The Obama administration should raise the alarm, and the Senate must be prepared to provide full financing.
The event in Westchester was staged as a protest by the county executive against "unfunded mandates," or programs the state requires but does not provide full financing for.
But he and other Congressional Democrats have become increasingly frustrated with the law because the Bush administration has not provided full financing for it.
This time around, the appropriators in Congress provided full financing for the program while quietly authorizing HUD to make cuts by administrative means.
A House budget aide, who asked not to be identified, said that if Congress passes a continuing resolution that provides full financing, there is less incentive to hammer out a formal budget.
Representative Michael Ferguson, newly elected in the Seventh District, opposes abortion rights, yet he has been running around the state recently with Representative Patrick J. Kennedy -- Kennedy! -- of Rhode Island, touting their bill to provide full financing of special education programs whose underfinancing by the Republican leadership finally drove Mr. Jeffords out of the party.
The legislation was in response to the Supreme Court's spring deadline for providing full state financing to replace or repair school buildings in needy districts.
With Bill Moyers that he thought Arizona's four-year old Clean Elections law, which provided full public financing for state campaigns, could "absolutely" serve as a model for the nation as a whole.
Since the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit was filed in 1993, parent and community organizations have demanded that the state provide full and fair financing plus enhanced accountability.
In Wisconsin and North Carolina, legislative proposals would, for the first time, provide full public campaign financing for some appeals court candidates in an effort to remove judges from fund-raising, which often leads to claims that court decisions can be bought.
