A bill to amend the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to increase the amount made available to purchase commodities for the emergency food assistance program in fiscal year 2010.

Mr. President, I rise today to talk about legislation that I introduced with Senator Franken today that is essential to the academic success of millions of vulnerable children and youth.

The Educational Success for Children and Youth Without Homes Act responds to the growing crisis of homelessness in our Nation. The legislation will help homeless children and youth thrive in school, despite the constant moves, trauma, and loss associated with homelessness.

This legislation is needed now more than ever. The economic downturn and foreclosure crisis have had a significant impact on homelessness. Public schools reported a 17-percent increase in the number of homeless students in 2007. In Washington State, the number of homeless students has increased dramatically. For example, the number of homeless students enrolled in Whatcom County schools increased by 66 percent over the past 2 years; in Evergreen Public Schools, there has been a 56-percent increase over the past 2 years. This Fall, many schools face a veritable tidal wave of homelessness. Over one million children and youth are now homeless in our Nation.

The recession has contributed to homelessness among two groups of students: children who are homeless with their families, and youth who are homeless on their own. This reality was brought starkly to light in the recent New York Times series about runaway and homeless youth. The series found a 40-percent increase in the number of homeless youth living on their own last year, more than double the number in 2003. It concluded that ``Foreclosures, layoffs, rising food and fuel prices and inadequate supplies of low-cost housing have stretched families to the extreme, and those pressures have trickled down to teenagers and preteens.''

School offers homeless children and youth structure, normalcy, support, and hope--it is a place where they can obtain the skills that they will need to avoid poverty and homelessness as adults. Yet these students face great educational challenges. High mobility, precarious living conditions, and severe poverty combine to create major barriers to school enrollment and regular attendance. Many homeless children and youth lack basic supplies and a reasonable environment where they can do homework. As a result of their circumstances, homeless students often perform below their peers in math and reading and are more likely to be held back.

We must do more to assist these students so they do not continue to be left behind. The Educational Success for Children and Youth Without Homes Act of 2009 would do just that. The bill amends the McKinney- Vento Act's Education for Homeless Children and Youth program. It makes a strong law even stronger by reinforcing and expanding the law's key provisions: school stability, enrollment, and support for academic achievement.

This legislation will enhance the right of homeless children to stay in the same school, so that children who have lost their homes do not also lose their schools. It will assist schools in meeting the challenges of transporting homeless students by increasing the authorized funding level and allowing other Federal funds for educating low-income students to be used for homeless transportation. When staying in the same school is not possible, or not in a child's best interest, the legislation will help the student make a seamless transition to a new school.

This bill will help students like Kyle, a 4th-grade student in Spokane. Due to the instability of homelessness, Kyle moved around with his family most of his life. In fact, he moved eleven times. There were large gaps where he had not gone to school at all, because of his family's frequent moves. Yet although Kyle moved eleven times, the homeless education program in Spokane was able to keep him stable in one school. Because he had the opportunity to attend one school consistently, the school district was able to determine that his academic and behavioral struggles were caused by more than just homelessness: a special education evaluation revealed that he was nearly deaf in both ears. He now has hearing aids in both ears and told his teacher:

``I can hear now, and I am being good. I want to be a crossing guard.''

Yet many more children like Kyle are not receiving the assistance they need due to lack of funding. In fact, only 9 percent of school districts are able to receive funding through the McKinney-Vento program currently. This legislation would increase the authorized funding level, so that more school districts can participate in the homeless education program and reach more children and youth experiencing homelessness.

One of the most successful features of the McKinney-Vento program is the requirement for every school district to designate a liaison for homeless children and youth. Liaisons identify homeless students, ensure their enrollment and attendance, and connect them to community resources. Liaisons are the backbone of this program, the unsung heroes who have become a lifeline for children and youth in crisis. Yet most liaisons do not have the capacity to carry out their required duties; they wear many hats and struggle to meet the growing demands of this population. As a result, too many homeless children and youth are falling through the cracks and missing out on school. The Educational Success for Children and Youth Without Homes Act will strengthen the critical position of homeless liaison by ensuring that liaisons have the time, resources, and training to fulfill their mandated duties.

