs. This conference agreement increases the presence of parents in Head Start programs. It strengthens services for families, and it provides training and development opportunities for parents who serve on policy councils and governing boards.

Today we are taking the final legislative step toward a comprehensive and bipartisan reauthorization of the Head Start Program. As we take this step to reauthorize Head Start, it is important we review the effectiveness and need for the 57 other early childhood and preschool programs currently receiving Federal support. Many of those programs are programs in name only. Others are ineffective and fail to provide the services children need to be ready for school. We have to direct funds to programs that have been shown to be effective at preparing children for success in elementary school. Head Start is a successful program that deserves our continued support. This support should not be diluted by competing programs or the creation of new programs.

I again wish to thank all the members of both committees, in particular Senators Kennedy, Alexander, Isakson and Dodd, and Congressmen Miller, McKeon, Kildee, and Castle, for getting this done.

I also thank all of the staff who worked to complete this reauthorization. Many of them have been working toward this day since early January. In particular, I would like to thank the following staff for Congressman Miller: Ruth Friedman, Lamont Ivey, Denise Forte, and Stephanie Moore; for Congressman McKeon: Kirsten Duncan, James Bergeron, and Susan Ross; for Congressman Kildee: Lloyd Horwich; for Congressman Castle: Jessica Gross; for Senator Kennedy: Roberto Rodriguez, Carmel Martin, and David Johns--I would like to mention how well Senator Kennedy's staff and my staff have been able to work together on all of the issues--for Senator Isakson: Glee Smith; for Senator Alexander: David Cleary and Sarah Rittling; and for Senator Dodd: Catherine Hildum, and former staffer Sharon Lewis.

For my staff, I want to be sure to thank Lindsay Hunsicker, who has done a marvelous job of working and understanding and providing some creativity in the decisions that had to be made to get here; Beth Buehlmann, who oversees all of these education issues and is making sure they are moving forward in a bipartisan way; and Ilyse Schuman, who is the legal brains behind the drafting and decisions for my team; Katherine McGuire, who heads up the team as staff director; and, of course, Kelly Hastings.

Passage of this conference report will ensure that low-income children are prepared not only for success in school but, most importantly, for later success in life.

I look forward to getting this conference report to President Bush for his signature as soon as possible.

Mr. President, I yield the floor and reserve the remainder of my time.

Mr. President, I yield 7 minutes to the former Secretary of Education.

Mr. President, how much time do I have remaining?

I yield 7 minutes to the Senator from Georgia, who has always played a tremendous role in this piece of work with his staff person Glee Smith, and he brings with him a world of knowledge from Georgia where he served as the chief school official there. They set some precedent-setting things at all levels of education while he was doing that, and he did it in conjunction with former Senator Zell Miller, who was Governor at that time. I yield 7 minutes to the Senator from Georgia.

Mr. President, I yield 3 minutes to the Senator from New Hampshire.

Mr. President, it has been a pleasure and an honor to get to work on this bill and to work with people on both sides of the aisle. You can see the unanimity from the Republican side and the Democratic side in making sure the bill came to pass.

As I mentioned before, we have had a lot of false starts trying to get Head Start done. This time, we have gotten through the process. Today, we will have a positive vote and send it to the President for signature. I think you can tell from the debate that it has been a very positive process.

The only distinction appears to be the few comments we have had about the Labor-HHS appropriations bill. I don't want to get into that issue because it will take a long time to discuss it. I ask unanimous consent to have the Wall Street Journal article from today called ``Return to Spender'' printed in the Record to counter some of the things talked about. It wasn't Head Start that he vetoed; it was the entire Labor-HHS budget.

I hope the vote today will display the unanimity we have had while working on this bill. I congratulate the Senator from Massachusetts for the way he is running the committee. We have not just done hearings on things--hearings are a little more divisive than the other mechanism, which has been his morning coffees. In hearings, the two sides bring people to testify, and we kind of beat up on each other's witnesses. In the coffees he has held, we get to bring in a bunch of people and hear what they think. We have the interaction of one person who has had experience, and he talks to another person who has had experience, and they talk about how the two experiences might come together. That has been helpful on this bill, as well as the other ones, the bookends I mentioned. This being the first part of the bookend, and the next one we will be working on is No Child Left Behind.

