Kay Hutchison

Mrs. HUTCHISON

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, how much time is left on both sides?

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, please notify me when I have used 4 minutes. I want the right to close on my amendment. I will then yield to the Senator from Illinois. Mr. President, I will discuss some of the issues raised by the Senator from Illinois. First, he says the number and quality of attorneys who take special education cases has declined since the imposition of the cap. This is not supported by the facts. The number of attorney representations in 1997 before the caps were put into place was over 2,000. Last year, there were 1,700 such representations. We have not seen a steep decline in the number of attorneys willing to take these cases. Most certainly, $125 an hour, which is what used to be the cap, and $150, which we are proposing, makes a good living for a person. A lawyer working 2,000 hours in a year earns $300,000 with a $150-an- hour fee structure. It is not as if we are looking at people who would not be able to have a quality of life. This is a reasonable amendment. Second, he made the statement that access to special education will be inhibited, that the disabled students will not be able to get access to this education. Access to special education in the District has improved since the imposition of attorney fee caps in 1999. The backlog of IDEA initial assessments shrank from 1,805 before the caps to 143 as of March 2001. The backlog of hearings has been reduced from 900 to 20 during the same period. Overall expenditures for special education in the District have increased 38 percent since the caps were imposed. The number of new special education placements, the number of children who have been able to be served, has increased from 8,120 before the fee caps to 11,991 last year. The argument that children are being denied access is not supported by the facts. More children have been able to be accommodated because the money is going into special education and not into the coffers of lawyers. The Senator talks about who is against my amendment. Let's talk about who is for my amendment. The school board of the District of Columbia is elected by the people of the District. They are for this amendment. They have asked the caps be left in place because they know the money can go into education, and they are very concerned if the caps go off and the judge who has been awarded lawyer's fees, even against the Federal law, has said he is going to require the District to pay the fees that were illegal, which is a convoluted reasoning, at the very best, but nevertheless the judge has said he is going to do it. We are told we better lift the caps so the judge can go ahead and do it, and we are told that will be good for the children of the District. I have not quite gotten that line of thinking. The bottom line is the people elected by the people of the District of Columbia want the caps. They did not ask me to raise the caps. I did that because I was trying to come up with something that would be reasonable, to try to make sure we were not in any way doing something to harm anyone. My bottom line is when the superintendent of schools and the chairman of the school board, elected by the people of the District, ask me to keep the caps and, for Heavens' sake, not allow a retroactive use of the District's funds to go to lawyers instead of education, to the children of the District, it will not wash. I reserve the remainder of my time.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, how much time remains on both sides?

Mrs. HUTCHISON. That is why we make sure the Federal taxpayer dollars are used wisely.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I thank the Senator for the question because, of course, there are not those kinds of limits in Texas, but neither does the State of Texas get 20 percent of its budget from the Federal Government. The Federal Government has the constitutional role of making sure the District runs. That is why we have taken on 23 percent of the Federal budget.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. I will stop there, and I reserve the remainder of my time.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. I thank the Chair. Mr. President, my amendment attempts to be a compromise between those who wish to take the caps off the attorney's fees for suing the District of Columbia School District and what I think is a quite reasonable approach, which is to keep the caps but raise them. For the last 3 years, we have had caps on attorney's fees. That was made necessary because of the exorbitant fees that were being charged to the District, and that was money coming directly out of the education system. In fact, before the caps were put in place, attorney's fees represented $14 million of the DC school budget. Since the caps have been put in place, we have had a figure of $3.5 million per year average for attorney's fees, and the extra $10.5 million has been able to go into the services we are seeking to provide for handicapped and special needs children. Moreover, we have been informed by the District of some of the excessive fees that were being billed before the caps. This is billing the school district for plaintiff's lawyer fees when the plaintiff has been successful. One attorney before the caps individually made $1.4 million in fees in 1 year suing the District of Columbia schools. Another law firm billed over $5 million in a single year to the District of Columbia schools. Submission of a variety of questionable expenses, including flowers, ski trips, and even a trip to New Orleans ostensibly made to scout out private schools far from the District that might be able to accommodate special needs students. The reason we are trying to put some reasonable caps on these attorney's fees and excessive billings is so the money will go into education. Our amendment has a cap of $150 an hour. If a lawyer billed 2,000 hours at $150 an hour, that would be a $300,000 annual income. So, we are not saying lawyers should not make a reasonable amount, and we are certainly not subjecting parents to lawyers who cannot make a living. I think $150 an hour is quite respectable. That is why we have tried to reach out to the other side and do something that is reasonable but not exorbitant. We are trying to help the District of Columbia schools. We have a letter from the superintendent of schools and the president of the school board requesting us to take this action. They are very concerned that millions of dollars will go into lawyer's fees rather than to improve the services they give. In fact, they are increasing the number of teachers for special needs students. They are increasing the amount of medical equipment for these special needs students, and that is exactly what we want them to do. So I am trying to be helpful to the DC schools. Educators are the ones who can best determine need. Our amendment also has an out; that if the District itself believes the caps are too low, they have the ability to override this amendment and this act of Congress and increase the fee caps, with the mayor and the school district working together. I think that takes care of letting the local people have a final decision, doing what they have asked us to do in putting on reasonable caps, as they are trying to do the very difficult job of providing a quality education for all the students of the District of Columbia. I was the chairman of the DC Subcommittee and I want so much to do what is right for the District. I learned their needs, and I worked with the mayor and the school representatives to try to give them the tools to do the job they are doing. That is why I feel strongly enough to offer this amendment so the millions of dollars that have been actually assessed against the school, even though it was against the law by one of the judges, will not be able to be collected. It would be against the Federal law for retroactive fees to be collected.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I want to use 5 minutes and be informed at the end of 5 minutes so Senator Durbin may take the floor, and I would like to reserve the remainder of my time.

