Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I just want to congratulate the Members, my colleagues, and the staff for doing a terrific job. I am very much aware of this topic. We have a technical school in my district (Stark State College) of approximately 8,000 students with a placement rate of about 96 percent, and they are working with the high schools; they are doing what you are envisioning in this conference report.

To me, this is one of the most important pieces of legislation that will come out of this session, because education is the future and this legislation gives an opportunity and expands the horizons of many students that otherwise would not get that chance. I do have to say that one of the most grievous things to me is the dropout rate in this country. An average of thirty-two percent of our students nationwide do not finish high school. Part of it is because they are bored, part of it is because they don't learn to read, part of it is a whole lot of different things. They are attracted to get out early and get some kind of a job and buy a car or whatever.

This legislation will help to reduce the dropout rate. If the schools across this country will work out the programs that are envisioned in this report, I think our schools will make giant strides in reducing dropouts, because it will allow students at the high school to get a vision of what can be achieved, what they can do in technical education and what they can do in employment opportunities and what a better future they can have. This should be billed as a hope bill, it is a future bill.

Again, I congratulate my colleagues and the staff for constructing a terrific piece of legislation, certainly it will mean a lot to the future of this Nation. If you read Tom Friedman's book ``The World is Flat,'' you realize how important it is as a Nation that we give educational opportunity to everybody that we utilize the resources of all our people.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to salute the achievements of William Karnet ``Bill'' Willis of Columbus, Ohio.

Mr. Willis was a 3-year starter for The Ohio State University and starred on the 1942 National Championship football team as a sophomore. He was twice recognized for his football talents as an All-Big 10 honoree while at The Ohio State University.

After college, Mr. Willis served as the Head Football Coach and Athletic Director of Kentucky State College in 1945. He subsequently signed a contract on August 6, 1946 with the Cleveland Browns to play professional football in the first year that the All-American Football Conference competed.

Upon signing his contract with the Cleveland Browns, Mr. Willis broke the color barrier in professional football a full year before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball. With this landmark achievement, Mr. Willis became a role model for others.

Continuing his role as a trailblazer, Mr. Willis played in the first three Pro Bowl games for the National Football League. Specifically, the game-winning tackle by Mr. Willis in the divisional playoff between the New York Giants and the Cleveland Browns propelled the Cleveland Browns to the 1950 National Football League Championship.

Mr. Willis played professional football with the Cleveland Browns for the 8 years from 1946 to 1953.

After his football career, Mr. Willis was appointed to the Ohio Youth Commission in 1963 and was named Commission Director. He is a member of the City of Columbus Hall of Fame in recognition of his accomplishments.

Mr. Willis was inducted into the Professional Football Hall of Fame in 1977 for his outstanding achievements in and contributions toward professional football.

His record of remarkable leadership in helping the young people of Ohio will be a lasting legacy of achievement.

Mr. Speaker, I was present and voting during the series of rolled votes that included rollcall No. 233, for passage of a bill introduced by my colleague Representative LaTourette. The bill, I believe reasonably addressed the impasse in labor contract negotiations between our Nation's air traffic controllers and the Federal Aviation Administration by creating procedural fairness and encouraging good faith bargaining for both parties. While I attempted to vote ``yea'' on the bill, the electronic voting system did not record the vote I intended to cast. I ask that the record reflect that had my vote been recorded, it would have been ``yea'' on rollcall No. 233.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Carol A. Cartwright, President of Kent State University, for 15 remarkable years of academic, community and national leadership. It has been my genuine pleasure to work with her on a range of priorities in northeast Ohio, including education and learning, economic development, healthcare and research.

Kent State has eight campuses, including the Stark campus in my District, with more than 34,000 students seeking from 2-year to Ph.D. degrees. Its leader must be a great communicator, able to multi-task and an innovative thinker in her approach to getting the job done. Carol Cartwright does that every day with a smile and a quick wit, as well as considerable knowledge and experience.

Throughout her career, Dr. Cartwright has been a role model for women in higher education and every walk of life. After working as a teacher, university professor, pioneering researcher in the field of special education and as a university executive officer, she made history in 1991 when she became Kent State University's first woman president and the first woman president of a public university in Ohio. From the outset of her presidency, she has been an active advocate of professional-development and personal-growth initiatives for women. In her first year of eligibility, she was elected to the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame.

She was also a member of the committee that worked with my wife, Mary, to bring the long-overdue idea of a National First Ladies Library to life, and Carol continues to serve on the Library's national board. She also serves on the American Council on Education Commission on Women in Higher Education and the board of directors of National Public Radio.

Carol has a clear commitment to all students, and she has been instrumental in building one of the finest programs in the nation to help GED candidates advance to pursue college degrees. I look forward every year to attending the graduation ceremony to hear wonderful success stories and to learn of students' academic achievements--thanks to the GED Scholars Initiative at Kent State.

