[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 11 (Tuesday, January 18, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H203-H205]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                SUPPLEMENTAL IMPACT AID FLEXIBILITY ACT

  Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and 
pass the bill (S. 2959) to provide that, due to the disruptions caused 
by COVID-19, applications for impact aid funding for fiscal year 2023 
may use certain data submitted in the fiscal year 2022 application.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                                S. 2959

       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 ``Supplemental Impact Aid 
     Flexibility Act''.

     SEC. 2. IMPACT AID PROGRAM.

       Due to the public health emergency directly relating to 
     COVID-19 and notwithstanding sections 7002(j) and 7003(c) of 
     the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 
     7702(j), 7703(c)), a local educational agency desiring to 
     receive a payment under section 7002 or 7003 of such Act (20 
     U.S.C. 7702, 7703) for fiscal year 2023 that also submitted 
     an application for such payment for fiscal year 2022 shall, 
     in the application submitted under section 7005 of such Act 
     (20 U.S.C. 7705) for fiscal year 2023--
       (1) with respect to a requested payment under section 7002 
     of such Act--
       (A) use the data described in section 7002(j) of such Act 
     relating to calculating such payment that was submitted by 
     the local educational agency in the application for fiscal 
     year 2022; or
       (B) use the data relating to calculating such payment for 
     the fiscal year required under section 7002(j) of such Act; 
     and
       (2) with respect to a requested payment under section 7003 
     of such Act--
       (A) use the student count data relating to calculating such 
     payment that was submitted by the local educational agency in 
     the application for fiscal year 2022, provided that payments 
     for fiscal year 2023 shall be calculated by the Secretary 
     using the expenditures and rates described in clauses (i), 
     (ii), (iii), and (iv) of section 7003(b)(1)(C) of such Act 
     that would otherwise apply for fiscal year 2023; or
       (B) use the student count data relating to calculating such 
     payment for the fiscal year required under section 7003(c) of 
     such Act.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Virginia (Mr. Scott) and the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Owens) each will 
control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Virginia.


                             General Leave

  Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their 
remarks and include extraneous material on S. 2959.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Virginia?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge Members to support the Supplemental 
Impact Aid Flexibility Act introduced by Senator Smith from Minnesota 
and Senator Thune from South Dakota. The companion bill was introduced 
by the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Courtney) and the gentleman from 
South Dakota (Mr. Johnson).
  It is difficult to overstate the importance of Impact Aid for our 
Nation's children. For over 70 years, this program has been critical to 
ensuring that schools that serve children connected to Federal lands 
have the resources to help their students thrive.
  Unlike most public schools in America, these schools do not receive 
funding from property taxes from these Federal assets. This means that 
without Impact Aid support, because they still have to educate the 
children attached to those assets, this means that without Impact Aid 
schools serving the children connected to military bases, affordable 
housing units, or Native Americans on reservations and many other 
institutions would be significantly shortchanged, and therefore, unable 
to offer high-quality education.
  The need for this program is now greater than ever as our school 
communities grapple with a resurgence of COVID-19.
  In response, Democrats and Republicans worked together in the last 
Congress led by, again, the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Courtney) 
and the gentleman from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson) to enact the Impact 
Aid Coronavirus Relief Act. That bill ensured that during the pandemic 
schools continued to have access to Impact Aid funding that accurately 
reflected their student populations, whether or not those students 
could accurately be counted as physically in those schools because of 
the complications created by the coronavirus pandemic.
  Today, we have the responsibility to, once again, join together in 
providing schools the support and flexibility they need to serve their 
students.
  The Supplemental Impact Aid Flexibility Act will go a long way toward 
ensuring that all students in this country, no matter where they go to 
school, will have access to high-quality education.
  I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I reserve the 
balance of my time.
  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 2959, the Supplemental 
Impact Aid Flexibility Act. This bill would allow school districts 
participating in the Impact Aid program to use previously reported 
student headcounts on their Impact Aid applications for the 2022-2023 
school year.
  Impact Aid supplements funding for schools and students in areas that 
collect less in local property taxes due to the Federal Government's 
presence. School districts that receive Impact Aid payments include 
those with military bases, Indian reservations, and Federal low-income 
housing in or near the school district.
  The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a big toll on school districts and 
communities across the country. It is especially difficult for 
federally impacted school districts to calculate headcounts due to 
fluctuations during the pandemic.
  Headcounts determine how much aid more than 1,000 federally impacted 
school districts receive. That aid helps pay for staff salaries, 
bussing, technology, and other educational supports and services for 
students. This bill ensures the Impact Aid recipients will not be 
affected negatively by the pandemic and temporary falling enrollment 
that have resulted. This frees up valuable time and resources to help 
students, while schools maintain a reliable source of funding as they 
address the academic, social, emotional, and safety needs of the 
students.
  This bill will have no impact on government spending because Impact 
Aid is a discretionary program, and its funding level is established 
through the annual appropriations process.
  The trade association for Impact Aid school districts, the National 
Association for Federally Impacted Schools, is strongly supportive of 
this bill.
  This bill is similar to the one signed into law by President Trump on 
December 4, 2020.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support S. 2959, and I reserve 
the balance of my time.
  Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may 
consume to the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Courtney), the sponsor 
of the House version of the bill.
  Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the bipartisan 
Impact Aid Flexibility Act, S. 2959, which is a companion bill to H. 
6126, which I introduced on December 2, 2021. I thank Chairman Scott 
and Ranking Member Foxx, and her representative this evening, Mr. 
Owens, of the Education and Labor Committee, and the committee staff 
for accelerating consideration of this important measure which provides 
Federal support to 11 million K-12 schoolchildren across America, and 
whose passage is very time sensitive, which I will explain in a minute.
  Mr. Speaker, Federal Impact Aid is our Nation's oldest K-12 Federal 
education program. Impact Aid has its origins in 1821 when Congress 
first authorized support for schools to educate military dependent 
children.
  In 1934, Congress passed the Johnson-O'Malley Act, which extended 
help to school districts located at federally recognized Tribal lands. 
Congress recognized that, like military school districts, kids residing 
on Native American Tribal lands, which were not subject to State or 
local taxation to fund schools, deserved assistance.

