Making Appropriations for Science, the Departments of State, Justice, and Commerce, and Related Agencies for Fiscal Year 2006--Continued

MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR SCIENCE, THE DEPARTMENTS OF STATE, JUSTICE, AND COMMERCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES FOR FISCAL YEAR 2006--Continued

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I rise today in support of the amendment introduced by my colleague, Senator HARKIN, from Iowa, which would increase funding for the Legal Services Corporation by $38.2 million to $363 million.

If there was ever a time to provide adequate funding for legal services for the poor, that time is now.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, there will be thousands and thousands of Americans in desperate need of legal advice who lack the resources to hire their own attorneys or the skills necessary to meet the legal challenges they must confront.

These are the same folks that didn't have the means to get out of harm's way when the hurricane struck.

These are the same folks that waited for days on their rooftops, at the New Orleans Convention Center, the Superdome, and so many other places down on the Gulf Coast to be rescued.

These are the same folks that now must rebuild their lives--often times from scratch.

They will need legal assistance. Congress needs to step in and help make this a reality. And Congress needs to step and increase funding so that the thousands of other Americans--in addition to the victims of Katrina--who are unable to afford legal advice get the access to justice that they deserve.

How can it be, in a country where we teach our children from an early age the Pledge of Allegiance and its closing words--``with liberty and justice for all''--so many children and their families cannot obtain equal access to justice?

How can it be, in a country that saw an historic economic boom in the last decade, that 80 percent of low-income Americans still lack access to a lawyer when they're in serious legal situations?

How can it be, in a country as strong and rich as this one, that tens of thousands of Americans who need legal representation are turned away every year because their Government won't support the very program designed to help them?

This year, the House has appropriated only $324.5 million in funding for Legal Services. The current version of the Senate CJS Appropriations bill funds the program at about the same level.

This is less than Legal Services received in FY 2005. It's almost $40 million less than the FY 2006 budget request made by the bipartisan Legal Services Corporation Board of Directors. In fact, the current level of funding is not much more than it was in 1981--in real dollars.

The issues that Legal Aid works to address are not esoteric legal questions. They are issues of life and death and food and shelter.

When folks who are already hurting can't get the legal representation they need, all too often it gets harder to put food on the table and harder to pay the rent and harder to get the medicine for the kids or for Grandma.

In the State of Oregon, the need for legal aid is clear, and the choice to fund it should be obvious. Oregon's Legal Aid programs are the primary source of representation available to more than 500,000 low-income folks in my State, and they assist 20,000 of those low-income Oregonians every year.

But because of Legal Aid funding shortfalls in recent years, the Oregon programs have had to layoff staff, cut salaries for remaining staff, slash their medical benefits, freeze vacancies, and close the Klamath Falls office. Less than 20 percent of low income Oregonians have access to an attorney who could make a critical difference in helping them deal with a legal issue--from a getting restraining order from an abusive boyfriend to helping a predatory lending victim.

The idea that Legal Aid is the practice of political law is preposterous.

It's simply making sure that legal services are available for the very people who need them most.

Make no mistake--State, local and private resources are providing the vast majority of Legal Aid funding in Oregon and elsewhere. In 1980, Federal funding accounted for 80 percent of the total legal aid money in Oregon. In 2005, Federal funding accounts for 28 percent. Everyone else is doing their part to provide these folks with equal access to justice--it's time that the Federal Government did its part too.

I am determined that the victims of Hurricane Katrina and poor Americans throughout the United States, who, as children, stood in their classrooms with their hands over their hearts and recited the Pledge of Allegiance and the words ``with liberty and justice for all'' will not find out those words were a lie.

I am determined that the victims of Hurricane Katrina living in the Houston Astrodome will have legal help they need when applying for food stamps and other forms of assistance available to them.

I am determined that the victims of Hurricane Katrina relocated to San Antonio will get legal help they need to deal with their insurance companies.

I am determined that the victims of Hurricane Katrina spread all across the country will get the legal assistance they need to rebuild their homes--and their lives.

With Federal, State and local partners working together, we can ensure equal access to the law for all Americans, including the thousands and thousands of victims of Hurricane Katrina.

http://thomas.loc.gov/