HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Funding for Controversial Arts Agency

By a vote of 103 for and 326 against, the House refused to abolish the National Endowment for the Arts. Instead, the House passed a bill (HR 2351) authorizing $174.5 million in fiscal 1994 for the agency, which is controversial because of sexually explicit art it has funded.

A yes vote was to abolish the National Endowment for the Arts.

How They Voted

Rep. Beilenson (D): Nay Rep. Dixon (D): Nay Rep. Harman (D): Nay Rep. Waxman (D): Nay

$425 Million for Educational Grants

The House passed a bill (HR 1804) to spend $425 million in fiscal 1994 grants to states for the improvement of elementary and secondary education in public schools. The bill sets national goals to be reached by 2000 in areas such as curriculum content, teacher competence and student achievement. States and localities choosing to receive the federal money would use it to begin restructuring their systems. The program would be overseen by a National Goals Panel appointed by the White House, governors, congressional leaders and state legislatures.

The vote was 307 for and 118 against. A yes vote was to pass the bill.

How They Voted

Rep. Beilenson (D): Yea Rep. Dixon (D): Yea Rep. Harman (D): Yea Rep. Waxman (D): Yea

‘School Choice’ Amendment

The House rejected an amendment enabling communities to allocate some of their money from HR 1804 (above) to private and parochial education. The “school choice” amendment sought tomake non-public schools affordable to parents wishing to transfer their children out of public systems.

Supporter Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said the amendment holds “that parents are better than bureaucrats, that students are more important than teachers’ unions, that learning is more important than regulation if the local community wants to voluntarily make that decision.”

Opponent Gene Green (D-Tex.) said the amendment would cause “the erosion of much-needed public funds for education. Private schools today are doing their jobs just fine, and do not need public funds to continue.”

The vote was 130 for and 300 against. A yes vote supported diverting a portion of federal education money to private and parochial education.

How They Voted

Rep. Beilenson (D): Nay Rep. Dixon (D): Nay Rep. Harman (D): Nay Rep. Waxman (D): Nay

Debate on Additional Jobless Benefits

The House agreed to the rule for debating a bill (HR 3167) providing an additional four months in which the long-term unemployed can apply for more weeks of unemployment checks after their initial 26-week allotment expires. This would extend until Feb. 2, 1994, an emergency program that was supposed to expire Oct. 1. The legislation would benefit an estimated 750,000 workers, giving them seven or 13 weeks of additional checks, depending on the unemployment level in their state.

Controversy centered on how to pay the estimated $1.1-billion cost. Backers of the rule said the spending would be offset primarily by the bill’s requirement that states do a better job of retraining the unemployed for quicker re-employment. But critics, mainly Republicans, called that approach wishful thinking and said they preferred the certainty of specific spending cuts.

The vote was 239 for and 150 against. A yes vote was to debate the bill providing additional unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless.

How They Voted

Rep. Beilenson (D): Yea Rep. Dixon (D): Yea Rep. Harman (D): Yea Rep. Waxman (D): Yea

Source: Roll Call Report Syndicate