On October 5, 2005, Dr. Cartwright, Kent State University's 10th president, announced her decision to step down from the leadership position she has held since 1991. She will retire from the presidency upon the arrival of her successor. I want to congratulate her on a tremendous job and wish Carol and her husband, Phil, health and happiness in the future.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I just want to point out that the natural gas beyond the 3 miles belongs to all the people of America; 280 million of us own that, and we are entitled to use it. We are entitled to use it for jobs, and we are entitled to use it for fueling our industry. Many of you have seen the buses on the highways in our cities that are fueled by clean-burning natural gas.

I want to point out something else, and that is that in the Labor-HHS bill we put in a lot of money for LIHEAP. Why? Because the price of natural gas keeps going up and we, therefore, have to subsidize this with tax dollars, tax dollars that could be used for medical research, tax dollars that could be used for education and things that build the quality of life for Americans.

I do not think it is fair to 280 million Americans to deny them access to an asset that belongs to all of them, the resources that lie beyond the 3-mile limit. That limit is there for a reason.

I also want to point out one other thing. For those that have not seen it, the technology today is vastly improved. The drilling rigs are safe. The production platforms are usually under the water and you don't even know they are there. And they are not going to be an impediment to military operations, and they are not going to be an impediment to the viewscape of the tourists who go to Florida, California, or wherever the case might be.

I think for jobs for America, for health research, for education we need to use this natural resource that belongs to all of us.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me the time, and I want to give great credit to Mr. Castle and the other sponsors of this amendment because this is an important program. I also want to mention Wendy Kopp. She was the person who had the vision to start Teach for America, and it has had a tremendous impact. I won't go over the same things you have heard already, but it is one of those things that is making a difference in classrooms across this Nation.

As chairman of the Labor, HHS and Education, I have visited classrooms with Teach for America teachers, and their enthusiasm, their involvement has been terrific. I think it will be a great asset to our Nation's education program to expand this and get more young people involved. I am just a totally strong supporter of the whole program.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of this amendment. I believe an investment in education is an investment in human capital.

Teachers are the heart and soul of education, and we must ensure that every classroom has a good teacher. This amendment would authorize funding to recruit, select, train and support a national corps of outstanding recent college graduates of all academic majors who commit two years to teach in low-income communities and become lifelong leaders of education reform. This year, 19,000 individuals applied to Teach for America and roughly 4,000 were selected to teach in schools.

As many of you know, America faces a growing shortage of qualified math and science teachers. In a recent international assessment of 15- year-olds' math problem skills, the United States had the smallest percentage of top performers and the largest percentage of low performers compared to the other participating countries.

I've long been a supporter of Teach for America and it is worth noting that a highly regarded study by Mathematica Policy Research showed that students taught by Teach for America corps made greater gains than those of veteran, fully certified teachers.

As the U.S. economy becomes even more reliant on workers with greater knowledge and technological expertise, it is incumbent upon us to prepare our students to meet the future demands of the workforce.

As a former teacher, I am very impressed by the Teach for America program and would urge strong support of my colleagues for this amendment.

Madam Speaker, my colleagues, this is a classic example of robbing Peter to pay Paul. What we are going to do is propose to move money from the 2007 bill to spend in 2006.

Now that sounds very seductive and sounds like an easy way to deal with having more money available in this fiscal year. But let me point out to my colleagues that what this will do is take a billion dollars ultimately out of the 2007 bill that has to be made up.

We will have one of two choices in the labor HHS 2007 bill: Get the money out of education, or get the money out of medical research, NIH, CDC. There is no other source. Because this billion dollars that was provided by the budget reconciliation to address LIHEAP spending for 2007 would no longer be available, because what this proposes to do is to move it into 2006.

Well, obviously to make up that billion in the 2007 bill we will have to get it somewhere. Now if it would be an increased allocation, which seems unlikely, because the President's budget already has Labor HHS Education money substantially under last year, and, therefore, to make another billion available will just exacerbate the problem.

While this has a very seductive appeal, that, well, we are going to have this extra money for 2006, we are forgetting that there is a 2007 year coming up; and, therefore, by passing this kind of legislation, we are simply making it very difficult to meet the other needs in the 2007 budget.

Madam Speaker, I would urge my Members to vote against this simply because it is not responsible budgeting to say to the Labor HHS that you have to go get a billion dollars out of other very important programs such as education and medical research.

But inevitably that is where it has to come from, because this will leave a billion-dollar hole in the 2007 budget.

In the budget reconciliation, they attempted to ensure that the billion would be there for 2007. But what this legislation does is simply say we are going to move it into 2006 and figure out where to get it for 2007.

Well, there is no easy way to figure it out, because already 2007, in putting together the 2007 budget we are having a tough time having the resources to do the other important functions. I think it would not be responsible stewardship of our money, of our resources for the public, to take this money and leave a billion dollars unfunded for LIHEAP in 2007.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. A couple of other things I would point out. In reality, we will have to find $1.4 billion when you work out the numbers to match the level provided for 2006. That is in the 2007 bill. So I reiterate, that means $1.4 billion will have to come out of education or medical research, because I just do not see any enhanced allocation to do that.

