[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 109 (Tuesday, July 14, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Page S5090]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        EVERY CHILD ACHIEVES ACT

  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, we have had a good day on our 
legislation to fix No Child Left Behind. I thank the Senators for their 
cooperation. We have worked through most issues. I think it is 
important to note that in our committee consideration, we considered 58 
amendments and adopted 29. So far, we have considered 22 on the floor 
and adopted--well, we have adopted 22 on the floor.
  Senator Murray--the ranking member--and I have agreed to another 
couple of dozen amendments from both sides of the aisle; more of them 
are Democratic than Republican. We are prepared to recommend them to 
the Senate for adoption by unanimous consent. There are another two 
dozen amendments; more of them are Democratic than Republican, 
including several which are important to the Democratic side--the 
accountability amendment, for example; the early childhood amendment, 
for example--which I think deserve a vote. I don't support them, but I 
think they deserve a vote. We are prepared to recommend that the Senate 
consider them. If we were to do that, we could finish the bill.
  We have one remaining issue. It is an impasse over a formula funding 
question, which State gets more money from title I. That is always very 
difficult. The disputants are two of the most distinguished Members of 
the Senate. I am confident that they see the larger picture, which is 
that most Americans expect us to finish this bill and most Senators 
would expect us to be able to vote on the nearly 50 amendments that I 
just described.
  So my hope is that we can come to some agreement; that tomorrow 
morning even before the cloture vote is scheduled we announce that 
agreement and we proceed to adopt by unanimous consent the amendments 
that remain to be adopted and then we vote on the amendments that 
remain to be voted on, all of which would permit us to finish the bill 
on Thursday.
  So I thank Senators for that. I continue to ask for cooperation. I 
think an excellent example of that cooperation was the Senator from 
Minnesota, Mr. Franken, who withheld his amendment in committee and 
offered it on the floor in order to make sure the bill passed.

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