Tom Harkin

Mr. HARKIN

Mr. HARKIN. On behalf of myself and Senator Specter, I thank the Senators from Hawaii and Alaska for this clarification. The committee will do everything it can to ensure that HHS participates in the innovative inter-Departmental-tribal partnership, consistent with all the provisions of Public Law 102-477.

Mr. HARKIN. The senator is correct. I certainly understand and share her and Senator Bingaman's commitment to the important Hispanic-serving institutions program. These colleges and universities are very important to the academic and economic success of Hispanics in our nation, and I do intend to seek the higher House funding level in conference in order to further expand the ability of these institutions to serve their students and their communities.

Mr. HARKIN. As the Senator mentioned, this is a very tightly drafted bill and there are many important areas in which the Senate bill provides greater resources than the House. Like you, I realize the importance of the Healthy Start Program, and while I cannot make any promises, I will work with Senator Specter and the House to provide sufficient resources for this worthwhile program.

Mr. HARKIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that amendment No. 2072, previously agreed to, be modified with the technical corrections I now send to the desk.

Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendments be dispensed with.

Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I have a list of managers' amendments that has been approved by both sides and which I send to the desk.

Mr. HARKIN

Mr. HARKIN. I move to reconsider the vote and move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. HARKIN

Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I yield back the remainder of my time, and I move to table the Kyl amendment and ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. HARKIN. That is correct. So this Senator from Arizona wants to boost up impact aid construction. This is really to take away school construction money. I don't think we need to talk anymore about it. We all know what this is about.

Mr. HARKIN. Also, the amendment of the Senator from Oklahoma reduced impact aid construction. I don't care what you say. It puts it into the basic impact aid.

Mr. HARKIN. I yield to the Senator.

Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I still didn't hear the answer to the question, where he was, and if he opposed the Inhofe amendment or not. I didn't hear about that. Nonetheless, we do have an obligation to our Indian schools and our places where we have military bases, that kind of thing, for impact aid. There is no doubt about that. Obviously, under the wording of his amendment, there would be no money left for any other States that don't get any impact aid whatsoever. Again, we are trying to be fair about this and to answer the needs of construction all over America. Let's face it, the American Society of Civil Engineers estimated that the repair needs of our schools in America are about $187 billion. And so we are trying to get a billion out nationally. But as I pointed out and Senator Specter pointed out earlier today, that money is leveraged. We have experience in knowing how that money is leveraged. So we might get maybe 7 to 10 times leverage on that. So $1 billion might equal $7 billion to $10 billion in construction in schools. So it helps, but it is nowhere near what needs to be done all over this country. Under the amendment by the Senator from Arizona, there would not be any money left for anyone. All of the money would go to Indian schools and to the impact area aid schools, where there are military bases. I don't think that is what we want to do here. As I said, we carved out money last time. I have talked to a lot of my friends who are Native Americans in Indian territory. They were very appreciative of that money. We carved out $75 million. Quite frankly, we accepted the amendment of the Senator from Oklahoma. However, it is my intention, along with the ranking member, to make sure we meet our obligations again this year in carving it out again in the conference committee when we go to conference. The last thing I will mention is that the amendment offered by the Senator from Arizona is also retrospective. It goes back last year and takes money from last year that States have already applied for; it takes that money away from them, too. I hardly think we want to do that.

Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I move to table the Kyl amendment and ask for the yeas and nays.

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

Mr. HARKIN. I do not have much time, but I am delighted to yield.

Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I am beginning to wonder where my friend from Arizona was a couple hours ago. I ask him, where was he? Senator Inhofe of Oklahoma just came to this Chamber 3 hours ago and offered an amendment which was approved by the Senate. The Senator from Arizona raised no objection, none. None of his staff came to me to raise an objection. And what did the Inhofe amendment do? It reduced the funding for impact aid construction. It transferred the money to basic support payments. Three hours ago we voted unanimously, as a Senate, to reduce impact aid construction. Now the Senator from Arizona comes to this Chamber and wants to increase impact aid construction. I ask, where was he 3 hours ago? Why didn't he oppose the Inhofe amendment? I think what that shows is really what the Senator from Arizona is after: They want to undo what the Senate did earlier by a vote of 54- 45; that is, to provide renovation and construction money for schools all over America.

