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Category: Legislation

ESEA Conference Report Released, Passage Expected Before Recess

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Both Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and Rep. John Kline (R-MN) Chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, put a No Child Left Behind rewrite at the top of their to-do lists in 2015. After multiple stops and starts in the House, the House and Senate Conferees have come to an agreement, which they announced last week and revealed today.

The long-negotiated Every Student Succeeds Act which would reauthorize theElementary and Secondary Education Act, also known as No Child Left Behind, is expected to draw wide support for fixing the existing law, though there may be some objections over how much control is given to states. Some conservatives may argue for more state control over education programs, while civil rights groups are keeping a close eye on the flexibility states will have over accountability.

The measure would require states to test students in reading and math in third through eighth grades and once in high school, as well as separate the data by student subgroups — racial minorities, poverty, special education and English learners. Performance goals on those tests and for the subgroups would be decided at the state level.

States and districts would be required to intervene in the lowest performing 5 percent of schools, high schools where less than 67 percent of students graduate and schools in which any subgroup of students is consistently underperforming. But the plan for action at those schools would be at the discretion of state and local school officials, while the federal Education Department has the authority to approve or disapprove the overall statewide accountability system.

The House and Senate are expected to consider and pass the conference agreement before Congress recesses for the Christmas holiday.

A copy of the conference agreement can be found here. 

 

House and Senate Recess for Thanksgiving

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The Senate shelved consideration of the FY2016 Transportation-HUD spending bill after Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) blocked progress on two transportation-related amendments and demanded consideration of his amendment  to bar assistance to refugees from certain countries. Senate Leadership announced there will be no more votes this week in the Senate, opening the door to the Thanksgiving recess.

Earlier today, the House passed legislation putting more restrictions on refugees entering the country and adjourned pending on the adjournment of the Senate. The House has concluded all its legislative business prior to the Senate.

The House and Senate will be back in session November 30th.

House Pushes “Pause” on Syria Refugees

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The House voted overwhelmingly Thursday to slap stringent — and difficult to implement — new screening procedures on refugees from Syria seeking resettlement, seizing on the fear stemming from the Paris attacks.

The bill passed by a vote of 289 to 137 with nearly 50 Democrats in support even after Administration officials implored congressional Democrats to vote down the bill. The measure would require that the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence confirm that each applicant from Syria and Iraq poses no threat. The White House has declared the requirements “untenable.”

The White House has threatened to veto the measure should it pass the Senate and be sent to the President for signature.

ESEA/NCLB Conference Finished, Vote in House Expected

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House and Senate conferees finished their work on an agreement to rewrite the No Child Left Behind law today. Members are hopeful that the conference package can clear both chambers by the end of the year. Both parties have been critical of the last reauthorization law (which renamed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to No Child Left Behind), which expired in 2007, for being overly prescriptive and limiting state and local agencies from prioritizing their needs. The Education Department has issued waivers from the law to many states, but also required states to adopt certain policies and standards pushed by the Obama administration. States losing their waivers, such as Washington State, has been a hot political issue.

Final legislative text is expected in the coming days, in order to give all members of Congress time to read the negotiated measure over the Thanksgiving break.

House Education and the Workforce Chairman John Kline (R-MN) who also led the conference committee, said he expects the House to vote on the package on Dec. 2 or Dec. 3. The Senate is expected to take up the measure after the House acts.

NDAA Passes in the House

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Today the House voted 370-58 to pass the revised fiscal 2016 defense authorization measure (S 1356) under suspension of the rules, an expedited process that requires a two-thirds majority for passage. A vote to override the president’s veto was slated for Thursday, but scrapped in favor of the new bill after House and Senate negotiators worked out a series of cuts to conform to a revised defense budget top line.

Obama vetoed the initial defense authorization bill (HR 1735), citing the inclusion of $38 billion in extra Overseas Contingency Operations funds to sidestep discretionary spending caps. A two-year budget agreement (HR 1314), signed by the president Monday, raised defense and non-defense spending caps by $25 billion each in fiscal 2016. The agreement also includes an extra $8 billion this year for defense spending through OCO.

The policy provisions of the new measure are unchanged but the bill reflects $5 billion in cuts to programs to conform to the two-year budget agreement, which came up short of the president’s request, and the original NDAA topline of $612 billion.