[[Page H204]]

  In 1950, President Harry Truman signed into law the statutory 
framework for Impact Aid which still stands today. Impact Aid is an 
important statement to communities that host children who reside in and 
are connected to Federal property and facilities, namely, that the 
Nation will not force them to bear an unfair disproportionate cost to 
public education.
  Mr. Speaker, I am proud to represent a district with two of those 
host communities, Groton and Ledyard, Connecticut. Groton is the home 
to our Nation's oldest Navy submarine base with approximately 9,000 
sailors and officers who work every day to protect our Nation. Ledyard 
is the town next door where many personnel live. Groton has over 1,000 
Navy kids, and Ledyard has 850. Ledyard is also the site of the 
Mashantucket Tribal Nation, many of whose children attend Ledyard 
schools. Impact Aid is critical to these towns' school budgets.
  The bill before us addresses an urgent logistical problem with Impact 
Aid, that, unless we act, will harm military and Tribal districts all 
across the country, namely, the obstacle created by COVID, to get an 
accurate headcount of eligible students that must be filed with the 
U.S. Department of Education by January 31, 12 days from now. And that, 
again, is the time-sensitive urgency this evening. Military and Tribal 
districts across the country have reported that COVID restrictions have 
slowed down the paperwork process, and this hindrance will result in an 
undercount, and thus, an artificially low Federal reimbursement.
  The Impact Aid Flexibility Act will solve this problem in an elegant 
way by simply carrying over last year's student census, thus ensuring 
no Impact Aid district will be harmed financially. This is a 1-year 
fix, the same as the fix the last Congress passed in December 2020, the 
Impact Aid Coronavirus Relief Act, which I sponsored with my Republican 
colleague, Dusty Johnson of South Dakota.
  Mr. Speaker, this vote is being watched nervously by school officials 
and military staff all across the Nation, such as Groton school 
superintendent, Susan Austin, Ledyard superintendent, Jason Hartling, 
and Miranda Chapman, the Navy School liaison officer at the Groton 
SUBASE, New London, who have worked with the National Association of 
Federally Impacted Schools, and I salute them and all their colleagues 
across the country for their work raising this issue before Congress.
  The bill before us has already passed the U.S. Senate unanimously and 
has the support of the Biden administration. It is a bill that keeps 
the promise to host communities that a high-quality education will not 
be denied because of military service or Tribal recognition.
  I urge the House to pass this bill tonight with an overwhelming vote 
of confidence and thanks for those who wear the uniform of this country 
and our Tribal nations and their families.
  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. Allen).
  Mr. ALLEN. Mr. Speaker, the Impact Aid program represents the Federal 
Government's promise to provide school districts with additional 
assistance when property taxes are lower because of the presence of 
military, Federal, or Tribal lands.
  Every year, affected school districts take count of the federally 
connected students through a take-home survey.
  This headcount determines the district's Impact Aid reimbursement, 
which can help pay for teacher salaries, technology, and student 
support services.
  Throughout the pandemic, school systems across the Nation have worked 
through many challenges to continue serving students. Conducting these 
Impact Aid surveys have been no different.
  That is why the Supplemental Impact Aid Flexibility Act will allow 
school districts to reuse their FY22 student counts and property tax 
data when submitting their upcoming FY23 applications at the end of 
January.
  This additional reporting flexibility will be helpful to many of the 
1,100 federally impacted school districts, including Richmond County 
schools in my district, which serves the great community of Fort Gordon 
and our great base there, a U.S. Army installation.
  I am proud to support the Supplemental Impact Aid Flexibility Act. I 
believe that it will provide much-needed assurance for school systems.
  Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from South 
Carolina (Mr. Wilson).
  Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Owens for 
yielding and for his leadership on this issue.

