ESEA Moves through Senate HELP Committee

Posted on April 16, 2015April 17, 2015

Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) in the markup of the Every Child Succeeds Act.

In a rare example of legislating and bipartisanship, the HELP Committee unanimously passed its rewrite of the Elementary and Secondary Education reauthorization bill this afternoon. The bill, called Every Child Succeeds, includes historically toxic education topics like testing and school performance ratings. The bill has been so toxic that the last three Congresses have tried and failed to rewrite it. The House had to pull the measure from the House Floor earlier this year after full consideration because of lack of support for final passage.

In contrast, the bipartisan legislation, cowritten by Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Murray, figuratively flew through the committee. It was unveiled last week and considered Wednesday and Thursday of this week.

In contrast, the 2013 consideration of legislation to reauthorize these programs, with a committee largely comprised of the same group of Senators, was mired in partisan gridlock, dozens of amendments and two long days of fighting. What ultimately passed on June 12, 2013 was by a party-line vote of 12-10. All Democrats on the committee approved the bill and all Republicans opposed it.

Conversely, today, every member of the committee, Republican and Democrat, including the polarizing Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY), Tim Scott (R-NC), Al Franken (D-MN) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), all lined up their support behind the committee chairs and the legislation. The overall tone to the whole process between Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Murray has been one of cooperation and compromise.

Senator Alexander hopes the Senate] can take up the measure before the Memorial Day recess.

While passing the Senate seems all but assured, the Senate version is vastly different than the House measure. What, if anything, will pass the House remains to be seen.

More information about the Every Child Succeeds can be found here.

To watch the markup, click here.

The Office of Federal Relations will continue to monitor this bill and report on it’s progress.

House Releases COMPETES

Posted on April 16, 2015

The House Science Committee Republicans released their version of the America COMPETES reauthorization legislation. The COMPETES bill reauthorizes major science programs including then entirety of the National Science Foundation, the science programs within the Department of Energy, and NIST.

The bill is here.

In addition, the legislation will mark up the Full Committee next week on April 22nd at 10:15 EST. You can watch the mark up here.

The Office of Federal Relations is monitoring this legislation and will give updates as it progresses.

What We’re Reading, April 13-17

Posted on April 16, 2015

6818248768_de9cf75c30_z — Cherry Blossoms and Magnolias on the Capitol Grounds

After taking the two week recess with Congress, here’s a selection or articles the Federal Relations team is reading this week.

For the Win – A look as to why it’s likely (right now) that Hillary will win the presidency (or at least a Democrat will). Read it at New York Mag.

Fake – An article on why legitimate publications are publishing fake “peer-reviewed” articles. Read it at Slate.

NCLB – Ed Week did a nice overview of what to expect during this week’s HELP Committee mark up of the long-awaited and much over due Elementary and Secondary Education legislation. Read more at Ed Week.

Starving – An Op-Ed about the need for the Humanities and humanities education, which is what makes us well rounded humans. Read read it at NY Times.

What We’re Reading, March 23-27

Posted on March 27, 2015

Here’s a selection of articles the Office of Federal Relations has been reading this week.

Deal or No Deal? – The House Republicans and Democrats are increasingly optimistic that they have a deal to fix the Sustainable Growth Rate formula for Medicare. Maybe they will? Read more at The Hill.

Not Anymore – And then, the bipartisan health deal has hit a snag…the Senate. Read more at The New York Times.

Truth Teller – As the 2016 presidential field begins to take shape, some are taking unique tactics on how to engage votes. Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) has decided to pick honest and is telling his party, “You can’t govern angry.” He’s at the bottom of the polls. Read more at Politico.

What We’re Reading, March 16-20

Posted on March 19, 2015

Here’s a selection of articles the Federal Relations team is reading this week.

SXSW – An overview of the big issues heard at SXSWEdu. Read it at The Chronicle.

NO! – A response to the Congressional Republican budgets, or 10 reasons not to cut education funding. From the White House blog.

We Did It Our Way, For Now – House fiscal conservatives in the House Budget Committee managed to muster enough votes to pass their budget proposal. It was 24 painful hours of stops and starts, failed whip counts (from the Republican Whip Steve Scalise) and much drama. Read about the drama at Roll Call.

Schock & Awe – Congress lost one of it’s youngest Members (and avid Instragrammer), Congressman Aaron Schock (R-IL) this week in what has been a slow spiraling discover of increasing malfeasance. The final straw? Milage reimbursements. His decision to resign was so quick, that Speaker Boehner heard about it at the press conference (and probably his staff too). Read about Rep. Schock’s political last hours at Politico.