“Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to highlight how the President's fiscal year 2007 budget will harm millions of women and children around the country. Tonight, you are going to hear from some of my colleagues about those specific programs that have proven to be successful for all women, but are currently being cut, and in some cases, eliminated altogether. 

“The President is proposing to cut programs that disproportionately help women, children, the elderly, and the increasing population of Americans living in poverty.

“Earlier this month, I was part of a delegation of Members of Congress who traveled to the Gulf Coast and New Orleans where most communities are still struggling to clean up their homes and get back to some sense of normalcy after Hurricane Katrina.

“We need to be doing more to help those that lost everything to regain their lives. These communities must have quality health care, emergency care, and safe environmental conditions. But we cannot accomplish these goals and help the millions of women and children around the country who are living in poverty with the reckless and immoral budget that President Bush has proposed.

“Key domestic programs that provide food and housing and support to women are vulnerable under this administration. In fact, the Bush administration is determined to protect tax cuts for the very wealthiest of Americans and provide health care for those who already have health care coverage and not include the 50 million uninsured people in our country today.

“The President wants to eliminate educational support for women, food assistance for seniors living in poverty, and he wants to significantly slash funding from important safety net programs like Medicaid and food stamps.

“In just four years, the cost of making the President’s tax cuts permanent will exceed the amount that the Federal Government spends on education beginning in preschool through college. Where is the economic recovery that the Administration promised? Real wages as we know are down. The number of people living in poverty has increased. Job growth has been stagnant. Tonight I am glad that so many of our colleagues in Congress, in the Democratic Women's Working Group, are coming together to speak out against the President's budget and how it is going in the wrong direction for women and their families.”