May 9, 2001 Mr. DURBIN. I ask the Senator from North Dakota, if I might, if he will answer a question. I want to make certain it is clear on the record. In the budget resolution before us, House Concurrent Resolution 83, which projects spending over the next 11 years, would the Senator from North Dakota, having analyzed this, tell me what commitment is being made by the Republican leadership and the Bush administration to new funding for education to improve the schools and the lives of children across America? Mr. CONRAD. There is no increase for education beyond simple inflation. I think the most honest direct answer that I can give is that there is no real increase for education, period. In addition to that, the pool of money from which education spending comes is actually below inflation. The cuts are going to have to come from somewhere. Mr. DURBIN. I ask the Senator from North Dakota, so there is clarity on the record: We have been debating for 2 weeks about education on the floor of the Senate. But it is a debate about authorizations and this is a debate about a budget resolution. Will the Senator from North Dakota explain the difference, if we say we are going to commit hundreds of millions of dollars to education as part of the elementary and secondary education authorization, will that money then automatically go to the schools and improve the schools for our children? Mr. CONRAD. No. The way it works, authorizations mean nothing without appropriations. And the money for appropriations is not available unless it is made available by the budget resolution. The hard reality here is all of this talk about money for education is just that, it is talk. We can pass 100 amendments that say we are going to provide money for education, but if the money is not in the budget, it does not get allocated to the Appropriations Committee to be available for actual expenditure. We have a lot of great speeches out here, but without the money in the budget resolution, they don't mean much.