Mrs. HUTCHISON

Mrs. HUTCHISON. I thank the chairman and ranking member for that commitment, as well as my colleague from New Mexico, and I yield the floor.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. If the senator will yield, I want to thank him for his comments and his resolute support of this program and of a variety of other education programs and issues of importance to Hispanics. I also want to thank the distinguished chairman of the subcommittee, Senator Harkin, as well as the ranking member, Senator Specter, for working with Senator Bingaman and myself to achieve significant increases in this program in recent years. I have seen first hand how much of an impact HSI grants can have to a small, struggling junior or community college. It can very often make the difference between being able to offer a degree or degree program for the institution's students. Madam President, I thank and commend the chairman of the subcommittee for his and for Senator Specter's always exceptional efforts at crafting a bill that makes the difficult choices we must make each year, while managing to maintain significant increases in overall funding levels for key areas of national need, including education and health funding. However, I understand the Senate committee-reported bill now on the floor contains a funding level that represents a slight increase over the 2001 fiscal year appropriation amount for the Title V HSI program, but one that is below the House committee-reported funding level of $81.5 million. I further understand it is the chairman's intent to recede to this higher House funding level during conference proceedings with the House. Is that correct?

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Madam President, my colleague, Senator Bingaman, and I would like to clarify with our colleague, the distinguished chairman of the Labor, HHS, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee, his intent with respect to fiscal year 2002 funding of the Title V Hispanic-serving Institutions Grants program. As the chairman is well aware, this program provides critical funding to generally smaller, community-oriented four- and two-year institutions of higher education that serve at least 25 percent Hispanic students. These approximately 200 institutions are an increasingly important avenue to success for this important and growing segment of our nation, and the HSI program is integral to the ability of these institutions to open the doors of higher education to Hispanics.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. I am happy to yield to my distinguished colleague from New Mexico.

