Information about the vote from special interest groups and other information providers in our Report Cards:
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Education spending.
Harkin (IA) amendment to
FY02 Budget Resolution that would reduce the tax cut
by $448 billion over ten years and apply the funds to
increased education spending and debt reduction.
Adopted.American Association of University Women
Education Spending.
During consideration of the Fiscal Year 2002 Budget Resolution (H Con Res 83), Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) offered an amendment to reduce the size of the $1.35 trillion tax cut (contained within the budget resolution) by $448 billion and increased education spending by $224 billion over 10 years. The Harkin amendment would have provided full funding for special education through the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA); doubled the budget for Title I, which serves disadvantaged schools; increased the maximum Pell grant by $600 to $4,350; increased funding for Head Start; increased funding for school construction; tripled funding for professional development to increase underserved populations' access to technology; increased early intervention and college work-study funding; and continued funding toward the goal of hiring 100,000 new teachers. The Harkin amendment also included an increase of approximately $224 billion for debt reduction over 10 years.
AAUW supported the Harkin amendment because it would have improved public education by providing additional resources. Although its passage would have been a major victory for education, the Harkin amendment was stripped from the final budget resolution conference report. AAUW opposed the size of the Administration's tax cut because it would likely absorb most or all of the available budget surplus over the next 10 years, leaving nothing to improve our nation’s public schools.
The Senate adopted the amendment.
Children's Defense Fund Action Council
Budget Resolution (Taxes & Education).
Amendment to a substitute amendment on education spending. This amendment would reduce the size of the tax cut by $448 billion and would increase education spending by $224 billion over 10 years. The substitute (underlying) amendment would cap discretionary spending at $660.7 billion in fiscal 2002 and includes an $845.7 billion contingency fund – including the Medicare Trust Fund surplus - that could be used for debt reduction, tax cuts or unforeseen spending. It also calls for $1.6 trillion in tax cuts over Fiscal Years 2002-2011 and $60 billion in tax cuts in FY 2001.
This vote clearly demonstrated Senators’ priorities, as the amendment shifted some of the funds that the substitute amendment had set aside for tax cuts into new investments in Head Start and education programs. Many of these investments are proposed in the Act to Leave No Child Behind (H.R. 1990/S. 940), including investments to expand Head Start and after-school child care, allow schools to hire additional teachers and reduce class size, and repair and modernize classrooms.