Student Success Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Chairman, as the poison of sequestration is now seeping through America's economy, society, and national defense, there's a lot of folks in this city who are suddenly running around saying that they oppose sequestration. But I think if you look closely at this legislation, it bakes in sequestration funding levels for education--not just for next year, but for the next 6 years.

Mr. Chairman, I supported the defense authorization bill, along with the chairman of my committee, a few weeks ago, which actually used pre-sequestration levels for our national defense. Yet here today we are voting on a bill which tells America's children: sorry, you're stuck with sequestration. You have to allow, basically, this chain saw which is going through Federal programs to continue for the next 6 years at exactly the time when we should, as a national priority, be investing more in education.

We heard from the prior speaker about the need for STEM. Absolutely.

There is nothing in this bill that prioritizes or focuses on the need for this country to step up the STEM education curriculum in this country. This bill is the wrong direction for people who care about upgrading America's competitiveness.

Again, if you think about it, is China really going to sequester its education funding over the next 6 years? Are any of our other large economic competitors doing that? Of course not.

This bill is a retreat; it is a surrender to sequestration--not for ourselves, but for our children. It is shameful. I urge a ``no'' vote on H.R. 5.

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