Now, in adopting the supplemental, we recognize the potential emergency, and we provided language in there. This is an amendment that I offered in the supplemental in the full committee that allows the shift of $750 million as needed to address any shortfall in 2006, but we do not mandate that it be done.

Under the Snowe approach, this would force the expenditure, and if the funds were not used, they would lapse. And I think that it is just not good management to require, as this bill does, the movement of this money from 2007 to 2006, and therefore, run the risk that it might lapse. When we tried to address the problem in the supplemental by saying that the money could be used up to $750 million if needed, and I think that is a much better solution.

It is a more responsible solution to manage of potential problem without impinging heavily on the 2007 money and forcing the committee to make that up to the amount of $1.4 billion out of other very important programs. I would urge my colleagues to reject this.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. I want to rise to say that I served with Coretta Scott King on the Federal Holiday Commission. She was the chair and I was vice-chair at her request. She did a wonderful job of carrying on the message of Dr. King. She traveled widely and was highly respected in her efforts to take the message across America and the world.

The fact that 50 States now acknowledge the Federal King holiday is in part out of respect for her leadership on the Federal Holiday Commission. The Commission was designed to achieve that. In addition, many communities across the country have celebrations of the King holiday and the life of Martin Luther King and bring to college students, to high school, and grade school students the story of how he impacted our Nation's future and our society. This happened because of her leadership as chairman of the Federal Holiday Commission.

She truly was a remarkable woman. She deserves enormous credit for carrying on the legacy of Dr. King and taking this message to America. I just have to say that she did this with great humility, with great understanding, and great ability to persuade those that she came in contact with, with groups and leaders across the Nation, of the importance of the King message.

Her life is something that we should all respect and cherish as part of the American scene. I think she deserves enormous credit for what she accomplished as chairman of the Holiday Commission. She made happen what the intent of Congress was in passing the holiday language, that the message be taken to the States and to the people of the Nation. Many of these celebrations are as a result of her efforts. A truly great woman. A great individual.

She has been recognized by many groups and well deserved all of the accolades that she has received. Her death is a great loss to our Nation; but her life was a great strength for our

Nation, and we are all indebted to her for the leadership she provided.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include tabular and extraneous material on the further conference report to accompany H.R. 3010.

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 596, I call up the further conference report on the bill (H.R. 3010) making appropriations for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2006, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and I would just like to say to my colleagues and friends on the other side of the aisle to take a second look at this bill. I know that, in our first iteration, they did not give us any votes, but let me point out to you that if the bill were to fail, we would end up with a CR, a full year's CR, because you know we are not going home without something in this field.

These are important programs, over 500 of them. What would happen with a CR? Well, there would be $800 million less for student aid, $278 million less for innovation and improvement programs, $178 million less for higher education programs, $94 million less for title I programs and $84 million less for special education programs. That would be a disastrous result that I do not think any of us on either side of the aisle would want to happen.

In addition, if we were to go to a CR, if this bill were to fail, LIHEAP funding would be reduced by $298 million, with no contingency for extreme weather. Community Services Block Grant would be cut $317 million. National Institutes of Health would be cut $198 million, with 200 fewer research grants.

Mr. Speaker, I want to say to all my colleagues that this is not something we want to make as a Christmas gift to the American people, a CR on this bill. This bill is a good bill. It reflects good management of what we had to work with.

I might say at the outset that there are no earmarks in the bill, none, for anyone, either side or any person. Absolutely no earmarks, and no earmarks for the Senate either. But I want to tell you what happened to the earmarked money, because we had $1 billion in the bill that originally passed the House back early on. Of that money, $100 million is going to title I to help our schools; $100 million is going to special education State grants to help the programs that help the disadvantaged students.

Mr. Speaker, $250 million is going to NIH for research, and we recognize that the challenge is great in that field to research medical issues. There is $317 million for Community Services Block Grant, and these help people with limited means. There is $176 million in LIHEAP and $66 million for community health centers, and community health centers obviously provide a place for people who do not have a family doctor and have limited means. It gives them a place to go. So these are good programs. These are good uses of the money, and I think we all understand that in this time of tight budgets and tight resources, we have to set priorities. In so doing, we set the priorities I just outlined rather than to go into earmarks.

I want to say at the outset that this program is $1.4 billion under 2005, and there is no increase from the bill we had 2 weeks ago. How did we manage to meet these program needs? We did it by managing carefully. We looked at the programs and the funds that were available.

I want to point out to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle that I do not think you want to go home and tell people in the education field that you voted against an increase, let me emphasize, an increase of $100 million over last year in title I. I do not think you want to tell the parents and families of children with special needs that you voted against an increase in special education of $100 million over last year. Head Start is up $6.8 million. Math and science partnerships, and we hear a lot about that today, these are up over last year. We have $100 million to develop teacher and principal programs, incentive programs, particularly at the elementary level.

