WASHINGTON -- The office of U.S. Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., today released the following statement in response to a factually flawed complaint filed by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

Adam Sharp, Communications Director for Sen. Landrieu, said:

"The frivolous CREW complaint is wholly without merit and is readily dismissed by the facts.

"Senator Landrieu strongly believes that we should not stop seeking new, innovative approaches to educating our young. She is also proud of her record of integrity in public service.

"When Senator Landrieu came to the Senate in 1997, three out of every four D.C. fourth graders could not read at even the most basic national standard -- the lowest performance of any major U.S. urban center. Here stood our nation's capital, setting the lowest of examples for the nation. On March 31, 2001, Washington Post Editor Colby King lamented, 'the underfunding of literacy programs is unconscionable.'

"At the request of D.C. officials and based in part on the program's successful track record in Louisiana, Sen. Landrieu secured voluntary funding to make Voyager available to D.C. schoolchildren -- many months before the sequence of events CREW and the Washington Post so erroneously mischaracterize. Since then, reading scores have increased by 11 percent -- from only 28 percent of children reading at or above the basic level, to 39 percent, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

"Based on this success, the program has continued to be federally funded through the support of other senators. The year after co-sponsoring the D.C. funding, the next Chairman of the D.C. Subcommittee, a Republican, requested funds to launch the program in his own state."

An Adobe Acrobat PDF file including four relevant documents is available here:

1. An April 25, 2001, letter from D.C. Public Schools Superintendent Paul L. Vance requesting the Senator's support for the funds.
2. A July 9, 2001, letter from New Orleans Public Schools CEO A. G. Davis highlighting the success of the program in Louisiana and asking for funds to expand the program in the New Orleans school system.
3. A Washington Post column by then-Editor Colby King citing the need for reading program funding. Though the column does not specifically cite Voyager, it should be noted that the column ran within weekend of D.C.P.S. officials identifying Voyager as the program they hoped to fund.
4. A letter from Republican Senator Mike DeWine, who both preceded and succeeded Sen. Landrieu as Chairman of the D.C. Appropriations Subcommittee, requesting Voyager funding for his state of Ohio. He served as Ranking Member of the Subcommittee when the panel approved the funding -- through the regular process, not a floor amendment as the Post suggests -- and also cosponsored it.

1. Click here for a May 15, 2001, letter sent by Senator Landrieu to Senator Mike DeWine, when he was Chairman, requesting the inclusion of the earmark in the legislation. This indicates Sen. Landrieu's sponsorship of the funding nearly six months earlier than CREW and the Washington Post contend.
    
2. Click here for a copy of the Senate version of the FY 2002 D.C. Appropriations bill, as passed by the Senate D.C. Appropriations Subcommittee on October 15, 2001, confirming that the earmark was added to the bill through the traditional committee process and not "inserted" a month later as CREW and the Washington Post contend.