WASHINGTON (ABP) — Disputes over several issues Jan. 20 stalled final passage of a massive appropriations package that includes what would become the nation's first federally funded school-voucher program.
However, most observers said the bill will probably pass within the next several days, likely with the voucher provision intact.
Five Republican senators joined 39 Democrats and an independent to uphold the filibuster of the omnibus funding bill. The proposal would create a publicly funded scholarship program for low-income students in the District of Columbia. Republican leaders on a House-Senate conference committee slipped it into the appropriations package in November.
The catch-all bill would fund vital government operations for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. Many who voted to block its immediate passage reportedly had concerns over several parts of the bill, including food-labeling provisions and labor rules.
Although conference reports are designed to hammer out differences between legislation passed by the House and Senate before both chambers give final approval, congressional leaders have wide latitude to insert extraneous measures into such spending bills.
This means the bill containing the voucher provision is unamendable and virtually certain to pass when the Senate finally closes debate on it.
The $13 million measure would provide per-pupil scholarships of up to $7,500 a year that low-income students in Washington could use to attend private schools, including religious schools. The bill would authorize a five-year pilot program. It also would provide $27 million in additional funding for traditional D.C. public schools as well as public charter schools in the District.
The voucher plan has not been brought to the Senate floor for separate consideration. The House narrowly passed a similar D.C. voucher plan — by a single-vote margin — in September. However, because of the controversy and a filibuster threat from Democratic voucher opponents, Republican leaders removed the measure from the D.C. appropriations bill that passed Nov. 18.
Voucher opponents welcomed the delay, even if it was only temporary. “Earlier Bush administration school-voucher programs have been rejected by the Senate, and rightly so. The attempt to sneak this major policy change through on a bill crowded with important issues and popular spending programs, and impose it on a population with no voting representation in Congress is just plain wrong,” said Tanya Clay, deputy director of public policy for People For the American Way, in a Jan. 20 press release.
President Bush, who has failed in earlier attempts to push federal voucher programs through Congress, chastised the Senate for stalling the bill. “Today, a minority in the Senate denied a vote on a spending bill that is four months overdue, and that fulfills important commitments,” Bush said, according to a White House statement released shortly after the vote to continue debate. “This bill stays within the spending limits I proposed. And the Senate needs to pass it.”
Although the majority of elected officials in D.C. oppose the voucher proposal, it gained momentum last year, when Washington Mayor Anthony Williams (D) reversed his long opposition and threw his support behind the legislation. He was joined by the city's school board president and a key city council member.
The voucher issue is one of many cited by Williams' political opponents in launching an effort to recall him Jan. 20.
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