Mr. HARKIN

Mr. HARKIN. Madam President, I was unavoidably absent from the Chamber a few minutes ago, but I want to compliment my distinguished ranking member, Senator Specter, for working out an agreement on the vital issue of stem cell research. I know there are Senators who feel strongly about this one way or the other. I understand that. But I believe the agreement Senator Specter has worked out is one that will serve us well. We will have hearings. We will welcome all to come in and testify at these hearings on stem cells. I understand the agreement is that prior to the end of March, sometime in either February or March of next year, both the majority leader and minority leader have agreed that we will bring a stem cell research bill to the floor of the Senate. With that agreement, I think it paves the way for us to have some more in-depth hearings on whether or not we have enough stem cell lines to do the kind of research that needs to be done, or whether we do, in fact, need some more stem cell lines to conduct this kind of robust research. We will be having those hearings. Sometimes Senator Specter chairs them and sometimes I do. But we will continue to have those hearings throughout the next few months. Even though the Senate may not be in session, we will continue to have those hearings to try to get a better understanding of what we need to do to provide the ethical guidelines and the kind of monetary support that we need for our science to conduct embryonic stem cell research. Because I was missing from the Chamber when that agreement was worked out, I wanted to compliment Senator Specter and other Senators for working out an agreement on that issue. Lastly, we are on the floor. Debate on the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and related agencies appropriations bill is about over. There are some amendments to offer. I ask Senators who have amendments to please come to the floor and offer those amendments. The sooner we get to amendments, the sooner we will get out of here. I just had one Senator come up to me asking about catching a flight out tonight. I say to my fellow Senators, if you will come over and offer the amendments, we can have a legitimate debate and vote on them. Then people could get out of here. The longer people stay away from the floor and don't offer their amendments, people can't get out of here.

Mr. HARKIN. Madam President, I thank our assistant majority leader for his great leadership in pulling people together and getting this legislation moving, as he has done on so many other bills. He has been stalwart here on the floor to make this place work right and to make it work fairly so people can offer their amendments to make sure we move in an expeditious manner. I thank the Senator for his leadership in getting the Senate to do its work. I yield the floor.

Mr. HARKIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the quorum call be dispensed with.

Mr. HARKIN

Mr. HARKIN. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. HARKIN. I reserve the remainder of my time. How much time do I have remaining, Mr. President?

Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, again, I keep hearing this argument that this money can go to rich as well as poor districts. The Senator from New Hampshire says take this money and put it all into poor districts. I find that an odd position for my friend to take since he is a very strong supporter of States rights. This money goes to the States. If the State government in New Hampshire wants to put that money into the richest school districts, I assume they can do that. I don't think State governments would do that. Our experience from the last year is that States take this money and focus it on those very districts where they have a low tax base because they have poor housing in low-income areas. That is where they focus the attention for school construction, not in rich areas. So I assume the Senator is saying he doesn't trust the State governments to do this. Well, I think they will do this. They will focus it on the poor districts. Lastly, I wish to make this point, and I think my friend knows this. In the conference that we are now in on the education bill, the reauthorization of elementary and secondary education, there is a provision the Senate adopted unanimously that provides for the full funding, 40 percent funding that the Federal Government should be doing for special education. That is supported strongly on the Senate side. The House is sort of wavering on that, but they may actually come across in support. If that is the case, that will free up a lot of money which we can then use to help our title I schools. I am making the argument in conference right now that if the House will help us to provide the mandatory funding for special education, that will free up a lot of money which we can then put into title I programs. We should not sacrifice school construction for that. As I said before, it does not make much sense to put a lot of money in to sending poor kids to poor schools. Let us help both. Let us help title I, and let us help rebuild our schools. Mr. President, there is an article that appears in Education Week about Federal funding for school renovation. The title of it is ``Iowa Is Laboratory For Federal Role In Building Schools.'' They went out and looked at a number of schools that received some of the Federal funds for innovation and rebuilding. I ask unanimous consent this article be printed in the Record.

Mr. HARKIN. I thank my friend from Pennsylvania. We have had a good working relationship. I think this is just another indication of how we can reach bipartisan agreements in committees by working together. Mr. President, I have a letter from Rebuild America's Schools. This is a consortium of gripes including the National PTA, National Education Association, National School Boards Association, National Rural Education Association, and a number of others. This letter is dated October 30, 2001. It says: Rebuild America's School writes in strong support of the $925 million for the Emergency School Repair Program included in the Senate version of H.R. 3061. They go on to say: The resources provided under last year's legislation combined with the funds included in the FY02 Senate appropriations bill will help fix leaky roofs and repair faulty plumbing, heating, and electrical systems. These resources will also enable districts to address other dangerous health and safety concerns in their schools, such as the presence of lead paint and asbestos in the classroom. The importance of an FY02 school repair program gains even more relevance in the face of revenue shortfalls resulting from the recent downturn in our Nation's economy. These expected losses might force State and local governments to cut or roll back education spending, particularly in the area of capital projects. In addition to providing much-needed fiscal relief to States and local school districts, funds for emergency school repairs will help to create construction jobs on the local level as each billion dollars invested in school construction is estimated to generate approximately 24,000 jobs. Also, these expenditures will have a multiplier effect on local economies by benefiting all of the construction-related industries that provide material and other types of support for infrastructure projects. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have this letter printed in the Record.

Mr. HARKIN. Yes.

Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I yield myself another 3 minutes. I thank my colleague and the ranking member, Senator Specter, for his support of this amendment. We have worked very closely together over the years, and it was sort of a sign of Senator Specter that allowed some of this money to go out to the States and if in fact they do not need it for construction, they can use it for other purposes. So this is a great help to those local school districts.