We have already done the Higher Education Act on this side. I look forward to conferencing that and getting on to the Workforce Investment Act, which passed this body twice already but never has been conferenced. Our work is still cut out for us, but this is a day to celebrate the good work done on both sides of the aisle.

Mr. President, I rise today in support of the conference report to accompany the Head Start reauthorization bill. For the first time since 1998, Congress will send a bill to the President to reauthorize and strengthen the Head Start program.

A child's education begins well before he or she enters a school building for the first day of kindergarten. The children who succeed in kindergarten are the children whose parents read to them every day, who talk with them, and who engage their minds with games, art, and new experiences. These are the children who enter kindergarten ready to learn.

Unfortunately, many children enter kindergarten well behind their peers. They may have parents whose long hours interfere with the kind of time they spend with their small children. Or they may have parents who don't know how important these early developmental activities are. That is why we created Head Start in 1965, to make sure low-income children are ready to learn when they arrive in kindergarten. Head Start provides preschool-aged, low-income children and their families with school activities, health screening, healthy snacks, and structure to encourage parental involvement.

Each year, over 900,000 children are served by Head Start nationwide; 40,000 of those children live in my home State of Illinois. The legislation that we are considering today will increase authorized funding for Head Start to $7.9 billion in fiscal year 2010, allowing tens of thousands more children to participate in the program.

The legislation will also expand eligibility, allowing Head Start to serve low-income children and families up to 130 percent of Federal poverty, or $26,800 for a family of four. It will also expand the Early Head Start program, so it can reach an additional 8,000 low-income infants and toddlers. The earlier children enroll in Head Start programs, the more likely they are to succeed once they enter kindergarten.

The legislation also sets new minimum qualification standards for Head Start teachers. Within 6 years, all Head Start teachers must have an associate's degree, and half of all teachers must have a bachelor's degree. Forty percent of new funding will be reserved for program quality enhancements, including much-needed salary increases for Head Start staff.

Educational standards will be strengthened in Head Start programs to make sure children are presented with language and literacy, math, science, and other cognitive development material. These new standards will be updated and aligned with the latest research in child development. The legislation we are considering today will improve the transition for children who are leaving Head Start to enter kindergarten, through better coordination between Head Start programs and schools, shared teacher training, and alignment of curriculum.

I am especially pleased that this legislation strengthens Head Start without weakening its long-standing civil rights protections for more than 200,000 Head Start teachers and 1.3 million parent volunteers.

Since 1972, the law has prohibited agencies that receive government funding for Head Start from employment discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, national origin, sex, political affiliation, or beliefs. These civil rights protections have been reaffirmed all six times that the Head Start program has been reauthorized since then, and I strongly support the seventh reaffirmation today.

Preserving this provision is especially important given this administration's attempts to overturn long-standing principles of nondiscrimination through Executive orders, proposed legislation, and, recently, Department of Justice opinions.

Let me be clear. I support the right of religious organizations to use religious criteria in hiring people to carry out their religious work. This exception--which is the current law--makes sense because it allows people of common faith to work together to further their religion's mission.

However, there is a fundamental difference between religious organizations using their own funds for their religious work and religious organizations using government funds for that purpose. In 1972, Congress established the current, expanded religious exception under title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The same Congress established the nondiscrimination provisions in Head Start that continue with today's legislation. They understood the difference between permitting hiring based on religion for religious functions not funded by the government, and allowing discrimination based on religion in hiring people to carry out activities funded by the Federal Government.

I also want to address a memo released last month by the Department of Justice entitled ``Effect of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act on Faith-Based Applicants for Grants.'' This troubling memo concludes that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act allows faith-based organizations to receive Federal funds even when considering religion in employment. It further asserts that RFRA ``protects this right to prefer co-religionists for employees even if the statute that authorizes the funding program generally forbids consideration of religion in employment decisions by grantees.''

I strongly disagree with these conclusions in general, and especially with respect to the legislation before us today. The law and the history regarding Head Start is clear with respect to nondiscrimination in employment, and this explicit civil rights protection must be followed.

