Waiving Points of Order Against Further Conference Report on H.R. 3010, Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related...
WAIVING POINTS OF ORDER AGAINST FURTHER CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 3010, DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006 -- (House of Representatives - December 14, 2005)
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Ms. MATSUI. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and thank the gentlewoman from West Virginia (Mrs. Capito) for yielding me this time.
(Ms. MATSUI asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)
Ms. MATSUI. Mr. Speaker, today we consider House Resolution 596, the rule allowing consideration of the conference report accompanying the fiscal year 2006 Labor-HHS and Education appropriations bill. If the debate looks familiar to our constituents watching from home, it should. Just before Thanksgiving, the House considered a conference agreement almost exactly like the one before the House this morning. The House voted to reject that shortsighted agreement. It was a striking rebuke of a majority out of touch with concerns of average Americans, and yet here we are again with an agreement that is almost word for word the exact agreement from 3 weeks ago. This new version simply moves around a small amount of money, robbing Peter to pay Paul.
What seems to have been skipped was a discussion of the fundamentally flawed priorities, and there was no discussion of what the American people need, merely what it would take for a few more votes. This means that No Child Left Behind funding is still cut by $779 million, a maximum Pell grant award is still frozen for the fourth straight year, and there is still no new funding for student financial aid and support programs. The bill still provides $4 billion less than Republicans promised for special education through IDEA.
Further, this agreement provides only thin and shortsighted support for innovative research going on today on universities and colleges across the Nation. Hardworking families rely on these advances to ease the suffering or even cure a loved one's illness, but this agreement threatens this hope.
Earlier this month, the UC Davis Cancer Center, the only federally designated cancer center in the central valley of California, discovered a way to improve early detection of breast cancer. And just before Thanksgiving, UC Davis research shed light on how some cancer patients contract chemotherapy-induced leukemia.
These are two examples of living-saving advances among dozens in the University of California system. And they are a reality because of Federal investment. Two out of every three research dollars to the UC system are from the Federal Government. Sadly, misguided priorities, like the ones contained in this conference report, threaten to limit these types of advances.
Mr. Speaker, my local newspaper, the Sacramento Bee, noted earlier this month that today's challenges demand shared sacrifice and better priorities. The paper argued, rightly so, that ``the majority in Congress is more intent on locking in President Bush's tax cuts than paying for war, natural disaster, and essential public services for the Nation's most vulnerable people.'' I could not agree more.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues once again to reject this conference report.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Ms. MATSUI. Mr. Speaker, I would just urge my colleagues once again to reject this conference report, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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