Congressional Budget for the US Government for Fiscal Year 2004

CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET FOR THE U.S. GOVERNMENT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2004

Mrs. MURRAY. The amendment before the Senate stops at the No Child Left Behind Act. It is an issue this Senate supports, the House and Senate supported, and the President signed it into law, putting in new accountability measures for all public schools. There were two promises in that bill: One that would require accountability for our students; second, that we will pay for the resources so they can meet the standards we had set.

The amendment before the Senate puts $2 billion from the tax cut into the No Child Left Behind Act so we can begin to follow up on the promise made by Senators in this body to the children in our country. This is an extremely important amendment as many of our States are suffering from very difficult budget crises. We cannot put on them another unfunded mandate under the guise of No Child Left Behind. This amendment makes sure we provide some of the resources that we required when we passed that bill a year and a half ago. I ask for all of our colleagues to support it.