TRIO and GEAR-UP, the President's budget had zero, and we put those back in because we think those are good programs. Again, they are well funded. Community health centers I mentioned are up $66 million. This is an important program. It is important in many communities, as is LIHEAP. Medicare modernization, we are rolling out the new program, and we have $980 million in this bill to assist in getting people informed to meet their desires in terms of prescription drugs. That would not be in a continuing resolution.

NIH is $107 million over the President's request. It is up this year $200-some million. People think of NIH being research at Bethesda. NIH is basically managing 40,000 grants going out to colleges, hospitals, medical services all over the country. I would guess that almost every Member has one or more research grants in his or her district that is funded out of NIH. That is very important, and we have an increase in that program. That is again part of the earmarked money, $28.6 billion.

Community Services Block Grant, a program that helps people get GEDs, is just one example of what is done with the community services. There are a whole host of things to help people with limited income and who need additional help.

In the Labor Department, we have $1.57 billion for Job Corps and $1.48 billion for dislocated workers.

How did we manage to increase a number of programs while at the same time keeping the total number under last year, $1.4 billion? Well, one of the ways that we have gotten the necessary funding to do the items that I mentioned in the way of increases was to eliminate 20 programs. We went through the whole list of programs, the 500, and said, Does this work? Is this a productive program?

The bill that left the House had about 48 programs terminated. The other body decided to put back some of those, but we still have 20 programs that have been discontinued or will be

discontinued because, again, we recognize that we have to manage the resources as carefully as possible to do the important things: education, research at NIH, the effort in CDC to deal with the avian flu issue. So we tried to manage the funds available as carefully as possible. I think the results of that are reflected in the increases I mentioned.

I might say between this and the bill we had previously, we added $90 million for rural health programs, very important programs, obviously; and we did this by reducing the avian flu number because we are going to deal with that in another bill that will be coming along shortly.

So all in all, I want to say again this is a very positive bill; it is a very responsible bill in terms of using the resources that are available.

It is something that every Member can support, every Member can go home and say with a measure of confidence and satisfaction, I did something to improve education, I did something to help the special needs programs, the special education program, I did something to expand the community services programs and the Community Health Centers, NIH, LIHEAP, things that are extremely important to people. This literally is a people's bill, but it is a people's bill, too, in the sense that we manage their tax dollars carefully and try to give them as much in the way of service as possible. I hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will take a second look at what we have tried to do in this bill.

I recognize, of course, that you get into the tax issues, you get into budget issues, but this is not a tax bill. It is not a budget bill. This is a bill about taking resources that are available and using them in the best possible way to serve the people.

We had many hearings in our subcommittee. My colleague from Wisconsin was very helpful in those hearings to try to find out what is important to people. We tried to reflect that in the bill given the fact that we had a limited amount of resources. I would love to have more, and I am sure everybody else would, but the facts were we had to work with what we had available. I think the bill reflects a responsible use of the resources that were made available. I think it is a bill that will serve the American public very well.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Walsh), a fellow chairman on the Appropriations Committee and a member of our subcommittee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Weldon), a member of our subcommittee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Washington (Miss McMorris).

Miss McMORRIS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding me this time.

I rise in support of House bill 3010, and I especially wanted to highlight the increased funding for critical rural health programs.

Access to quality and affordable health care is one of my top priorities, and in a district that stretches 23,000 square miles between the Canadian, Idaho, and Oregon borders, the distance creates considerable challenges to ensuring quality health care. We continue to see an increasing shortage of health care professionals. In towns like Odessa, Republic, Davenport, primary care coverage is sparse. Pregnant women must travel over 1 hour for care. In addition, it is becoming nearly impossible to retain primary care physicians and dentists, let alone specialists. I have said it before and I will say it again: this is unacceptable for 21st-century health care.

This conference report is an important step in turning this tide for rural health care by increasing funds for the Office of Rural Health and Research Policy, Rural Health Outreach Grants, and Area Health Education Centers. Training in primary care and dentistry will receive $13 million above the original conference report. These title VII funds have helped support Family Medicine Spokane's rural training efforts, which is still producing family practice doctors who want to stay in practice in rural areas like Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho. Training and recruitment of health professional students remains an important priority.

When this bill was addressed on the floor in June, I spoke of the need for additional rural health care funds, and Chairman Regula assured me that he would consider increasing those funds in the conference report. I thank him for helping to preserve the Federal rural health infrastructure and increasing funding for these necessary programs. I appreciate his leadership on this issue.

We have made a solid step, and I urge my colleagues to support this legislation as we continue to advance legislation that will strengthen America's rural health infrastructure.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I say to my colleague from Wisconsin, if you would give us a few votes, we would have an even merrier Christmas.

Well, I am not too sure about that. I think it is going to be kind of tough to go home and explain how you are voting against an additional $100 million for title I, and I think you are going to have a tough time explaining to parents of children that have special needs that you voted against an additional $100 million for the programs for special needs kids. I think you are going to have a tough time explaining how you voted against adding $250 million in medical research at NIH to deal with the multitude of challenges, and to the communities that are earmarked for Community Health Centers, to help people without a doctor, without medical care. I am not sure how you explain to them they are going to have a merry Christmas when they are not getting their Community Health Centers and the Community Services Block Grants.

