Congressional Record—Senate S417
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January 22, 2015 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S417 departure from the standard laws, and HOEVEN, ENZI, and FISCHER for joining There will be more in labor, pensions, edu- consequent bureaucracy, applicable to me in cosponsoring this bipartisan bill. cation, health but those are major priorities tribal contracts. I urge my colleagues to join me in ad- and that is how we start. That law was a step in the right di- vancing this bill expeditiously. The president has also made major pro- rection. However, these agreements posals on early childhood education and f community college. These are certainly rel- have not been utilized to the extent evant to K–12, but we’ve always dealt with that they could be, primarily because IT’S TIME TO FIX NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND them separately. It’s difficult for me to see the implementation of the act has been how we make these issues part of this reau- made more complex than it should be. Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I thorization. It is past time we make key improve- ask unanimous consent that a copy of Now to today’s hearing: Last week Sec- ments to the law so that Indian tribes my remarks at yesterday’s Senate retary Duncan called for law to be fixed. Al- can take advantage of these agree- Health, Education, Labor and Pensions most everyone seems to agree with that—it’s ments and significantly reduce bureau- Committee hearing be printed in the more than 7 years overdue. cratic burdens to energy development. We’ve been working on it for more than 6 RECORD. years. When we started, former Rep. George Years of consultation and outreach to There being no objection, the mate- Miller said, Pass a lean bill to fix No Child Indian tribes have produced targeted rial was ordered to be printed in the Left Behind, and we identified a small num- solutions to address the concerns about RECORD, as follows: ber of problems. the process for entering these agree- IT’S TIME TO FIX NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND Since then, we’ve had 24 hearings, and in ments. The bill that I am introducing Since this is the first hearing of the com- each of the last two Congresses we’ve re- today would streamline the process for mittee in this 114th Congress, I have some ported bills out of committee. approving the tribal energy resource preliminary remarks. Senators should know issues by now, 20 of agreements and make it more predict- This committee touches almost every 22 were here in the last congress, 16 of 22 were here in the previous congress. able for Indian tribes. American. No committee is more ideologically diverse One reason it needs to be fixed is that I would like to highlight some of the NCLB has become unworkable. key provisions in this bill. This bill in- and none is more productive. In the last Con- gress, 25 bills passed out of this committee Under its original provisions, almost all of cludes a number of amendments to im- became laws. America’s 100,000 public schools would be la- prove the review and approval process That’s because we worked with Chairman beled a ‘‘failing school.’’ for the tribal energy resource agree- Harkin on areas of agreement. To avoid this unintended result, the U. S. ments. For example, the bill provides I look forward to working in the same way Secretary of Education has granted waivers clarity regarding the specific informa- with Ranking Member Murray in this Con- from the law’s provisions to 43 states—in- tion required for tribal applications for gress. She is direct, well-respected, she cares cluding Washington, which has since had its about people and is results-oriented. waiver revoked—as well as the District of these agreements. We are going to have an open process, Columbia and Puerto Rico. In addition, the bill sets forth spe- which means we’re going to have a full op- This has created a second unintended re- cific time frames for Secretarial deter- portunity for discussion and for amend- sult, at least unintended by Congress, which minations on the agreement applica- ments. Not just in the committee, but on the stated in law that no federal official should tions. Moreover, if an application is floor. In the last two congresses, we reported ‘‘exercise any direction, supervision or con- disapproved, this bill would require the a bill, but it didn’t make it to the floor. trol over curriculum, program or instruction Secretary of the Interior to provide de- This congress, we hope to have a bipartisan or administration of any educational institu- tailed explanations to the Indian tribe bill coming out of committee—but even if we tion.’’ and steps for addressing the reasons for don’t, the bill will go to the floor and it will Nevertheless, in exchange for the waivers, have to get 60 votes on the floor, 60 votes to the Secretary has told states what their aca- disapproval. go to conference, 60 votes to get out of con- demic standards should be, how states should The bill has various provisions that ference, and then the president will have his measure the progress of students toward would improve technical assistance and say. We hope to get his signature and get a those standards, what constitutes failure for consultation with Indian tribes during result. schools and what the consequences of failure their energy planning and development Next, the schedule: are, how to fix low-performing schools, and stages. It also includes an amendment Let me start with some unfinished busi- how to evaluate teachers. The Department to the Federal Power Act that would ness: has become, in effect, a national school put Indian tribes on a similar footing Fixing NCLB: This is way overdue, it ex- board. Or, as one teacher told me, it has be- pired more than 7 years ago. We posted a with States and municipalities for come a national Human Resources Depart- working draft on the website last week, al- ment for 100,000 public schools. preferences when preliminary permits ready feedback is coming in—not just from At the center of the debate about how to or original licenses for hydroelectric Congress but from around the country. We fix No Child Left Behind is what to do about projects are issued. have several more weeks of hearings and the federal requirement that states annually Additionally, this bill would allow meetings. We hope to have a bill ready for administer 17 standardized tests with high- Indian tribes and third parties to per- floor by end of February. The House expects stakes consequences. Educators call this an form appraisals to help expedite the to have its bill on the floor by the end of accountability system. Secretary’s approval process for tribal February. Are there too many tests? Are they the agreements for mineral resource devel- Reauthorizing the Higher Education Act: right tests? Are the stakes for failing them This is, for me, about deregulating higher too high? What should Washington, D.C. opment. education making rules simpler and more ef- My bill does not focus on only tradi- have to do with all this? fective. Also, finishing the work we did on Many states and school districts require tional resource development, but in- student loans in the last congress. Our first schools to administer additional tests. cludes renewal resource development hearing on the deregulation task force This is called a hearing for a reason. I have components as well. For example, the formed by Senators Mikulski, Burr, and Ben- come to listen. bill would create tribal biomass dem- net and me is on Tuesday, February 24. The Chairman’s staff discussion draft I onstration projects to provide Indian As rapidly and responsibly as we can, we have circulated includes two options on test- tribes with more reliable and poten- want to repair the damage of Obamacare and ing: tially long-term supplies of woody bio- provide more Americans with health insur- Option 1 gives flexibility to the states to ance that fits their budgets. Our first hear- decide what to do on testing. mass materials. ing is tomorrow on the 30 to 40 hour work- Option 2 maintains current law testing re- This bill is intended to provide In- week—the bill introduced by Senators Col- quirements. dian tribes with the tools to develop lins, Donnelly, Murkowski and Manchin. We Both options would continue to require an- and use energy more efficiently. In will report our opinions to the Finance com- nual reporting of student achievement, passing this bill, Congress will enhance mittee. disaggregated by subgroups of children. the ability of Indian tribes to exercise Then, some new business: Washington sometimes forgets—but gov- self-determination over the develop- Let’s call it 21st Century Cures—that’s ernors never do—that the federal govern- ment of energy resources located on what the House calls it, as it finishes its ment has limited involvement in elementary work this spring. The president is also inter- and secondary education, contributing only tribal lands, thereby improving the ested. What we’re talking about is getting to 10 percent of the money that public schools lives and economic well-being of Native market more rapidly, while still safe, medi- receive. Americans. cines, treatments and medical devices. There For 30 years the real action has been in the Before I conclude, I would like to is a lot of interest in this and we’ll start states. thank Senators TESTER, MCCAIN, staff working groups soon.