In closing, I want to affirm my strong support for the participation of religious organizations in the Head Start program. These organizations provide critical support for our Nation's children in 5 percent of Head Start centers and greatly improve our pre-schoolers' education. It is not surprising that Head Start is the second-largest source of federal funding for faith-based organizations.

This program truly is a model for how the government can successfully partner with faith-based organizations, while complying with nondiscrimination requirements.

I thank Senators Kennedy and Enzi for their bipartisan work on this important legislation, and I urge my colleagues to support this conference report.

I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Biden), the Senator from New York (Mrs. Clinton), the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Dodd), and the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Obama) are necessarily absent.

Mr. President, I ask the Chair to please let me know when I have 1 minute remaining.

Mr. President, it is not too much to say that this vote on this piece of legislation on Head Start is about whose century this century will be. Some say it will be China's century. Some say it will be India's century. I think the jury is still out, but I do believe it can be the American century, and I believe it is up to us to make sure it is.

We have the advantages in our country. One of them, of course, is our brain power advantage. We don't have better brains than others, but since World War II, we have spent a great deal of time building our education system, our universities, our research laboratories. We worked together this year to pass the America COMPETES Act, authorizing $34 billion over the next 3 years to step that up. A second advantage we have is the e pluribus unum. We are one country. Where different countries are fractured, we are working here to help our children and our new arrivals learn English, our common language, and to learn our American history so we can stay as one country. That is an advantage we have. The third advantage we have is that we are the only country in the world that believes that anything is possible. We don't say leave just a few children behind, or 80 percent of us are created equal; we set these very high goals. Anything is possible. Most of our politics is about failing to reach the goals, dealing with the disappointment, and then trying again.

How do we make sure that the dream that anything is possible is real? Well, No. 1, we keep down taxes and we keep down regulations, and we keep markets free so people can go from the back to the front of the line. The other thing we do is to make sure that all Americans have a chance to get to the starting line ready. Some people need some help, and that is what Head Start is about.

I was very pleased to come to this floor in the earlier part of this year with Senator Kennedy, Senator Enzi, and Senator Dodd, introducing a piece of legislation that we hoped would get to the point this one has today. I thank them for the way they have worked on this for the last 3 or 4 years. It didn't matter much whether it was a Republican or a Democratic Senate; we all worked together and we are here now with this result.

A lot has changed, and there are four major advantages to this bill, in my opinion. No. 1, I call special attention to the 200 new centers of excellence that are created. These are opportunities for Governors to look, say, at Nashville or at Boston or at some place in their State and designate a center of excellence. These would be shining examples of all of the best efforts that are being made for early childhood education. The centers would get up to $200,000 a year for 5 years and would hopefully try to coordinate all early childhood education and development efforts.

When I was a child, my mother's preschool class in the garage in our backyard was the only preschool education program in town. In the 1970s, Tennessee adopted public kindergarten for the first time, a few years after Head Start. Well, today, Head Start is a $7 billion program. It has 1,700 agencies, 29,000 centers, but that is far from all the effort we are making. There are 21 billion Federal dollars for early childhood education, and many State and local dollars. They are not always spent in the most efficient manner. The President thought it would be better to give the Head Start funds to the States. I disagree with that. We have disagreed with that, but we have respected his impulse by saying in these 200 centers for the next 5 years, let's see what happens. Let's see what happens when States work with local governments and put all the Federal, State, and local money together for early childhood education in these centers for excellence.

Second, there is a system for renewal for Head Start agencies. There is not an automatic renewal after this time, and the Secretary of Health and Human Services will develop a process for that to make sure that for every cycle, the Head Start agency earns its right to continue. Third, there is clear authority to governing boards about the big dollars we are spending here and the big lives we are affecting. We heard eloquent testimony from the mayor of Shelby County, A.C. Wharton, about money that was stolen down there. So we have done a better job listening to Mayor Wharton and to others in making it clear who is in charge of the money, who is in charge of the administration, and at the same time, making sure that the parents, who are the lifeblood of the uniqueness of Head Start, are active and full participants through policy councils.