I want to say to my colleagues, this is a good bill. I recognize we had limited resources. There are a lot of things that were unusual this year with Katrina and with other challenges, and what we have tried to do is do the best we can with what was available; and I think we have done some pretty positive things.

I want to say to my colleagues on our side of the aisle, we are not getting any help from our friends on the minority side, so I would hope that we will have strong, strong support on our side to demonstrate that we can govern, that we can pass a very responsible bill with less money than the past because we have managed what we had in a more effective way.

But also I say to my colleagues that we want to say to the public that we do care about education, that we do care about the teachers, that we do care about the students who will benefit from that extra $100 million in title I. We want to say to the families of special needs children, we do care about your problem, and we want to support that extra $100 million that is in this bill. And we want to say to people who are confronted with the whole myriad

of challenging medical problems, such as juvenile diabetes, that we want to help and we want to support an additional $250 million for NIH.

We want to say to those that need Community Health Centers, where they do not have access to medical care, we want to help you with $66 million additional, and with LIHEAP, with the Northeast in particular, and with the Community Services Block Grants.

This is a bill that is caring about people. I would suggest to my colleagues on this side that we need to demonstrate with a very strong vote that even though our friends on the other side think it is not enough that it is going to have problems involving reconciliation; but this is not a Ways and Means bill, this is not a Budget bill, this is the people's bill with people's programs. It is not the reconciliation bill. That is another topic, and people will have their opportunity to vote on that.

But I simply want to say that given the resources that we have, given the times that we are confronted with, that we have done a very responsible job, even to the point that Members have sacrificed their earmarks. They have sacrificed $1 billion worth of earmarks in order to do the things that I outlined before, to do more education, to do more health research, to do more Community Health Centers. So this is something that all of us are taking part in trying to serve the needs of the American people as effectively as possible. This is a lot of money, $142.5 billion, and this literally is the people's bill.

I want to point out to my friends on the other side that when the Republicans became the majority party, this bill was $69 billion. Today, it is $142 billion, more than double what it was in 1994. That is pretty substantial dedication to education, to health research, to a whole host of things.

I would point out in the last 10 years we have increased title I aid to disadvantaged students by 91 percent. We have increased special education by 380 percent. That is a dramatic increase. I think it is great that we, and I want to say historically that has had strong bipartisan support, that we care about people who have needs.

I was once an elementary principal in a public school, and we did not have any special education program. That was the problem of the families. Today, we have billions of dollars spent on these programs. That is a credit to America, that people do care about each other; and it is demonstrated by the support we have for IDEA, with an increase of 380 percent. That has been bipartisan. We have tripled the Federal funding for reading programs. I think we are more and more aware that learning to read early in your education experience is vitally important.

Today, we are faced within the United States with a dropout rate of over 30 percent. That is a terrible waste of human talent. One of the things that causes that, I think, is inadequate reading programs early on. We are trying to address that problem. We have addressed that problem.

We are also recognizing in this bill that the key to a good public education system is a good teacher, a good principal, a good superintendent, caring people. So we put in this bill some additional money to recruit and retrain quality public school teachers and principals. Parents who have worked with principals in the school system know how important that is.

Pell grants, we have gone up 64 percent in the last 10 years. Again, we want to help those students who want to get an education who have limited economic resources to get an opportunity to participate in the American Dream. We have done this with America's Historically Black Colleges. We have increased their funding 182 percent. That is a dramatic commitment on the part of the Federal Government.

All in all, I think we as a Congress can take some pride. This is not the back of the bus when you spend $142 billion. Anything but. This is a front-row seat. And we have tried to make sure that every American, every American, could be in that front-row seat on the education bus, on the health research bus, on the Labor Department programs for job retraining bus. I think this is a bill we can take pride in.

My colleagues on my side, since we cannot get any help from our friends on the minority side for whatever reason, I have not quite figured that out, but I think our Members need to strongly support this bill and continue the pride we can take in our accomplishments since we became a majority, since 1994, as I have outlined, and particularly in the last 10 years.

This is a bill that is responsible, it is a bill that reflects good management of resources, it is a bill that we should all support strongly. I hope my colleagues on the majority side will come in and vote in a positive way to increase education, to increase medical research, to increase a whole host of things that will serve our people throughout this land effectively.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to clause 1 of rule XXII and by direction of the Committee on Appropriations, I move to take from the Speaker's table the bill (H.R. 3010) making appropriations for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2006, and for other purposes, with the Senate amendment thereto, disagree to the Senate amendment, and agree to the further conference asked by the Senate.

Mr. Speaker, I make a point of order against the motion because it violates clause 9 of rule XXII by proposing to direct the conferees to exceed the scope of matters committed to conference.

I ask for a ruling from the Chair.

Mr. Speaker, I make a point of order against the motion because it violates clause 9 of rule XXII by proposing to direct the conferees to exceed the scope of matters committed to conference.

I ask for a ruling from the Chair.

Mr. Speaker, I move to lay the appeal on the table.