The Educational Success for Children and Youth Without Homes Act also recognizes the unique needs of certain groups of homeless children: preschool-aged homeless children, and unaccompanied homeless youth.

Young children who are homeless have higher rates of developmental delays and other problems that set them back as they start out life, yet they face numerous barriers to participating in early childhood programs. They miss out on services that can mitigate the harmful effect of homelessness on their development. This legislation will increase homeless children's participation in preschool programs by requiring public preschool programs to identify and prioritize homeless children for enrollment, and to develop the capacity to serve all identified homeless children.

Unaccompanied homeless youth struggle to go to school without the basic necessities of life or a parent to guide them. We must assist unaccompanied homeless youth to overcome the unique educational challenges related to being without a home and without a parent or guardian. This legislation will help ensure that unaccompanied homeless youth have the supports necessary to stay in school, graduate with their peers, and move on to a brighter future.

The history of litigation under the McKinney-Vento Act makes clear that we must do a better job helping educators learn about homelessness and support them in implementing the law. To this end, the legislation provides funding for technical assistance and training, and requires participation in professional development activities.

I am pleased to be joined by Senator Franken in cosponsoring this legislation to assist homeless students, and I am honored to cosponsor Senator Franken's legislation, the Fostering Success in Education Act, to assist students who are in foster care. These bills recognize the similarities, and the differences, between students who are homeless and those who are in foster care. It is our intention to work with our Senate colleagues to ensure that children and youth who are currently served through the McKinney-Vento Act under the category of ``awaiting foster care placement'' will be transitioned to the Fostering Success in Education program, so that their unique needs may be best met.

As we look forward to the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, we must recognize that children who do not know where they will sleep at night, or where their next meal will come from, face far greater challenges than simply remembering to do their homework. We must acknowledge that children who bounce between schools with each change of residence have little hope of taking advantage of even the best school programs. The most qualified teacher, or the most exceptional math or reading program, will not benefit children who are not enrolled in school, not attending regularly, and not assisted to overcome the barriers caused by homelessness. The Educational Success for Children and Youth Without Homes Act builds upon the proven successes of the McKinney-Vento Act's Education of Homeless Children and Youth program, while addressing remaining challenges. It is critical legislation that will help ensure that the homeless children of today do not become the homeless adults of tomorrow.

Mr. President, a quality education can serve as a positive counterweight to the abuse, neglect, and instability that children in foster care have experienced. That is why Senator Murray and I are introducing the Fostering Success in Education Act. The act builds on previous Federal efforts to increase the school stability and success of foster children.

The very placement of children in foster care has deprived many children of their opportunity to obtain a decent education. The primary reason is that children in foster care frequently move between foster homes, and often change schools when they move. Research shows that students lose 4 to 6 months of educational progress each time they change schools. It therefore becomes nearly impossible for foster children--who change schools multiple times--to make significant educational progress.

Moreover, foster children often change schools in the middle of the school year. When this happens, it is hard for them to catch up with their classmates, since they didn't learn the material their classmates studied earlier in the year.

Because different schools offer different courses, it is also difficult for foster children to transfer their course credits from prior schools after they move. Many foster children therefore end up repeating courses and even grades.

But what is even more disturbing is that foster children are often segregated from other students, and inappropriately placed in separate schools at group foster homes and residential treatment facilities. At these separate schools, foster children typically receive a subpar education, making it difficult for them to transition smoothly to regular public schools later on.

As a result of all these challenges, many foster children fall behind their peers in school, lose hope, and ultimately drop out. Consider, for example, the school experience of Carrie, a 19 year-old young woman in Minnesota, who was placed in foster care in eighth grade. When Carrie moved to her first foster home, she had to transfer to a new school. Being uprooted from her family was difficult enough, but she also had to cope with the transition to her new school--just when she most needed the support of her friends and teachers at her old school. Moreover, because she changed schools in the middle of the school year, she found it difficult to keep up with her classmates in her new school.

