Pete Hoekstra

Mr. HOEKSTRA

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Chairman, pursuant to the rule, I offer amendment No. 10.

Mr. HOEKSTRA

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Davis).

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from Georgia for yielding me this time. Regrettably, today, I come to the floor to voice my opposition to H.R. 1. At the beginning of his presidency, President Bush outlined a bold vision for education that would move power and authority back to parents and back to States; a vision that included flexibility in how States and local schools would spend their money; a vision that would empower parents to make more educational decisions for their kids; and a change in process in how we would measure the results that Federal investments resulted in; a change in process where today we measure how we spend our dollars to a reform that said we are going to measure whether our children are learning or not. The flexibility for States has been eliminated. The parental empowerment has been weakened. The results accountability has been added to the bill, but the red tape, where local school districts and States have to report back to Washington on how they spend their money, has been maintained. We are now going to tell States and local school districts how to spend their money as well as the results they are going to get. What we are left with is Goals 2001, after we fought Goals 2000; and accountability putting us on the road to national testing and spending that only President Clinton could have dreamed of. It is time to rework parts of H.R. 1. I agree with Sandy Kress, the President's education adviser, in his comments yesterday. H.R. 1 is likely ``going to require further weeks of thought and deliberation to fix.'' It is time to move back to the President's vision of education, not the bill that is working its way through the House today. It is time to send this bill back to committee and let the further weeks of thought and deliberation happen in committee and not in a conference committee.

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Chairman, I yield 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Thurman).

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 1\1/2\ minutes. Mr. Chairman, accountability is one of the keys to improving our Nation's education system. There is no doubt about that. Accountability is so important that the President has made it one of the three cornerstones of his education reform package along with flexibility and parental empowerment. This is not a new issue. In 1994, Congress passed the Improving America's School Act. In that bill, testing was required to be implemented by the year 2001. Our students would be tested once in grades 3 through 5, once in grades 6 through 9, and once again in grades 10 through 12. The deadline was 2001. But so far, only 25 of the 50 States have met that mandate. Here we are before we have any results from that mandate, we are going back to our local schools, and we are going back to the States and saying, oh, by the way, we were not serious about the mandate that is going into effect for this school year. We are going to give a new mandate that significantly changes the Federal accountability standards that one must meet. Forget about the work that one has completed over the last 7 years. Forget about the money that one has invested. Here is a new process and a new system and a new set of requirements that one needs to meet. What my amendment does is let us give the mandate for 2001, let us give it a little bit of an opportunity to see exactly what the results and what the impact is. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Chairman, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Tierney).

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Souder).

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Chairman, I want to clarify some of the perceptions of what has been said today. But before I do that, I want to thank my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, in particular the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank), for joining me in bringing this amendment forward. Mr. Chairman, the Federal Government put in place a mandate to local schools and States to implement testing, to be implemented for 2001. That is this year. We have that mandate in place, and now as local school districts are implementing that mandate, we are saying we are not really serious, the $400 million that has been spent, we have moved the bar and changed the playing field. The role of the Federal Government should be to audit the results. We should not mandate on a yearly basis what will be going on in our local school districts. Our local school districts have had enough of unfunded Federal mandates: IDEA, unfunded. Testing, underfunded. Testing is not yet ready for prime time. Mr. Chairman, I encourage my colleagues to support this amendment and stick with the agreement in the mandate that we put in place for 2001. Let us not pull the rug out from under that mandate and create a new mandate.

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank) in recognition of the bipartisan nature of this amendment.

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Chairman, just in response, my superintendents back home like controlling their own schools. They are not looking for another Federal mandate. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Schaffer).

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to my colleague, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott).

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Shadegg).

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. McCollum).

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Chairman, how much time is left?

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Gilchrest).

Mr. HOEKSTRA

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me this time. I would like to urge strong support for this rule. It is a fair rule. It will allow us to vote on amendments which will restore the President's plan. The President's reform plan for education was a delicately balanced approach, providing more flexibility to the States, a program to empower parents by allowing them to make more choices in their children's education, and holding schools accountable for the results that they would deliver; a delicate balance of saying, we are going to give States more process freedom. We are no longer going to hold them accountable for the process by which they spend their money, but we are going to make sure that every child goes through and achieves the learning that we want. We are going to focus on results accountability. This rule allows us to have a vote on restoring State flexibility, which was ripped out of the committee mark. It allows us to build on the local flexibility and parental empowerment that are so critical to the President's plan.

Mr. HOEKSTRA

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Speaker, I withdraw my reservation of objection.

Mr. HOEKSTRA. I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina.

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Speaker, reserving the right to object, and I shall not object, will the gentleman please explain the purpose of the resolution.

