national rif program, reading is fundamental brings these boys and girls all kinds of books. it now gives away 15 million books a year to more than 4 million y children. 17,000 sites across the country. i don t go anywhere to talk about rif that i don t have people t come up to me and say,i want to show you the first rif book i ever got and i want to tell you what it meant in my life. this is the mouse house and senate. back in theean 80, first lay barbara bush was i on rif s boad of directors. four years ago, laura bush was helping raise money. i m happy to support the importance of reading isnt fundamental. but the obama administration decided rif should be lumped in with other literacy programs and now house republicans have ended federal support. what about the argument, maybe rif is a perfectly fine program, but the government is broke and something has to go?
as we sit here right now, do you know whether your program is in or out of the federal budget? we do not. we do not. as the head of this program, how does that make you feel? it s a very unsettling time. carol rasco is head of reading is fundamental child literacy program. hours later she would learn federal t funding, 24 1/2 millin dollarsro a year, has been eliminated. when we sat down with her, she was already preparing for the worst. ready access to print material is critical to learning to read well. if they don t have that access? they will have more marks against them in this battle to learn to read.ai for 44 years, rif has been providing books and offering a literacy programs to children in need. in the inner city, in poor rule areas. he was the worst one in the world. on indian reservations.