Roll Call: Senate Blocks Increased After-School Spending

On September 10, by a vote of 49 to 46, the Senate refused to waive the Budget Act and consider an amendment to boost federal taxpayer funding for after-school programs.

The motion to waive the Budget Act, which requires 60 votes, was necessary because the underlying amendment would increase federal spending above the limits set in the budget resolution.

The amendment, sponsored by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D.-Calif.), would have increased funding by $400 million over President Bush’s request.

Boxer complained that the federal government, by spending a mere $600 million to pay for after-school programs, is irreparably harming millions of children and “leaving them behind.”

“As we look at the [President’s] request for $87 billion, most of it for Iraq, I hope we will find it in our hearts to look at the millions of children in our own country who are waiting to get into after-school programs,” said Boxer.

“Where are our family values?” continued the outspoken proponent of partial-birth abortion and the defunding of the Boy Scouts for their stance on homosexuality. “While the administration is spending money asking parents where their kids are after school, on the other hand, with their red pencil they are cutting the funding for afterschool.”

After the vote failed, Boxer said, “We have just deprived 300,000 children in every one of our States of afterschool care, after being told by law enforcement that it helps solve crime problems, after being told by parents that it makes their children happy, after learning from study after study that the kids do better. . . this program has been flat-lined for three years in a row. It is a sad day, and I hope we will reverse ourselves at a future date.”

A “yes” vote was a vote to waive the Budget Act, and was in effect a vote to increase funding for afterschool programs. A “no” vote was a vote against the motion, and was, in effect, a vote against the extra funding.

NOT VOTING: 5