[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Page 11564]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        EVERY CHILD ACHIEVES ACT

  Mr. McCONNELL. Finally, Mr. President, turning to the business 
currently before the Senate, the bipartisan education debate we are 
having in the new Senate is good for our country and it was long 
overdue.
  For too long, bureaucrats in Washington tried to dictate top-down, 
one-size-fits-all education policies to millions of students and 
families across our country. It was hurting our kids, and it needed to 
change. So a new Senate that is back to work for the American people 
decided to work together to do something about it. We thought it was 
past time to place more education decisionmaking power where it truly 
belongs--with parents, with teachers, with States, and with school 
boards, not with a distant Federal bureaucracy.
  The pundits said Washington could never address these challenges, but 
the bipartisan Every Child Achieves Act actually received unanimous 
support from every Democrat and every Republican in committee. Just 
think about that for a moment. It is an impressive achievement, and it 
wouldn't have been possible without a functioning Senate and a lot of 
dedication and determination from the bill's primary sponsors, the 
Republican Senator from Tennessee and the Democratic Senator from 
Washington.
  This debate may be years overdue, but Republicans and Democrats are 
certainly having their voices heard today. They are working across the 
aisle, they are representing the views of their constituents, and they 
are offering amendments. The new Senate has processed over two dozen 
amendments to this bill already, and we have adopted quite a few of 
them. In fact, we have now taken more rollcall amendment votes this 
year in the new Congress than throughout the entirety of the last 
Congress combined. That is an achievement both parties can celebrate. 
It represents progress for our country. And this afternoon we have a 
chance to make more because, with cooperation from our friends across 
the aisle, we can continue to advance the Every Child Achieves Act 
later today and set up final passage soon. That would mean another 
bipartisan achievement for our country and a long-overdue win for our 
kids.

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