Mr. Speaker, today I rise to congratulate Dr. W.A. Hayden Schilling, a professor from the College of Wooster, who was selected as a national winner of the U.S. Professors of the Year award. As a former educator, I know how important education is to the success of our future.

This is the only national award that recognizes college and university professors for excellence in undergraduate teaching and mentoring. I am pleased to say that Dr. Schilling was one of four national winners to receive this honor.

After receiving his bachelors degree in history from Southern Methodist University, Dr. Schilling earned both his masters and Ph.D. in history from Vanderbilt University. I should also point out that he is a Fulbright Scholar.

Dr. Schilling is a model educator who has spent his career dedicated to the success of our Nation's students. In fact, he was chosen over 300 other candidates for the Professor of the Year award. Wooster President R. Stanton Hales summed up Dr. Schilling's achievements when he said, ``Besides being a superb lecturer and professor, Dr. Schilling gives generously of his personal time for students. There's no way you can try to calculate the hours that he does this. I have seen no one more passionate about student success in all my 27 years in higher education.''

Helping the youth in the community excel has always been a passion of Dr. Schilling. He founded, directed and taught in the Wooster- Youngstown Early Intervention program which brings students together to improve their proficiency in math, science and language skills. His program has been a tremendous success, as many of the participants have successfully enrolled in college and it now serves as a model for several area colleges.

Lou Gerstner, former chairman of IBM said, ``If we don't step up to the challenge of finding the best teachers, we'll undermine everything else we are trying to do to improve our schools. That's a conscious decision that would threaten our economic strength, political fabric, and stability as a nation. It's exactly that clear cut.'' Dr. Schilling is an example of the type of teachers that Mr. Gerstner speaks of and this award serves as a testament to Dr. Schilling's outstanding career in education.

I appreciate all that Dr. Schilling has done to improve the lives of students and extend my congratulations to him as a 2005 U.S. Professor of the Year.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me this time.

I want to compliment both speakers from the Rules Committee. I think they have described in many ways the strength of this bill.

This bill illustrates the compassion of America. And as has been pointed out by both speakers, it touches the lives of 280 million Americans in so many different ways, their education, health research to improve the quality of their lives, perhaps illustrated by the fact, as Dr. Zerhouni testified in front of our committee, that every 5 years, life expectancy goes up 1 year in the United States. That is a tremendous gain and a tremendous promise for the future.

And, likewise, we recognize the importance of education. The future of a nation is so much tied to that. Tom Friedman, the writer for The New York Times, in his book ``The World is Flat,'' points out that we will be enormously challenged as a Nation in the years ahead by other countries that are spending a lot of money, a lot of energy, and a lot of human resources on education, because they too recognize that the winner of the future will be determined by the way in which they can educate their people.

This bill I call the ``good neighbor policy'' bill, because it means that we are all good neighbors to each other. And I think it does illustrate very clearly that America is a compassionate Nation, a compassionate people, and they are willing to commit resources to helping others. In the general debate, we will mention some of those things.

I would hope all of my colleagues who are going to be voting on this bill in the next couple or 3 hours would take a look at what is in there and how important many of these programs are to the Americans. There are 500 programs covered in this bill, and each one of them, in some way or another, touches the quality of life of the people of this Nation so that every American, in one way or another, as pointed out by the gentlewoman from California, has a stake on this bill and what it does in their lives. So, hopefully, we will all reach the understanding and support this bill.

Obviously, it may not have enough to suit everybody in terms of commitment of resources. Tough decisions have to be made. Priorities have to be decided. And what we tried to do on a bipartisan basis in the subcommittee, and we have a great group of members that serve on this subcommittee from both sides, is to make those very difficult priority judgments on behalf of the American people. And as was pointed out by both of the previous speakers, we have, hopefully, accomplished that goal as best as possible given the resources that were allocated.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include tabular and extraneous material on the conference report to accompany H.R. 3010.

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 559, I call up the conference report on the bill (H.R. 3010) making appropriations for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2006, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, today I think we are going to do a bill that will make us proud to be Americans. Why do I say proud to be Americans? Because I think this bill, more than any other, illustrates the compassion of the American people. Why do we say that? Let me give you some examples that are in this bill and are funded.

Special education, programs to help young people that are disabled for many different reasons. It is a matter of caring for them.

Centers for Disease Control, an agency that is in 43 countries around the world watching out for us. We hear a lot about avian flu. We worry about avian flu, but the people that are really doing this are Americans in the Centers for Disease Control team that is out there in these 43 Nations, ready to stand by and alert us if it becomes a greater problem.

Education. The number one challenge of government today is to educate people to compete in the world of tomorrow. If you read the literature, you find more and more emphasis on the importance of education if a nation is to remain strong, if a nation is to provide a standard of living that the people expect, that we are used to enjoying in this country. The competition is going to get tougher in the years ahead. You only need to read Tom Friedman's book ``The World is Flat'' in which it is pointed out how much is happening or talk to people that have traveled, as is the case of my State superintendent, to countries in the Far East, and realize how much emphasis is being put on education. We in the United States need to do the same, and this bill recognizes that.