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Speaker, continuing my reservation, let me just share a few facts about the tragedy on April 20. James and Veronica, also known as Roni Bowers of Muskegon, Michigan, were missionaries affiliated with the Calvary Church of Fruitport, Michigan, and the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism. The Bowerses conducted their Christian mission work with their children, Cory and Charity, serving the native tribes along the Amazon River in the South American country of Peru. They had been there since 1995. On Friday, April 20, 2001, the Bowerses were flying in an Association of Baptists for World Evangelism plane piloted by Kevin Donaldson, traveling from the Peru-Brazil border to Iquitos, Peru, after attempting to secure necessary visa documents for their newly adopted daughter, Charity. The plane was wrongly attacked by a fighter jet of the Peruvian Air Force in an apparent attempted antidrug interdiction effort that may have also involved personnel of the United States. Roni and Charity Bowers were killed by bullets that were fired by the Peruvian jet into the plane, and pilot Kevin Donaldson was also severely injured in the attack. Kevin Donaldson, despite his injuries, was able to safely land his plane on the Amazon River, saving the lives of his other passengers. The family, friends, and coworkers of Roni and Charity Bowers have displayed a shining example of their faith and grace in the face of this terrible tragedy. With this resolution, the U.S. House of Representatives expresses and conveys its deepest and most heartfelt sympathies for the loss of Roni and Charity Bowers to Jim and Cory Bowers, as well as to their extended families and their friends, their coworkers and fellow missionaries at the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism. With this resolution, the U.S. House of Representatives commends Kevin Donaldson for his heroic actions in safely landing the plane, and further wishes Mr. Donaldson a speedy and complete recovery from his injuries. And with this resolution, the U.S. House of Representatives strongly encourage the governments of the United States and Peru to work together as expeditiously as possible to determine all the circumstances that led to this unfortunate and regrettable incident and to ensure that an incident of this kind never occurs again.

Mr. HOEKSTRA

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Madam Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding time to me. Madam Chairman, for a number of years we have been taking a look at the dollars that we spend from Washington on our children. We have determined that the most effective way to spend those dollars is when we empower local school officials and parents to make the decisions for their children. The direction of President Bush's education reform agenda and this budget reflect the importance that we place on parents and local school officials. The President's education plan calls for increased flexibility so as the dollars go to the local level, they can identify the needs of the particular children in their schools and match the needs to the funding that comes from Washington. We want to hold States and local school districts accountable, making sure that every child is learning. For those children who are locked into failing schools, we would provide them with a way out. But the budget is about investment. It is about how we are going to spend and how much more we are going to invest in America's children. The budget resolution calls for an increase of $4.6 billion, an 11.5 percent increase in program spending. We are going to triple funding and spending on one of our key priorities, which is making sure that every child has the opportunity to learn how to read. We are going to provide $2.6 billion in increased spending to make sure that there is a qualified teacher in the classroom with all of our children. And as we ask States to hold schools accountable for learning, we will provide the funds to the States to not only develop the tests, but also to administer the tests at the local level. Over the last number of years, we have identified special education as one of those major mandates on States that we never fully funded. We set aside an additional $1.25 billion to move towards meeting that commitment of full funding for special education. We increased Pell grant spending by another $1 billion, so more of our children will have an opportunity to access higher education. In addition, we make provisions through the Tax Code, setting up educational savings accounts so more parents and families can prepare for the higher education needs of their children, but also for the K through 12 expenditures that they will incur. There is a tax deductibility feature for teachers for classroom expenses. There will be a full tax exemption for all qualified prepaid State tuition plans, and a provision to allow for tax deductibility for certain features for school construction. This is a comprehensive plan of education reform. It is a comprehensive plan for funding education to meet the priorities of America's children today and in the future. We are moving in the right direction. I encourage my colleagues to support this so we do not leave a single child behind.

Mr. HOEKSTRA

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize the work of one of my staffers in Michigan, Germaine Orville ``Jerry'' Kooiman, who is leaving my office after eight solid years of service. Jerry has been a member of my staff since I first joined Congress in 1993, working as my Director of Constituent Services for nearly all of that time. Jerry is the person in my district offices who made sure the trains ran on time and made sure that the constituents of Michigan's Second Congressional District were being served. Since 1995, Jerry has juggled this job with the task of being a Kent County Commissioner, ably representing the county's 16th District in his hometown of Grand Rapids. During his tenure on the county Board, Jerry has served as Chairman of the Kent County Board of Public Works and Vice Chairman of the county's Legislative and Human Resources Committee. A native of Waupun, Wisconsin, Jerry's adult life has been dedicated to public service. After graduating from Calvin College with a Bachelor's degree in Political Science in 1984, Jerry initially worked as a campaign worker then as a district staff assistant to Congressman Paul Henry through 1992 before joining my office. In all, Jerry has been a conscientious Congressional staffer for 16 years. However, our loss is Michigan's gain. In January, Jerry will embark on the next phase of his life as an elected state legislator, representing the 75th District in Michigan's House of Representatives. I have no doubt that he will take the many skills that he has developed over the past two decades and use them to serve his constituents and the entire state of Michigan with the highest standards. Thank you, Jerry, for all your hard work and good advice. I wish you the best success as you move on to the state Capitol in Lansing.

Mr. HOEKSTRA

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to clause 7(c) of rule XXII, I hereby notice the House of my intention to offer the following motion to instruct House conferees on H.R. 4577, a bill making appropriations for fiscal year 2001 for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. The form of the motion is as follows: Mr. Hoekstra moves that the managers on the part of the House at the conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses on the Senate amendment to the bill H.R. 4577 be instructed to choose a level of funding for the Inspector General of the Department of Education that reflects a requirement on the Inspector General of the Department of Education, as authorized by section 211 of the Department of Education Organization Act, to use all funds appropriated to the Office of Inspector General of such Department to comply with the Inspector General Act of 1978, with priority given to section 4 of such Act.