Congressional Quotes: What They Are Saying
On June 23, the Senate Appropriations Committee met to mark up the Commerce, Justice and Science appropriations bill, which funds the Legal Services Corporation. Faced with a Committee recommendation that would cut LSC's FY 2006 budget by more than $6 million, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) delivered an impassioned appeal on behalf of the millions of low-income Americans who are denied access to our justice system because the need for civil legal services so outweighs its availability.
Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA)
"We must do something about access to justice. The Committee provides only $324.5 million in funding for the Legal Services Corporation; a reduction of more than $6 million from last year and from what the House provided…Who is being penalized for the lack of funding? Poor women and children. 72 percent of legal services clients are women. These women would otherwise have no legal assistance in family law matters including domestic violence, restraining orders and custody issues. Legal services is also the only assistance most women have in getting and keeping safe habitable housing. This assistance is critical in reducing homelessness amongst women and children."
When the full House met on June 14th to debate the appropriations bill that would fund the Legal Services Corporation, Congressmen on both sides of the aisle spoke out in defense of the single biggest funding source for civil legal services nationwide. Representatives Frank R. Wolf (R-VA) and Alan B. Mollohan (D-WV), Chairman and Ranking Member of the Appropriations subcommittee responsible for funding LSC, fended off an amendment that would have taken $10 million out of LSC's budget.
Representative Frank R. Wolf (R-VA)
"Eighty percent of the legal needs of people in poverty are not addressed. We need to strike a balance with regard to the poor. This program helps the poor…So to take more money away to cut the Legal Services Corporation could dramatically impact the ability of low-income Americans to seek and obtain justice. Justice, justice thou shall pursue, and I think this is really an amendment that would hurt the poor, so I would hope that we would not accept it."
Representative Alan B. Mollohan (D-WV)
"This is a bad amendment. It cuts a program that is desperately needed if we expect everybody in the country to participate in the American legal system, and we should expect, and want, and make sure that everybody participates in the American legal system that we are all so proud of."
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