[Page: S6099]  GPO's PDF

   Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I send my amendment to the desk on the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act.

   The PRESIDING OFFICER. The pending amendment is laid aside. The clerk will report the amendment.

   The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

   The Senator from Iowa [Mr. HARKIN], for himself, and Mr. WELLSTONE, proposes an amendment numbered 3699.

   Mr. HARKIN. I ask unanimous consent reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

   The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

   The amendment is as follows:

   On page 60, line 16, strike ``$7,357,341,000'' and insert ``$15,800,000,000''.

   On page 60, line 19, strike ``$4,624,000,000'' and insert ``$13,071,659,000''.

   Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, this is a very simple amendment. It is very straightforward. It does not include a lot of pages of text. All it does is fully fund the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. By passing this amendment, we meet our goal of paying 40 percent of the average per pupil expenditure.

   For years, many on both sides of the aisle have agreed that the Federal Government should increase our support for States' efforts to provide children with disabilities a free and appropriate public education. With this amendment we can do just that.

   Congress enacted the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, which is now known as IDEA, f or two reasons. To establish a consistent policy of what constitutes compliance with the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment with respect to the education of kids with disabilities, and to help States meet their constitutional obligations.

   Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to add Senator WELLSTONE as a cosponsor.

   The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

   Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, there has been a lot of misperception about IDEA. T hat misperception is amplified in statement after statement until it almost becomes a state of fact that IDEA is a Federal mandate on the States. I hear it all the time: a Federal mandate that is not fully funded.

   IDEA is not a mandate of the Federal Government on the States. The fact that the Federal courts have said if a State provides a free and appropriate public education to its children--and States don't have to do that--but if a State provides a free and appropriate public education for all of its kids, it cannot discriminate on the basis of race, it cannot discriminate on the basis of sex, or national origin, and in two court cases the court said it cannot discriminate on the basis of disability.

   Simply because a child has a disability doesn't relieve the State of its obligation under the equal protection clause to provide that child a free and appropriate public education.

   In 1975, the Congress said because this would be such a burden on the States, we will pass national legislation to help the States meet their constitutional obligation to educate kids with disabilities. That is what IDEA is . The Federal Government said, OK, if you meet these certain requirements, you will be eligible for IDEA fo r this money. If we had no legislation at all, if there were no Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, the States would still have to fund the education of kids with disabilities--not because the Federal Government says so, but because the Constitution of the United States says so. As long as a State is providing a free public education to other kids, they have to provide it to kids with disabilities. It is not a Federal mandate. It is a constitutional mandate.

   We have said in the Federal Government, when we passed IDEA, w e will help. Furthermore, we said in the authorizing legislation, that it would be a goal of the Federal Government to provide for 40 percent of the cost of the average per pupil expenditure for all other kids. We have never reached that 40 percent. It was a goal then. It is still a goal. Senators on both sides of the aisle talked about meeting this goal. Now we have the opportunity to do so.

   My amendment is a win-win situation for everyone. We are able to fully fund both the IDEA an d our general education priorities so that all kids, with and without disabilities, get the education they deserve and they are guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States.

   Over the past 5 years, I have worked hard with my colleagues on the Appropriations Committee to more than double the appropriation for Part B of IDEA. T his year we have included an additional $1.3 billion. Senator SPECTER and I, in a bipartisan fashion, worked very hard to get this increase. Because of the amendment offered by Senator JEFFORDS yesterday and the statements made on the floor, it became clear to me that there is a strong will on both sides of the aisle to fully fund IDEA to meet that 40-percent obligation.

   Now we can step up to the plate and do it. This week the OMB informed us

[Page: S6100]  GPO's PDF

   So, Mr. President, as I said, OMB has informed us we are going to have $1.9 trillion over the next 10 years in non-Social Security surplus. That means we can use some of this for a lot of different things: Pay down the national debt, shore up Social Security, Medicare, and make appropriate investments in education. One of the most appropriate investments we can make is to fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. But there are a lot of other ways we can help pay for this. For example, we could save dollars by cracking down on Medicare waste fraud and abuse. The HHS Inspector General said last year, Medicare made $13.5 billion in inappropriate payments. Eliminating that waste alone would more than pay for the entire IDEA ex penditure. Yet the House-passed Labor-HHS bill actually cuts the funding fo r detecting waste, fraud and abuse. I hope we can take care of that in conference. My point is we have a lot of waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicare we can cut out to help pay for this.

   We have a lot of other things we can do also: Cutting out Radio Marti, and TV Marti; spending by Government agencies on travel, printing and supplies and other items could be frozen. This could save $2.8 billion this year, about $12 billion over 5 years. Pentagon spending could be tied to the rate of inflation. This would force the Pentagon to reduce duplication and other inefficiencies. This change would save taxpayers $9.2 billion this year alone; $69 billion over 5 years. Enhancing the Government's ability to collect student loan defaults would be $1 billion over 5 years.

   The reason I cite these examples is to show there is a lot of waste and a lot of spending we can tighten down on to help pay for IDEA. W e have the surplus, however. All this money that we found out there--as we go through this year, you wait and see, transportation will take a little bit of that money; housing will take a little bit of that money; defense will take a big chunk of that; the Finance Committee will have tax provisions--they want to do away with all the estate taxes now. That will take away a big chunk. I hope we don't pass it but I assume something will come through.