Education, going back to Thomas Jefferson, was designed to give all Americans through a system of public education, an equal opportunity to their future.

Head Start. It is another program under education where we say to children from areas and schools and homes where they may not get somebody reading to them, may not have a chance to get that head start they need going into the school program. Our authorizing committee, I think, took a giant step forward on Head Start in authorizing it to become more than just a welfare program, as was originally envisioned, but actually providing that people that man the Head Start program have some experience in education, that they do more than teach. The literature makes it very clear that education does not start at the first grade or even for that matter in the period ahead of that. It starts early, early on, and Head Start is another example of the compassion of America.

National Institutes of Health. We fund that in this bill. This is an agency that is researching, finding cures. Every Member I am sure has had parents in his office with a child with juvenile diabetes or with a parent with Alzheimer's, pleading with us to do more in medical research, to find cures; and this, again, illustrates the compassion of America. We have more than doubled the amount of money going to NIH in the last several years because we recognize that this is key to the health of America, to find cures, to find new ways to address the concerns of the people that all of us have seen in our office who are pleading with us to do something.

This bill has 500 programs in it, 500 programs that help Americans, and in many different ways.

Math and science, I have here a report just put out by a group commissioned by two Senators and two House Members, and it is entitled ``Rising Above the Gathering Storm.'' Think about that title: ``Rising Above the Gathering Storm.'' What is the gathering storm? The gathering storm is the inability to compete as a Nation, and the thrust of this report is to rise above that. Their number one recommendation is an increase in America's talent pool by vastly improving K-12 science and mathematics education.

We make that kind of a commitment in this bill. We do give extra funding for math and science and recognize that in the world of tomorrow for our young people to compete they need to have that background.

Meals on Wheels, another example of compassion. If you have talked with people that work in this program, mostly volunteers who take out these meals, that allows seniors to stay in their homes for a longer period of time, that allows them to see somebody if they are living alone maybe once a day or more often in the week, a wonderful program in terms of caring about people.

Afterschool programs, we fund those, and those of you who live particularly in the big cities realize how important that is. I talked this morning with a young man that is running an afterschool program in the gentleman from Pennsylvania's (Mr. Sherwood) district, a member of our committee, where he said how much they can help people with their afterschool programs.

There are moneys in here to roll out the prescription drug program because we have a responsibility in this committee to provide for the administration of these programs.

Global AIDS. Global AIDS is in this bill, $100 million to address, along with the money in the foreign operations bill that again is very, very important; and I think we can be proud to be Americans.

That is what I said at the outset. I say it again, that when you look at what we have funded in this bill, we have funding in this bill for 280 million Americans and over many billions of dollars to address the needs of people, that addresses things that are very important in their lives. I urge all the Members, before you rush to judgment on this bill, realize that we are in this bill doing a lot of good things for American citizens. Maybe it is not as much as you like, not many bills ever are as much as people would like that have a high degree of interest, but there is a lot of good in here.

There is a lot in here for special education. We increase it. We increase NIH. More medical research to address those problems of juvenile diabetes is an example that you hear about in your office; more money for education, Title I.

More money for community health centers. Any of us who have those in, and I hope most Members do, realize how important the community health centers are to people who have no access, who do not have a family doctor. It helps the hospitals because it means that people can go to the community

health center instead of to the emergency room. We add money for that.

Community services block grants. Think of that title. Community services, and we give block grants to communities to administer to local problems. This is an example of a program that helps local people.

LIHEAP, again, Americans recognizing that people in areas of severe weather conditions need an additional helping hand, and that is especially true in this time that we are living in where people need to address the problems of excessive fuel costs.

So I cannot say enough. I hope all of my colleagues and the Members that are listening to this, reading the bill, will take note of the fact that whereas this may not be everything you like, this bill does a lot of good. I do not think you want to go home and tell people you are against more money for special education, for those that are least fortunate, that you are against more money for education, for medical research, for LIHEAP, for global AIDS, for people around the world that are less fortunate than we are.

So, again, I say think on what the importance is of what you are doing. Take pride in America. Take pride in the compassion of the people of this Nation as embodied in this bill.

Mr. Speaker, the complete table of all the funding levels included in the conference report has been printed in the Congressional Record as of November 16; and for those of my colleagues who are wondering what each of the programs might be of the 500, you can go to the Record of November 16 and pick out a program that you might have a special interest in.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present before the House today the conference report on the fiscal year 2006 appropriations for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies.

Many of my colleagues are aware of the difficult choices we had to make in this bill. In February, Congress received the President's FY 2006 budget request. In light of our budget deficit, the President's request assumed a one percent cut in domestic spending, exempting both defense and homeland security from this reduction. Our budget resolution approved this recommendation. This cut, taken together with required increases for implementing the prescription drug benefit program, brings our bill to $1.4 billion below last year's level.

