Conference Report on H.R. 1350, Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004

CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 1350, INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES EDUCATION IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2004 -- (House of Representatives - November 19, 2004)

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, by the direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 858 and ask for its immediate consideration.

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Sessions) for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I would like to express my appreciation to the gentleman from Ohio (Chairman Boehner) and the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller), the ranking member, for returning to this House a bipartisan-supported conference report on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

Last year, when the House first considered H.R. 1350 which reauthorized the IDEA, I felt compelled to oppose that bill. It undermined, in my opinion, the basic rights of children in need of special education to quality education. It undermined the rights of these students' families, and it failed our States and local school districts to effectively provide special education services for these students. Worse yet, the Republican leadership refused to allow any amendment addressing the need to provide full funding for the Federal share of special education to even be debated in this body. It was the House at its very worst.

Today is a very different day. We have before us a bipartisan-supported bill. We have a bill that maintains the basic civil rights of children with disabilities. We have a conference report that addresses long-standing problems with IDEA monitoring and enforcement by the U.S. Department of Education.

We have a bill that has added protections for children with special needs who have fallen between the cracks for too long; in particular, the 1.3 million children who experience homelessness each year and the 500,000 children in foster care. These children, who are moved around and change schools frequently, disproportionately suffer from learning and physical disabilities than children from stable homes, but they have greater difficulty accessing special education services. This bill now ensures that their individual education plans can travel with them so they are not denied services or regress further when moving from school to school.

From the bottom of my heart, I thank the conferees for remembering these children and addressing this problem in this bill.

This bill also helps schools resolve conflicts over providing special education services and reduce litigation. It should result in reducing the over-identification and misidentification of nondisabled children, especially among minorities and other disadvantaged communities. It reduces paperwork requirements, improves transition services, and strengthens methods for measuring student progress, all of which should improve the academic achievement of special education students.

This bill, however, is not perfect. For example, I believe we still have a long way to go toward ensuring a seamless system for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with disabilities, let alone successfully preparing and transitioning these children into K-12 special education programs.

And, most importantly, this bill still does not guarantee mandatory funding for the Federal share of IDEA State grants. This year alone, special education funding is $2.5 billion short of what Republicans promised in their budget and only half of what has been authorized under the IDEA. This leaves already cash-strapped schools without the support needed to ensure that all students, no matter their disabilities, receive the same education opportunities.

Mr. Speaker, I remain deeply concerned that Congress will continue to break its promise to our States, our local schools and our special needs children and families to provide the 40 percent Federal share of funding for federally mandated special education programs and services. For 30 years we have failed to keep our word to fully fund this law, and I see nothing in this bill to reassure me that Congress will meet even the more modest funding targets set in this bill. We seem perfectly able to ignore, back away from, or reduce our commitment.

I believe it is well past time for Congress to step up to the plate and fulfill its promise to fully fund the Federal share of special education programs. Until we do so, local and State education budgets will have to continue to rob from other education programs in order to pay for mandatory special education services, breeding unnecessary resentment towards the children and families who require these programs and placing increased stress on scarce education dollars.

I promise my colleagues, I promise the children and families and schools in the Third Congressional District of Massachusetts that I will continue to fight for full mandatory funding of the Federal share of IDEA. I hope President Bush will finally make this funding a priority in his budget next year.

Mr. Speaker, even with these concerns, I believe this conference report is an important step forward for our special education programs and services, and I urge my colleagues to support this rule and to support the conference report on H.R. 1350.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey), the ranking member on the Subcommittee on Education Reform.

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Kind) who is a member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce.

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, as speaker after speaker on our side has already said, this is a much improved conference report from the bill that we originally saw before this House a few months ago. It is supported. It deserves bipartisan support. I hope my colleagues will support the rule. I hope they will support the final passage of this conference report.

Mr. Speaker, this may very well be the last rule that I manage for our side in the 108th Congress. So I wanted to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the ranking Democrat on the committee, my friend MARTIN FROST. He is one of the smartest Members to serve in this body. He became an expert in the rules of the House, and he fought the good fight every single day for people and for causes that oftentime get overlooked in this body. I think our Nation is better because of his service, and I think we will miss him.

The gentleman from Texas (Mr. Sessions) offered a resolution in the Rules Committee last night, and we got to pay our tributes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Frost) then; but I wanted to take this opportunity just to express publicly my appreciation for his service not only to this Congress but to the people of this country.

I also want to say that we are going to miss our colleagues SUE MYRICK and TOM REYNOLDS who are leaving the Rules Committee to take on other committee assignments. Both of them have been good and strong members of the committee, and I have enjoyed working with them.

Finally, Mr. Speaker, I want to take this opportunity to thank the majority and the minority Rules staff. These men and women work incredibly hard, probably harder than most people could possibly appreciate. In particular, let me thank Mr. Frost's staff who have served this House to the best of their abilities. They have done a wonderful job under difficult circumstances, and they deserve to be thanked for their service. As a former staffer myself, I have a special appreciation for the work that members of the staff do.

Specifically, I want to recognize Kristi Walseth, who is the staff director; Askia Suruma; Sophie Hayford, who also served with my old boss and former Rules Committee chairman, Joe Moakley; John Williams; Shannon Meissner; Jane Hamilton; and Jeff Rosenthal for their work and their dedication in this House and to the causes that they believe in during the 108th Congress.

I also want to thank the associate staff on our side: Fred Turner who has served with great distinction for ALCEE HASTINGS; Rosaline Cohen who has worked very hard for LOUISE SLAUGHTER; and Keith Stern who has served me incredibly well and worked incredibly hard on behalf of this Congress for all their work as well.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. SESSIONS. I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts.

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman for his resolution last night and for his words today.

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