Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011

Floor Speech

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Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Madam Chair, I move to strike the last word.

The Acting CHAIR. The gentlewoman is recognized for 5 minutes.

Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Madam Chair, I am committed to cutting the deficit, and I sought a seat on the Budget Committee to do so. But I rise to express deep concerns over the congressional Republicans' irresponsible fiscal scheme that will harm communities and students back home that I represent.

We need a multiyear strategy to cut the debt and the deficit, but a strategy that ensures that America retains its superiority in education, innovation, and research.

We must cut waste and close the huge tax loopholes written by lobbyists, like the ones for oil companies. But congressional Republicans do not do this.

Instead of tackling the debt and deficit in a smart and strategic way, the congressional Republicans' scheme will result in job losses, and it will make economic recovery more difficult for American families and businesses. And here are some stark examples from the community I represent back in Florida in the Tampa Bay area.

First, on education and the Pell Grant. I represent an education community, with a large public research university, a private college, and many community colleges. When the Republicans propose cutting the Pell Grant and support to students, this harms our ability to maintain our superiority in education when we are competing with countries all across the globe.

You know, over 9 million students and families rely on the Pell Grant every year in America, and we have worked very hard through the economic recovery to help those students maintain that same level of Pell Grants. So don't take us backwards. You shouldn't be taking us backwards.

Do you know what it's like for a hardworking family to pay tuition right now? Is tuition going down? Is tuition being cut? Are books being cut? No. So let's not turn our backs on our students and families at this time.

The same thing for Head Start. In Tampa and Hillsborough Counties, we have an award-winning Head Start initiative. And the evidence that Head Start gives students a boost in life is very well known. Parents have to be involved. We wish all eligible kids could get that boost. Even now, before the congressional Republican cuts, we have 2,400 families on the waiting list and 1,000 infants and toddlers on the Early Start list. The Republican cuts again take us backwards. I hear from back home that 452 families will be told that there is no room for their child.

They will also lay off 123 teachers just in my home county alone, because in the State of Florida they predict that they will have to lay off almost 2,000 teachers under your cuts.

Schools and students. The Republicans again are off base in cutting my local schools, particularly the title I schools that serve kids that need a little extra attention. We estimate that Republicans will be eliminating 20 to 30 jobs in my home district that serve students that need that achievement gap boost. You are harming the high poverty middle and high school students also in the county across the Bay that recently was able to expand beyond elementary school.

Madam Chairman, rather than close the tax loophole for the oil companies that are making multi-billion dollar profits, the Republicans instead cut my local police and sheriff's departments, like the help we get under COPS for the anti-methamphetamine initiative and for our juvenile justice initiative to try to prevent gangs from forming in the counties. The youth initiatives have received national awards from the Attorney General, and it would be a real shame if we had to turn these back.

Also, in my home county, we rely on some very robust ports in the Tampa Bay area as our economic engine. You are going to cut that support for that economic engine to dredge the canals and ports so the ships can come in, and we rely on those for jobs.

You also are going to cut the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Now, after the Gulf of Mexico suffered the economic hit under the BP oil blowout, our coastal communities were hurt badly. The tourism industry, the seafood industry and our wildlife habitat suffered significant damage.

So, coming from Florida, when you all say that you are going to turn your backs on our ability to monitor our oceans, that is very harmful, because clean oceans and clean beaches mean a healthy economy. Certainly closing the oil company tax loophole would be a wiser course of action.

We all know how harsh it has been under the Great Recession with foreclosures. It has hit us especially hard, so hard that a local expert told me yesterday that the Republican budget cuts to the magnitude being considered would greatly and immediately increase homelessness, place more than 1,000 families at risk and put seniors on the street.

Vote "no'' on this CR.

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