There was no need to add further instability to Carrie's life by making her change schools. Her old school--the school that she had attended since kindergarten--was just 20 minutes away from her foster home. It would have been perfectly reasonable to transport Carrie back to that school.

Over her next 5 years in foster care, Carrie ended up 7 moving between 7 different foster care placements and schools. The schools where she spent most of her time in high school separated her from other children in her community, and offered her a low-quality education. For example, in ninth grade, Carrie attended a school at a residential treatment facility, where her education consisted of sitting in a classroom with children as young as ten, and filling out simple workbooks with little help from an instructor. Given the multiple educational disruptions Carrie experienced, it is not surprising that she believes she left high school with only a ninth grade education.

Unfortunately, Carrie's school experience is not unique. Many foster children in Minnesota, and across the

country, have experienced a similar pattern of moving between multiple schools, wasting time in segregated schools, and leaving school without much to show for all their years of education.

Last year, Congress decided that it was time to do something about this situation. Congress enacted the Fostering Connections to Success Act, a child welfare law that, among other things, requires child welfare agencies to collaborate with local education agencies to improve the school stability of foster children.

Child welfare agencies, however, can't go it alone. To fulfill the vision of the Fostering Connections Act, they need the full cooperation of State and local education agencies.

That is why Senator Murray and I have decided to place requirements on State and local education agencies that mirror those placed on child welfare agencies in the Fostering Connections Act. For example, our bill requires State and local education agencies to collaborate with child welfare agencies to provide foster children who move to new school districts with the right to attend their schools of origin--or, in other words, the right to attend their former schools or the schools they attended before they were placed in foster care.

If Carrie had this right when she was placed in foster care, she would have been able to remain in the school she had attended since kindergarten. When it's not in the best interest of particular foster children to remain in their schools of origin, our bill requires State and local education agencies to work with child welfare agencies to enroll foster children immediately in new schools. This is an important element of our bill because foster children often spend weeks out of school as a result of enrollment delays.

In addition, our bill provides funding to help school districts and child welfare agencies address the educational needs of foster children, such as funding to provide foster children with transportation back to schools in their former school districts.

Finally, our bill clarifies that foster children have a right to the same educational opportunities as other children in their community. This means, for example, that foster children cannot be placed in separate schools merely based on the misguided belief that foster children cannot fit in at a regular public school.

In addition to working with Senator Murray on the Fostering Success in Education Act, we have collaborated on a related bill--the Educational Success for Children and Youth Without Homes Act, which Senator Murray introduced earlier today. The Educational Success for Children and Youth Without Homes Act will improve the educational stability of homeless children, who, like foster children, face significant educational challenges because they often move between school districts. While there are many similarities between the protections provided to homeless and foster children in our bills, our bills also address the unique circumstances of each group.

I am grateful to Carrie, and the many other foster and homeless youth who have bravely spoken out about their difficult school experiences. Their efforts will help prevent other children entering foster care or experiencing homelessness in the future from suffering similar ordeals.

I believe it is time that we listen to these youth and take steps to ensure that we don't deprive homeless and foster children of their right to an equal education. Senator Murray and I therefore plan on working hard in the coming months to achieve the reforms we lay out in the bills we're introducing today, and I would urge my colleagues to support both of these important bills.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I have sought recognition to comment briefly on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which was disclosed late yesterday by our distinguished majority leader, Senator Reid, to whom we all owe a debt of gratitude for the extraordinary work in putting together this very complex legislative proposal. Also, compliments are due to Senator Baucus, who chairs the Finance Committee, and Senator Dodd, who carried on the work of Senator Kennedy on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions bill. The bill provides for gross spending of $979 billion over a 10-year period, under the $1 trillion dollar mark. The coverage allocation is $848 billion. There are gross savings of $1,109 billion, and the deficit impact is to have a reduction of some $130 billion over the 10-year period. In the second 10-year period, the projection for savings is substantially greater. There will be millions of Americans covered who do not now have health coverage, so over 94 percent of all legal residents of all ages will be covered.