Mrs. HUTCHISON

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I very much appreciate the majority leader coming to the floor to give this assurance because as we are dividing the money in the last appropriations bills--I know the majority leader has some priorities--I want to make sure this is also a priority. It affects so many States that have been impacted by the large number of needy families because they are higher growth than the original welfare formula was able to accommodate. I do thank the majority leader. I look forward to working with him in every way I can. I am glad he mentioned the Senator from Florida, Mr. Graham, who sponsored the bill in the Finance Committee. It is very important to our two States that we accomplish this before the end of the year. I certainly know, with the majority leader's support, we will be able to do that. I thank the Chair. I yield the floor.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. I thank the Chair, and I thank the distinguished majority leader. Mr. President, I seek recognition to ask the majority leader to commit to working with me on an issue that is very important to many States, and it is important to the high-growth States that also have very tough problems in meeting their welfare needs, States such as Texas, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, and Georgia. Many States in the welfare bill were trying to gear up to change their welfare programs. As you know, the welfare reform bill was a 5- year bill, but the temporary assistance for the supplemental grants for high-growth States was only authorized for 4 years. The Finance Committee yesterday marked up and passed out the 1-year extension that would match the welfare bill to help these States. The budget resolution that we passed accommodated the cost of this added 1-year authorization. I am bringing it up because I wanted to offer it as an amendment on the Labor-HHS appropriations bill, but it was considered legislation. The Finance Committee has acted, and in one of those process things, I just wanted to make sure that we did not get lost in the shuffle because my State is certainly counting on it, and Florida is counting on it. It will make a huge budget deficit for many of these States if we do not authorize and appropriate this last year of the supplemental request for the welfare reform bill. My purpose in bringing this up is to say I will not offer my amendment on the Labor-HHS bill, but I did want to get the commitment from the majority leader that we will work to fix this technical error before we go out of session so that the States that have already budgeted, thinking this money was coming, will have the benefit of this expenditure.

Mrs. HUTCHISON

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Jimmy Keenan, a fellow in my office, be granted floor privileges during morning business.

Mrs. HUTCHISON

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from California for her efforts, along with Senator Brownback, to bring the plight of Afghan women to the forefront. The bill that we have before us I hope can be moved expeditiously. I want any dollars that go to Afghanistan or to the refugees who are Afghans in camps outside the country to help these women who have been so abused. I am stunned at some of the statistics. Forty-two percent of all deaths in Afghanistan are due to diarrheal diseases caused by contaminated food and water. This is 2001. Contaminated food and water is the most preventable kind of affliction that we could ever imagine. We have clean food and water. Forty-two percent of the people who die from something so preventable is just stunning. As we have said, before the Taliban came, women could be educated. Schools were coeducational. Women accounted for 7 percent of the teaching force. Women represented 50 percent of government workers, and 40 percent of the physicians were women. But today, the Taliban prohibits women from working in any occupation. Clearly, the Afghan people, before the Taliban, had basic human rights. The women and children were treated at least with respect. But when the Taliban came in and prevented women from being educated, prevented women from working, and prevented them from having health care, you wonder what kind of beasts are these? What kind of beasts would do this to other human beings? What kind of beast would let a little child die because the mother had no one to escort them to the hospital? We cannot conceive of this kind of terrorism to the people who are their own people, much less what they have harbored against America. So, Mr. President, I am proud the women of the Senate are coming together to speak for the women of Afghanistan, to say that our dollars are going to come and help rebuild Afghanistan. We have no problem with the people of Afghanistan. We feel sorry for the people of Afghanistan living under this regime of the Taliban. That is why we are trying to root the Taliban out because they have harbored terrorists who have killed innocent Americans and innocent people from around the world. But when we do, we are going to make sure that women and children have the basic respect and the basic human rights that everyone in the world should have, and American dollars coming in will be dollars that will help bring a quality of life that is the basic decency that we all expect in our lives. I know the bill will stay at the desk. I hope to work with the members of the Foreign Relations Committee to have an expedited procedure.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Maryland for her kind remarks. We are all in this, and one of the things we are trying to do is help our colleagues who still are out of their offices, who have not received mail for over a week, who do not have the places. We are happy to do that and especially because my colleague from Maryland has had two postal workers who have died at the Brentwood Station. At a time of huge crisis in her State, she is left without an office. We all want to back her and help her and help her constituents in every possible way. I will take a few moments, because I deferred to the Senator from Maryland, to talk about some of the statistics in Afghanistan that have caused us to highlight this issue. We have seen repression of women in other countries, but we have never seen the repression that is happening in Afghanistan today. The pictures of women being beaten on the streets because their burqa was opened a little bit by the wind, or beaten on the streets because the religion police heard a clicking of heels of shoes on the sidewalk and believed the woman must be wearing high-heeled shoes--this is unbelievable. In one account I read in a journal, a widow who did not have a male relative to escort her to the hospital watched her small son die of dehydration. She tried to make the journey to the hospital by herself but was beaten by the religion police as she left her home. This is not a country that should be allowed, with the Taliban, to do this to its own people. That is why we are standing here today to say we want to come in and make sure the women and children of this country have opportunities for health care, for education. We are not trying to put our religion on other people. We are not trying to say you have to do it our way. But there are some basic human rights that everyone accepts, and they are that a woman is equal to a man, that a woman should be able to have basic health care, she should be able to take her children to see a physician, she herself should be able to go to a physician. That is not the case today in Afghanistan. She can't see a physician because she is not allowed to see a male physician and the woman physicians are gone because the Taliban will not allow women to work. Afghanistan today has a 16-percent infant mortality rate and a 25- percent children mortality rate. We cannot allow that to stand. That is why the women of the Senate are standing together to say when the aid comes in that we want to make sure the women get the aid in health care, that they are allowed to be educated, and that they will be allowed to support themselves and their children in a respectful way, and not be required to beg on the streets and sell themselves into prostitution, which is happening today. That is why we feel so strongly abut this and why we are standing together and hoping that we can pass this bill with the help of the Foreign Relations Committee very quickly--so the women and children in the refugee camps in Afghanistan know that when America helps, it will be help for them too because they are also equal people. I yield up to 3 minutes to the Senator from Michigan.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, no one in America can have read a newspaper or seen a television report about the plight of women in Afghanistan, and children, without being horrified. All 13 women of the Senate, led by myself and Senator Mikulski, are introducing a bill today that would authorize the President to give education, health care benefits, and other help to the women and children of Afghanistan, and to those in refugee camps, at the first opportunity we possibly can. Women are not able to be educated under the Taliban. Women are not able to get health care under the Taliban. They are not able to work. I am going to talk about some of the things that have happened. But my colleague from Maryland and my colleague from the State of Washington have other commitments, and I want to yield to my colleague from Maryland who is a cosponsor of this bill. Every woman in the Senate is sponsoring this bill: Senator Boxer, Senator Collins, Senator Landrieu, Senator Feinstein, Senator Stabenow, Senator Clinton, Senator Cantwell, Senator Snowe, Senator Murray, Senator Lincoln, Senator Carnahan, and of course my key cosponsor, Senator mikulski from Maryland. Mr. President, I yield the floor to the Senator from Maryland.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I yield 2 minutes to the Senator from Maine.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Maine for her remarks, and the Senator from Michigan. I yield 2 minutes to the Senator from California.

