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Lame Duck Congress
Waddles Into Recess Without Completing School Funding
By
Jeff Simering, Director, Legislative Services
After passing 10 continuing resolutions during October, Congress
recessed  without resolving five FY2001
appropriations bills — including school funding for next school
year. The congressional leadership, however, was able to agree
to take off virtually the entire month of November, and return in
early December for a lame duck session to finish its work.
Left on the table are $7.9 billion in increases for federal
education assistance, and a $15 billion tax-subsidized school
facility bonding authority in a pending tax bill.
Weeks of budget negotiations on a variety of education
initiatives broke down when an agreement disintegrated over the
drafting of a workplace ergonomics provision in the
Labor/HHS/Education spending bill. A $7.9 billion increase in
federal education funding, therefore, has been placed on hold as a
result of this long-running battle between business interests and
the Occupational Health and Safety Administration. Still
pending in the education bill (H.R. 4577) is a $1.6 billion (32%)
increase in IDEA funding, a $450 million (35%) increase in the Class
Size Reduction program, a $755 million (9.5%) increase in Title I, a
$570 million (125%) increase in the 21st Century After School
program, and an entirely new $1.3 billion Emergency School Repair
and Renovation program.
Also in the final days of the regular congressional session, a
sizeable tax relief bill was attached to the Certified Development
Company Improvement Act (H.R. 2614) over the objection of the
Clinton Administration. Among the multiple tax provisions in
the bill is a $15 billion school modernization bond subsidy program
similar to the well-known Rangel-Johnson America's Better Classrooms
bill (H.R. 4094). This school infrastructure subsidy in
H.R. 2614 represents the first substantive initiative by the
congressional majority to address the nation's massive school
facility needs. Although the proposed bill has some serious
weaknesses, such as its one-third smaller bond volume than the
Rangel-Johnson bill and its insufficient targeting on need, this
initiative provides the basis for a bipartisan agreement on the high
profile issue of school construction.
Since the November 7 election, the nation has been provided with
a civics lesson on the value of each person's vote, as well as a
constitutional lesson on how our representative democracy selects a
president. Back in Washington, however, our
congressional lawmakers have provided us with a lesson in a
dysfunctional legislative process, leaving in limbo billions of
dollars in essential funding for schools and schoolchildren.
Unfortunately, no further budget discussions have been scheduled for
the month of November to resolve these issues. Florida
continues to count – Congress continues its recess — and our
schools continue to wait for federal aid that is now two months
overdue. |