We are now digesting this very complex piece of legislation. The majority leader has scheduled a cloture vote for Saturday at 8 p.m. It is my hope and, candidly, my expectation that we will have the 60 votes to proceed for the consideration of this bill.

It is my view that inaction is not an option; that there are too many people not covered by health insurance or who are underinsured. The cost of health coverage is escalating at such a tremendous rate. It is having a great impact especially on small businesses. A recent prominent publication noted that rates for small business were being dramatically increased. Senator Harkin scheduled a hearing in the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. One of my constituents from Lancaster came in to testify that his premiums were rising by 128 percent. So I believe that inaction is not an option.

We have had many declarations of positions, and in the Senate, where you need 60 votes to move ahead, every one of those votes is indispensable. Only one Republican, Senator Snowe in the Finance Committee, supported the Finance Committee bill, so there was no

margin for error. It would be my hope that my colleagues will not draw any lines in the sand, realizing that no legislative proposal is going to meet the expectations and the desires of every individual Senator. There are 100 of us. There are 435 Members of the House of Representatives. If there is an art to politics, it is an art of listening, of being flexible, and accommodation or compromise.

So we are undertaking a major historic event. Efforts have been made since the days of Theodore Roosevelt to have this kind of health coverage legislation. It is too important for us to fail.

(The remarks of Senator Specter pertaining to the introduction of S. 2805 are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')

Mr. President, I seek recognition to introduce legislation to deal with the pressing problem of hunger in the United States. The report of the Economic Research Service of the Department of Agriculture on Monday, November 16--3 days ago--disclosed some startling facts about hunger in America. The report showed there are 49 million Americans who experienced hunger last year. Among that number, 17 million were children, and 500,000 of those children were under the age of 6, which is a critical stage in childhood development.

The hunger problem hit disproportionately higher for Hispanics at 27 percent higher and African Americans at 26 percent higher. It is hard to find a sufficiently tough word to describe it--scandalous, outrageous, criminal, repugnant--that in this land of plenty, we should find Americans who are hungry. It is unacceptable to have people hungry anywhere in the world, but right here in our own backyard for this situation to exist is beyond the pale.

Having read the article on the 16th, I contacted the Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, discussed the issue with him, and I am now introducing legislation which will add $250 million to the food banks to try to deal with this issue on an emergency basis. It would be my hope that this is the kind of legislation which could be passed very promptly--hopefully, before Christmas of this year during our current session--to take some immediate action to replenish the food banks so people in America are not hungry.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that my full statement be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I seek recognition to introduce legislation to deal with the pressing problem of hunger in the United States. The report of the Economic Research Service of the Department of Agriculture on Monday, November 16--3 days ago--disclosed some startling facts about hunger in America. The report showed there are 49 million Americans who experienced hunger last year. Among that number, 17 million were children, and 500,000 of those children were under the age of 6, which is a critical stage in childhood development.

The hunger problem hit disproportionately higher for Hispanics at 27 percent higher and African Americans at 26 percent higher. It is hard to find a sufficiently tough word to describe it--scandalous, outrageous, criminal, repugnant--that in this land of plenty, we should find Americans who are hungry. It is unacceptable to have people hungry anywhere in the world, but right here in our own backyard for this situation to exist is beyond the pale.

Having read the article on the 16th, I contacted the Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, discussed the issue with him, and I am now introducing legislation which will add $250 million to the food banks to try to deal with this issue on an emergency basis. It would be my hope that this is the kind of legislation which could be passed very promptly--hopefully, before Christmas of this year during our current session--to take some immediate action to replenish the food banks so people in America are not hungry.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that my full statement be printed in the Record.