Mrs. HUTCHISON

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mrs. HUTCHISON

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from California for her efforts, along with Senator Brownback, to bring the plight of Afghan women to the forefront. The bill that we have before us I hope can be moved expeditiously. I want any dollars that go to Afghanistan or to the refugees who are Afghans in camps outside the country to help these women who have been so abused. I am stunned at some of the statistics. Forty-two percent of all deaths in Afghanistan are due to diarrheal diseases caused by contaminated food and water. This is 2001. Contaminated food and water is the most preventable kind of affliction that we could ever imagine. We have clean food and water. Forty-two percent of the people who die from something so preventable is just stunning. As we have said, before the Taliban came, women could be educated. Schools were coeducational. Women accounted for 7 percent of the teaching force. Women represented 50 percent of government workers, and 40 percent of the physicians were women. But today, the Taliban prohibits women from working in any occupation. Clearly, the Afghan people, before the Taliban, had basic human rights. The women and children were treated at least with respect. But when the Taliban came in and prevented women from being educated, prevented women from working, and prevented them from having health care, you wonder what kind of beasts are these? What kind of beasts would do this to other human beings? What kind of beast would let a little child die because the mother had no one to escort them to the hospital? We cannot conceive of this kind of terrorism to the people who are their own people, much less what they have harbored against America. So, Mr. President, I am proud the women of the Senate are coming together to speak for the women of Afghanistan, to say that our dollars are going to come and help rebuild Afghanistan. We have no problem with the people of Afghanistan. We feel sorry for the people of Afghanistan living under this regime of the Taliban. That is why we are trying to root the Taliban out because they have harbored terrorists who have killed innocent Americans and innocent people from around the world. But when we do, we are going to make sure that women and children have the basic respect and the basic human rights that everyone in the world should have, and American dollars coming in will be dollars that will help bring a quality of life that is the basic decency that we all expect in our lives. I know the bill will stay at the desk. I hope to work with the members of the Foreign Relations Committee to have an expedited procedure.

Mrs. HUTCHISON

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I ask for the second reading.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I object to my own request.

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I send a bill to the desk and ask it be placed on the calendar, and I ask for its first reading.