  I rise today in support of the Supplemental Impact Aid Flexibility 
Act. The pandemic has had a dramatic impact on our school systems and 
the way students are learning, both in and out of the classroom. Many 
parents have made the decision to homeschool their children due to 
uncertainty around vaccine and mask mandates in schools. With many 
resources of local educational agencies dedicated to fighting the 
pandemic, it has also become a burden on them to maintain an accurate 
count of federally connected students.
  I am grateful for the bipartisan leadership today of Chairman Scott 
and Ranking Member Foxx, who support this legislation. This bill takes 
proactive measures to ensuring that teachers and students are 
adequately supported when returning to the classroom. By allowing local 
educational agencies to use the same number of federally connected 
students that they enrolled on their fiscal year '22 applications as 
they do fiscal year '23 applications, we can allow them to focus on 
recovering from the pandemic and serve the children of our United 
States servicemembers adequately.
  As a representative of Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina, and 
also nearby Fort Jackson in Georgia, ably represented by Congressman 
Rick Allen, we have multiple beneficiaries of Impact Aid funding. I am 
grateful to support this legislation and encourage my colleagues to do 
the same.
  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
  The Supplemental Impact Aid Flexibility Act ensures that students and 
schools relying on Impact Aid will not be affected negatively by the 
pandemic.
  Specifically, the bill allows schools to use their previously 
reported headcounts so that services students rely on will continue. 
This frees up administrators to use their valuable time and resources 
addressing the educational needs of the students.
  Students in over 1,000 federally impacted districts deserve the 
resources they receive from the Impact Aid program. This aid helps pay 
for a wide range of services that students rely on from bussing and 
technology to educational support services.
  I encourage my colleagues to support S. 2959, and I yield back the 
balance of my time.

                              {time}  1800

  Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my 
time.
  Mr. Speaker, over the last 2 years, Congress has taken historic steps 
to help schools recover from the pandemic because we know that every 
school and every student and every family has felt the tragic effects 
of COVID-19.
  However, we cannot fully achieve that goal if we fail to address the 
unique challenges facing schools that serve students connected with 
military bases, affordable housing, Native American reservations, and 
other Federal properties.
  Last Congress, Democrats and Republicans came together and, as a 
Nation, tackled the first strain of COVID-19. We came together to 
address these challenges and to provide urgent support for Impact Aid 
schools.
  Now, as we confront a new COVID threat, we must provide the support 
that federally connected children need under the Federal Impact Aid 
program. By providing the support and flexibility in this legislation, 
we will help ensure that Impact Aid schools can keep their teachers and 
staff on the payroll, purchase textbooks and learning supplies, and 
keep the lights on in their classrooms. And this bill will help ensure 
that hundreds of thousands of students have access to a quality 
education.
  Again, I thank the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Smith) and the Senator 
from South Dakota (Mr. Thune), as well as, in the House, the gentleman 
from Connecticut (Mr. Courtney) and

[[Page H205]]

the gentleman from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson) for sponsoring the 
legislation; and the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Owens) and the committee 
ranking member, Ms. Foxx, as well as the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. 
Allen) and the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Wilson), for their 
help in advancing this bill.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the Supplemental Impact 
Aid Flexibility Act, and I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott) that the House suspend the rules 
and pass the bill, S. 2959.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds 
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
  Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and 
nays.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to section 3(s) of House Resolution 
8, the yeas and nays are ordered.
  Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further proceedings on this motion 
are postponed.

                          ____________________