Below are excerpts from the Congressional Record. One can see both chambers consider Impact Aid legislation on the floor, and then approve it.

House of Representatives floor debate, July 13, 1950

House of Representatives floor debate, August 22, 1950

Senate floor debate, August 27, 1950

Senate floor debate, September 13, 1950

These hearings preceded the 1950 enactment of Impact Aid, which sent dollars to localities affected by federal activities. “Affected?” you may wonder. Well, if the federal government places a federal agency in a community, costs fall upon the community. First, the federal property may not be taxed by the local government. Second, the federal employees may have children who end up attending the public schools. Hence, the fedral government would reimburse localities for the impact of such costs.

Below are the first few pages of the House of Representatives’ hearings that preceded the legislation. These pages lay ut the witnesses who appeared over the many sessions. Unfortunately, the US Government Printing Office has yet to post online the full volumes of these hearings. That means to read them you will need to get a hard copy via a Federal Depository Library or research library.

The full citation for these two volumes are:

U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Federal Assistance for Educating Children in Localities Affected by Federal Activities: Hearings Before Special Investigating Subcommittees of the Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, Eighty-first Congress, First Session, on H.R. 4115, a Bill to Provide for the Education of Children Residing on Certain Nonsupporting Federally Owned Property, and Children Residing in Localities Overburdened with Increased School Enrollments Resulting from Federal Activities in the Area, and for Other Purposes, Part 1 (Government Printing Office, 1950)

U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Federal Assistance for Educating Children in Localities Affected by Federal Activities: Hearings Before Special Investigating Subcommittees of the Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, Eighty-first Congress, First Session, on H.R. 4115, a Bill to Provide for the Education of Children Residing on Certain Nonsupporting Federally Owned Property, and Children Residing in Localities Overburdened with Increased School Enrollments Resulting from Federal Activities in the Area, and for Other Purposes, Part 2 (Government Printing Office, 1950)

Click here to download this portion of the statute.

Citation: U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Aid to Elementary and Secondary Education, Part 1, 89th Congress, 1st session, January 22, 1965.

The full hearing volumes may be downloaded at https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/CHRG-89hhrg42738p1/CHRG-89hhrg42738p1 and https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/CHRG-89hhrg42738p2/CHRG-89hhrg42738p2.

This debate, which was recorded in the Congressional Globe, highlights the constitutional debates that inevitably come with federal involement in schooling. Rep. John B. Storm (D-PA) notes the request for a larger appropriation for the bureau incited debate on the problem of “the latitudinarian method of construing the Constituion.” In short, he and others object to using the General Welfare Clause as justification for Congress expanding government to achieve new objectives not obviously authorized by the Constitution. The specter of federal government centralization arises, and Rep. George Hoar (R-MA) and Rep. James Garfield (R-OH), both education reformers, partake in the debate.

This single page was given to me by the late Thomas Carr. He was a colleague of mine at the Congressional Research Service, and a wonderful man. As my marginalia indicates, Tom reported this debate continued for about 10 pages.

The debate began on page 489, and concluded on page 495, with a vote to reject the amendment to increase the appropriation of the Bureau. But, the debate then rolled into an argument over money for the Post Office, the Department of Agriculture, and more, and continued through many more pages. It is a remarkable thing to see how deeply in the weeds of the executive branch legislators of the day were.

You can see those pages on the Library of Congress’ American Memory Collection, where they have posted volumes of the Globe published between 1833 and 1873. This volume can be accessed via https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwcglink.html#anchor42.

Full citation: Congressional Globe, House of Representatives, 42nd Congress, 3rd Session, page 494 of 672.