   There is a big surplus out there and bit by bit special interests are going to come and take some of it away. Now is our time to get in there and say we are going to take enough to fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. We can do it. We have the money to do it. And, if I listened correctly to my friends on both sides of the aisle, we seem to have the will to do it.

   I just point out a range of organizations fully support full funding. I t is one of the National Governors' Association top priorities. The Education Task Force of the Consortium for Citizens With Disabilities advocates full funding. T he National School Boards Association just sent me a letter last week requesting an increase in funding fo r IDEA.

   In January of 1997 the majority leader, Senator LOTT, announced that fully funding ID EA wa s a major component of the Republican agenda. Later, Senator GORTON said that failure to fully fund IDEA is fundamentally wrong--CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, May 13, 1997.

   In January of 1998 the majority leader and other Republican Senators held a major press conference to announce they were going to introduce a bill, S. 1590, that would, among other things, fully fund IDEA.

   Senator COVERDELL said the resolution of the issues in that bill were:

   As important a battle as the country has ever dealt with.

   On his Web site, Senator GREGG from New Hampshire, who has always been a proponent of fully funding ID EA sa id that:

   He will continue to lead the fight to have the Federal Government meet its commitment to fund 40 percent of the special education costs.

   On his Web site, Senator SANTORUM of Pennsylvania supports full funding fo r IDEA.

   Last night, Senator VOINOVICH of Ohio said it is about time we paid for 40 percent of IDEA. T hat was last night.

   And last night Senator JEFFORDS, with whom I have worked many years on this issue, said:

   This body has gone on record in vote after vote that we should fully fund IDEA.

   Senator JEFFORDS also said:

   If we can't fully fund IDEA no w with budget surpluses and the economy we have, when will we do it? I do not believe that anyone can rationally argue that this is not the time to fulfill that promise.

   The reason I opposed the JEFFORDS amendment last night, and I said so openly last night in debate, is because his amendment would have taken money out of class-size reduction and out of funding fo r school modernization and construction to fund IDEA. I said we should not be robbing Peter to pay Paul. We need to reduce class sizes. We need school construction money.

   In fact, some of the biggest beneficiaries of school construction and modernization are kids with disabilities.

   Now we have an opportunity to fully fund IDEA be cause we have these big surpluses, as I said, $1.5 trillion on-budget surpluses over the next 10 years, not counting Social Security. To fully fund IDEA wo uld amount to less than 6 percent of that over the next 10 years. And, like I said before, we wouldn't have to touch the surplus if we just implemented one of my proposals to close up special interest tax loopholes, eliminate wasteful government spending, including Pentagon waste, or deal with Medicare waste, fraud and abuse. If you want to give a gift to the States this year, if you really want to help our local school districts, this is the amendment with which to do it, to fully fund IDEA on ce and for all.

   I yield for any comments or suggestions my colleague from Minnesota might have.

   Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, I am going to be very brief. Staff is here, and it is late. It has been a long week. I can do this in a couple of minutes. I wanted to stay with Senator HARKIN because I think this amendment goes right to the heart of what we are about. It is a win-win-win-win amendment. I do not know how many times I said ``win.'' It is a win for us because we should match our budgets and our votes with the words we speak. Just about everybody on the floor of the Senate said they are for the Federal Government meeting this commitment of 40 percent funding of IDEA. I t is also a win for children with special needs. It is about children. We ought to do well for all of our children.

   Maybe it is because I am getting a little older and have six grandchildren, but I think all children are beautiful and all children have potential and all children can make contributions. We should do everything we can to nurture and support them. That is what this program has been about.

   The Senator from Iowa has been, if not the leader, one of the great few leaders from early time on for kids with special needs. It is also a win because I do think our States and school districts, if we can do better by way of our investments, I say to Senator HARKIN, will not only be able to live up to this commitment but will have more resources to invest in other priority areas. One of the things that has troubled me is, the Senator talked about the surplus. What is it over 10 years, $1.9 trillion?

   Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, $1.5 trillion, non-Social Security.

   Mr. WELLSTONE. It is $1.5 trillion non-Social Security over the next 10 years. Some of what has been discussed is a zero-sum gain, whether we are faced with the choice of do you support low-income kids with title I or do you support IDEA or do you support a lower class size or do you support trying to get more

   teachers into our schools, or do you support rebuilding crumbling schools. I believe we have a chance right now with the surplus, with these additional resources, to make these decisive investments. I cannot think of anything more important than making this investment in children and education.

   My last point is, all of us--and I will even make this bipartisan, seeing Senator CHAFEE presiding, whom I think cares deeply about children and education, just like his dad did, and I mean that sincerely--we are all going to have to make some decisions about consistency.

   It is like the old Yiddish proverb: You can't dance at two weddings at the

[Page: S6101]  GPO's PDF

   Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I thank my colleague for his words of support, not only tonight but for all the time I have known him and all the years he has been in the Senate for making kids and education, especially special needs kids, one of his top priorities.

   I could not help but think when I was listening to the Senator speak, this vote on this amendment--I do not mean to puff it up bigger than it is. We are going to be faced the remainder of this year with vote after vote on what to do with that surplus. We may disagree on whether it is the estate tax cut or marriage penalty--whatever it might be. There might be other things coming down the pike, and we will have our debates and disagreement, but it seems to me that before we get into all that, we ought to do something for our kids with disabilities and we ought to do something that is right and is supported broadly, in a bipartisan way, and supported by our States.

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