Ranking Member Scott Leads Opposition to Extreme MAGA Republican Bill to Threaten Education Funding, Fuel Culture Wars

Floor Speech

"Mr. Speaker, I speak in opposition of H.R. 3941, the Scapegoating Not Solutions Act.

It is frustrating that we are taking up another proposal that, among other things, purports to improve school safety--yet does nothing to address school safety, does nothing to address learning loss, does nothing to address gun violence in the schools or improve student's mental health.

Regrettably, so far this Congress, House Republicans' priorities for K-12 education have focused entirely on culture wars.

First, they passed legislation that would facilitate the banning of books. Then, the House advanced a bill to seek to bar trans students from participating in sports activities. House Republicans are currently working on a budget that makes devastating cuts to federal support of education. And now, the House is considering yet another proposal to threaten to strip away funding from schools and institutions of higher learning if they use any of their facilities to temporarily house asylum seekers or undocumented immigrants in an emergency other than those caused by a disaster.

The message is clear. If you do not support this extreme agenda, Congressional Republicans will pull your support for education.

Republicans have also falsely implied that temporarily using school facilities to provide shelter diverts educational resources from students already impacted by learning loss. And yet they present no evidence to support this claim.

And we cannot meaningfully address learning loss or meet students' mental health needs if we are talking about taking away federal funds from schools and institutions of higher learning that are not aligned with the Republicans' extreme agenda.

Republicans also claim that this bill is about school safety. But let's remember that this bill prohibits emergency sheltering of undocumented immigrants except due to disasters.

If it's not a disaster and it's an emergency, you can't house the immigrants. But if it is not an emergency, there's no prohibition. You can house undocumented immigrants all year just so long as it's not an emergency. Or if it's a disaster, there's no prohibition. And you can also house other people. If its school safety, how about housing defendants awaiting trial and pretrial detention or those on work release--how about housing them? No prohibition against that, so this isn't about school safety.

We can't talk about protecting school safety without addressing gun violence.

The reality is that Republicans have done nothing about gun violence in schools, which we know poses the greatest threat to our children's safety.

And we've repeatedly said that any conversation about school safety that doesn't meaningfully address gun violence is not a serious conversation.

H.R. 3941 does not address the real issues confronting our students today -- that is, ending gun violence and helping students address learning loss. It threatens to take funds from schools and institutions of higher education. Therefore, I urge my colleagues to oppose the bill."

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