Finally, as the President also recommended, we have worked over the last 2 or 3 years in developing this bill to increase cognitive learning standards. Forty years ago, we didn't know nearly as much about how the brains of very young children work, but we know now that to be ready to learn, to be at the starting line when the time comes to go to school, children need to learn more in their earlier years. So Head Start will provide that opportunity.

It is not too much to say that this bill is about whose century this will be. We hope it will be the century of every child in the world, but we like the idea that it could be the American century, and we want to take full advantage of the assets we have. One of the assets we have is the dream that anything is possible, that you can go from the back of the line to the front. We will keep our markets free. We will try to keep our taxes down. We will get rid of unnecessary regulations so people can get ahead. But this bill is a commitment that says we will also make certain we will do our best to make sure every single child has an opportunity to get to the starting line ready to succeed.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Mr. President, today we approved the Conference Report on the Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007--H.R. 1429. I applaud the good work of all involved. I particularly want to commend Chairman Kennedy and Senator Enzi, as well as Chairman Miller and Representative McKeon on the House side for their collective work on this important bill.

Head Start is a national program promoting school readiness through educational, health, nutritional, and social services. Currently, Head Start serves over 900,000 low-income children and their families in approximately 1,600 programs run by public and private agencies. As a whole-child, whole-family program, Head Start prepares children for what we hope will be a lifetime of learning.

I want to recognize and commend our Head Start programs in Utah. They do an outstanding job, and I believe this legislation will go a long way to providing additional support for them. I have appreciated their input during this long process.

I have been struck by some of the stories shared by our Head Start people in Utah. I remember hearing from one of our Head Start Directors that a number of children have never held a book before entering the program. When they are handed their first book, many don't know how to open it. Entering Head Start swings wide the doors of learning and opportunity and exposes young children to the reading and learning process.

I have also heard stories of Head Start children who were suffering from major medical problems that would not only threaten their ability to learn but their very lives. One of the great characteristics of the Head Start program includes the identification and treatment of several medical conditions, many problems can be detected and treated before they become serious learning impediments.

The Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007 not only reauthorizes the program, it greatly improves and strengthens it. This bill will enable more low-income children to get into the Head Start program. Utah has only been able to serve just over 50 percent of its eligible children. This bill provides for the expansion of Head Start and Early Head Start in States, like Utah, serving fewer than 60 percent of eligible children.

This bill strengthens the accountability of Head Start programs and improves the overall quality of Head Start grantees, as they will be reviewed every 5 years. It clarifies and strengthens the role of the governing board in the oversight of the program. It also respects the priority role of parents and family through the collaborative role of the policy councils and operations of the Head Start programs.

Through this legislation, the Head Start workforce is strengthened, as goals have been established for education standards for Head Start teachers, curriculum specialists, and teacher assistants. It requires Head Start teachers to have in-service training every year and ensures professional development for all Head Start staff working directly with children.

The Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007 strengthens coordination and collaboration of the program by aligning services with

State early learning standards, providing professional development opportunities for Head Start staff, and promoting partnerships with other agencies.

Because I believe that education is best done at the local and State levels with appropriate Federal support, I am pleased that under this bill, states will designate a State Advisory Council that will closely address the education and care of children from birth to school entry. I strongly support the authorization for Centers of Excellence to designate model exemplary Head Start programs in every State.

One of the concerns expressed by many of us as we started this process years ago, was the challenge of strengthening the academic portions of Head Start. Under this bill, Head Start agencies will use scientifically based measures to support learning and program evaluation. Recommendations of the National Academy of Science study on Developmental Outcomes and Assessments for Young Children will be incorporated. Although the National Reporting System was intended to improve the program, it was found to be time-consuming and unwieldy for Head Start programs, and without demonstrated benefits. That reporting system has been eliminated under this bill.

In order to educate every child in our country, we must prepare them. Many pre-school children, particularly those who are disadvantaged, would have learning difficulties long before they entered elementary school. This bill will help these young, vulnerable, and teachable children develop the necessary early reading and math skills to be successful in school. It will address their health and nutritional needs, and it will provide important socialization. It also engages and empowers parents, and benefits us as a Nation.

I was proud to have worked with my colleagues on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee to get this bill through the legislative process, and I was pleased to see it pass unanimously today.