Sen. Patty Murray is crowing about one of her crowning achievements in the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) legislation: a newly codified federal preschool program and the taxpayer monies that will fund it.
Alexander, who chairs the Senate committee that oversees education, and ranking member Sen. Patty Murray, congratulated each other numerous times on the floor of the Senate for completing the 1,061-page “bipartisan” conference legislation, much of which was apparently crafted behind closed doors and passed by the House last week after having been published for review only two days earlier.
On Wednesday, a congressional conference committee kicked off the effort to reauthorize No Child Left Behind (NCLB)—the latest version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)—amid the concerns of many conservative parents, who would prefer to see education taken out of the hands of the federal government and back into those of the individual states and local school districts.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday the country must “look forward, not backwards” on issues regarding “LBJs,” meaning “LGBTs.”
With their legislation to defund Planned Parenthood and redirect those federal funds to women’s health care facilities that don’t provide abortions, Senate Republicans say they are sending the message that their proposal is not about politics, but about the “moral fabric” of the nation.
“This is one of the greatest illustrations of the butchery, if you will, of our culture and the literal attack on words to call what happens in a Planned Parenthood clinic ‘health,’” Limbaugh said. “Whether you preface it by saying women’s health or whatever, there’s nothing healthy going on in here.”
The Senate passed its version of the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law Thursday by a vote of 81-17. The approval of the Every Child Achieves Act now sends the measure to a conference with the House’s bill, which passed that chamber last week.
The Senate voted to end debate on the Every Child Achieves Act (ECAA) Wednesday, 86-12, allowing for a final vote on Thursday on the measure that is that chamber’s version of the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind law.
Many in the GOP reportedly refrained from voting until the last minute and some changed their votes under pressure from Republican leadership. Only one conservative amendment, introduced by Rep. Matt Salmon (R-AZ) was adopted, by a vote of 251-178, that would allow parents to opt their children out of standardized testing.
It’s worth noting that in the half-century since the ESEA was passed as part of Johnson’s “War on Poverty,” billions of dollars have been spent – by both Democrat and Republican administrations – on education and so-called “helpful” programs for “disadvantaged” children, and yet Democrats are still fighting for more federal control and federal programs and subsidies in order to “close the achievement gap.”
The House’s version of the redo, known as the Student Success Act (H.R. 5), was pulled from the House floor by GOP leadership in late February after it was determined the measure lacked sufficient support. Grassroots parents’ groups – many that have been fighting against the Common Core standards in their states – voiced their concerns that the Student Success Act still required excessive federal intrusion into the right of states to set their own education policies.
Republican leaders seem poised to resume attempts to convince the conservative base of their party that the bill will reduce federal involvement in education and return it to the states and localities.
Sen. Lamar Alexander’s (R-TN) rewritten draft legislation that would reauthorize No Child Left Behind (NCLB) will likely not allow Title I dollars for low-income children to follow them to schools of their choice, an outcome that would be a win for the Obama administration.
Liberal pressure groups and some U.S. senators claim that the holdup over Loretta Lynch’s nomination to be attorney general is another front in a supposed Republican “War on women.”
The conservative Washington, D.C.-based American Principles in Action (APIA) is urging Congress to oppose the Strengthening Education Through Research Act (SETRA), which the group states would extend federal psychological profiling of children through increased research on “social and emotional learning.”
During a hearing, Sen. Patty Murray says she hopes Congress can “encourage broader use of vaccines.”
Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) argues that despite the fact that President Obama’s executive amnesty will not have the force of law, it would be very difficult for another president to rescind. “This is something that is fair
A group of Senate Democrats, led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), are voicing their support for President Obama’s expected executive actions on immigration. In a letter to Obama Monday, Reid and Sens. Richard Durbin (D-IL), Charles Schumer (D-NY),
Feminist champion and “war on women” advocate Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) reportedly laughed off an alleged sexual-harassment incident involving a female Democrat colleague who had her breast groped by a male senator. After Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) revealed in a
House Budget Committee Chairman released his Fiscal Year 2015 budget Tuesday ahead of a potentially difficult vote in the House as he continues to deal with unrest on the right from a deal he struck with Democratic Senate Budget Committee
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) protested that if the Supreme Court of the United States rules that Hobby Lobby does not have to provide birth control insurance for its employees, it would potentially open the door for other types of discrimination.
Nearly a third of lawmakers in Congress want to end the military pension cuts in the budget deal brokered by Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), which President Barack Obama signed. According to The Hill, “more than
While members of Congress ended 2013 congratulating themselves for passing a budget, the media missed the fact that the agreement doesn’t actually avoid a government shutdown. The deal reached by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) provides
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) estimated that in 2013 it improperly spent about $65 billion in taxpayer funds through waste, errors, and fraud, a figure that was primarily fueled by an estimated $60 billion in overpayments
Two days after President Barack Obama signed a budget compromise that slashed pension benefits for military veterans, retired Marine Jessie Jane Duff blasted Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) for his “outrageous attitude” toward the sacrifices those in the armed forces have
Lawmakers from both parties introduced bills this week to repeal or reverse the cost of living adjustment (COLA) Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) and Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) heaved upon retired military personnel. They pushed the cuts as a way to
Veterans and conservatives are expressing outrage toward House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). The cuts to retired service members’ pensions embedded in the budget deal cut by him and Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) elicited an overwhelming
On Wednesday, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), who brokered the budget deal with Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), claimed the cuts to disabled veterans benefits were “mistakenly” included in the agreement and vowed to rectify the “unintended inclusion.” Murray, the Chairwoman of the
On Wednesday, the Senate voted 64-36 to pass the budget deal negotiated by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA). The deal increases discretionary domestic spending to over $1 trillion a year, by eliminating most the the sequester
Freshman Democrat Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL) held two budget events in her Western Illinois district on Tuesday. The events, in which constituents pick their priorities for spending, are designed to support the argument that government needs more revenue. Beyond that,
House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) has scrubbed a document to remove a false statement about the budget deal he cut with Senate Budget Committee chairwoman Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), Breitbart News has learned. An original talking point
In the days immediately following the release of the budget deal negotiated between Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), House Speaker John Boehner launched a preemptive attack on conservative and tea party grass roots activists. Saying these
The fact that House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senate Budget Committee chairwoman Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) double counted savings in their budget deal means that the bill actually increases the deficit by several billion dollars, Breitbart
While 12 Republican Senators voted with Senate Democrats to proceed to a vote of final passage on the budget deal from House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), 33 Senate Republicans stood up
On Monday, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) argued that the budget deal he cut with Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) was a political win for Republicans because it avoided the possibility of another government shutdown, thereby keeping focus supposedly on Obamacare before
The budget deal that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) brokered last week and passed in the House will make it easier for four vulnerable Senate Democrats from red states to get re-elected. According to The Hill,
The budget deal that House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) cut with Senate Budget Committee chairwoman Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) is set to clear the Senate, The New York Times reports. “Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah,
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, has released a section-by-section analysis of the spending deal House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) cut with Senate Budget Committee chairwoman Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA). “The
President Obama gave almost immediate approval to the budget deal negotiated by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), even as top Democrats expressed skepticism. In doing so, Obama breaks a promise he made to veterans and military
