[Congressional Bills 117th Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] [S. 4854 Introduced in Senate (IS)] <DOC> 117th CONGRESS 2d Session S. 4854 To amend title 36, United States Code, to repeal the Federal charter of the National Education Association. _______________________________________________________________________ IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES September 14, 2022 Mrs. Blackburn (for herself and Ms. Lummis) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary _______________________________________________________________________ A BILL To amend title 36, United States Code, to repeal the Federal charter of the National Education Association. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ``National Education Association Charter Repeal Act''. SEC. 2. FINDINGS. (1) The National Education Association (referred to in this section as the ``NEA'') was chartered in 1906 by an Act of Congress for the purpose ``to elevate the character and advance the interests of the profession of teaching; and to promote the cause of education in the United States'' and remains the only labor union that has a Federal charter. (2) The NEA is expected to uphold the honor and legitimacy that a Federal charter grants to an organization. (3) The NEA can no longer be considered a public service worthy of its Federal charter as it has drifted substantially from its core mission and has become a massive political operation dedicated to imposing a radical progressive agenda on schools in the United States. (4) The NEA and its political agenda are often at cross- purposes with parents, teachers, and students, and the NEA no longer primarily serves the purposes of advancing the profession of teaching or promoting the cause of education in the United States. (5) According to disclosures made to the Department of Labor's Office of Labor-Management Standards, from September 2019 through August 2021, the NEA spent over $116,700,000 on political activities and lobbying, and in the 2020 election cycle, 95.7 percent of the candidate campaign contributions made by the NEA went to candidates in the Democratic party. (6) In July 2021, the NEA adopted measures to support critical race theory, calling it reasonable and appropriate, and to spend $56,500 on researching and shaming organizations that are fighting the inclusion of critical race theory in schools. (7) In December 2021, NEA board member Mollie Page Mumau published a social media post calling for the death of individuals who decide not to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. (8) In July 2022, the NEA adopted measures to spend $140,000 to create an enemies list of parents and groups that disagree with teaching gender identity and sexual orientation in classrooms. (9) The NEA and other teacher unions stood in the way of reopening schools in 2020 and 2021 by threatening strikes, lobbying to keep schools closed, and influencing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to make it harder for schools to reopen. (10) In August 2022, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) conducted a special administration of the National Assessment of Education Progress long-term trend reading and mathematics assessments for age 9 students to examine student achievement during the COVID-19 pandemic. The NCES reported the largest average score decline in reading since 1990, and the first ever score decline in mathematics. SEC. 3. REPEAL OF NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION CHARTER. (a) In General.--Chapter 1511 of title 36, United States Code, is repealed. (b) Table of Chapters.--The table of chapters at the beginning of part B of subtitle II of title 36, United States Code, is amended by striking the item relating to chapter 1511. <all>