Let me emphasize, we made a commitment to reduce deficits. Recognizing the will of this House, we have put together a bill that best reflects the priorities of this body and does a good job of meeting the needs of the American people.

The conference report has no budget gimmicks, no emergency spending designations, and no earmarks.

So many of the programs in this bill play an important part in the lives of American people. Peter Drucker, who passed away on Friday, was considered by many to be the most influential management thinker of the past century. He said, ``Successful enterprises create the conditions to allow their employees to do their best work.'' A successful employee needs adequate knowledge to thrive. I believe an investment in education is an investment in people. We support teachers and students by increasing funding for Title I by $100 million. Title I provides additional resources to low-income schools to help principals, teachers and students close education achievement gaps.

Many of my colleagues speak with me about the financial demands of special education on their local school districts. In this bill, funding for special education is increased by $100 million.

I believe the quality of classroom teachers and principals is one of the most important factors that affect student achievement.

This bill provides $100 million to reward effective teachers and to offer incentives for highly qualified teachers to teach in high-need schools.

We provide $184 million for math and science initiative. TRIO, GEAR UP, Vocational Education State Grants, and Adult Education, programs have strong support from members of this body. These programs were proposed for termination in the President's budget; however, we have allocated over $3 billion for the continuation of these important efforts.

The sharp rise in college costs continues to be a barrier to many students. This bill provides the full amount needed to hold the maximum Pell Grant at the current level of $4,050, over $800 million over FY 2005.

Healthcare is a critical part of a nation's economic development. Mr. Speaker, as you know, many of the Community Health Centers have served as America's health care safety net for the Nation's underserved populations. Funding for the Community Health Centers is at $1.8 billion, an increase of $66 million over last year.

As a result of our commitment to the National Institutes of Health, our citizens are living longer and better lives. We have provided over $28 billion to NIH to support medical research, $150 million over FY 2005.

The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program ensures that low-income households are not without heating or cooling, and provides protection to our most vulnerable populations, the elderly, households with small children, and persons with disabilities. Given the anticipated high costs of energy due to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, we have provided over $2.2 billion for FY 2006.

In the Department of Labor, we have provided nearly $3 billion for workforce training programs. These programs will ensure that our dislocated workers and most disadvantaged youth will return to gainful employment.

Mr. Speaker, in order to implement more than 400 provisions of the Medicare Modernization Act and ensure senior citizens receive the prescription drug benefits we provided in MMA, we have allocated nearly $1 billion over the FY 2005 level to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and Social Security Administration. While benefits that both of these agencies provide come through mandatory spending via the Ways and Means Committee, this bill provides the funding for the agencies' administrative costs.

Much more could be said about this bill, but given the allocation, we have produced a fair, balanced and responsible bill that best meets the needs of the American people.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Walsh), a very productive and important member of our subcommittee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Granger), a distinguished member of our subcommittee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston), a member of the Committee on Appropriations.

Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

In terms of earmarks, a proposal was made that we take an additional $2 billion as emergency spending, and half of that would have been for earmarks. But we did not do that.

The fact that there are no earmarks?

Absolutely, a billion dollars.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Weldon).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence).

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve my time.

Mr. Speaker and my colleagues, I hope you will all weigh carefully what your opportunity here is in terms of voting for this bill. An opportunity to improve health research, an opportunity to improve education in Title I, an opportunity to provide more money for special education, an opportunity to ensure that LIHEAP is funded for those in need, an opportunity to develop community health centers where poor people can go to get help, where they can avoid having to run to the emergency room. So many positive things.

As I said at the outset, this is a bill that makes you proud to be an American. It illustrates the compassion of the American people. We have heard from the other side how we are not doing enough. Let me point out that in 1996 shortly after the Republican Party became a majority in 1994 and took responsibility, in 1996, the total of this bill was $65 billion. Here 10 years later, this bill is $142.5 billion, more than double the amount of money that has been committed to the compassionate programs of America, education, job training, medical research. We could go on and on.

We heard the gentleman from California talk about qualified teachers. I want to mention a special program in here. It is new. $100 million to help get better qualified teachers in every classroom. Over and over again we hear how important the teacher is to the education system. Not only teachers but principals, good principals, good schools. We have recognized the importance of this by committing $100 million. This bill has $2 billion for homeland security. Again, this is important to the American people. Homeland security in the form of CDC, checking around the world in 43 locations to ensure that avian flu does not reach our shores.

I could go on and on about the compassion of this bill in terms of helping people. TRIO and GEAR-UP, programs to help people get into college, to get that higher education that we all recognize is vital to their future and to the future of this Nation.

And let me say to those of you who think that, well, the key to this is to defeat the bill. If you defeat the bill, what is going to happen, in all likelihood, it will give these responsibilities that are embodied in this bill, the important programs for America will get rolled into some form of an omnibus bill and will be a continuing resolution. If that were to happen, priorities that are embodied in the bill would be lost, the things that are so important to all the Members of this body, but, moreover, far more important to the people of America, 280 million people.

I urge a strong, positive vote for the bill so we can continue to take pride in America and the compassion of the American people.