Washington Digest: Congress completes No Child Left Behind overhaul
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate last week easily gave final legislative approval and President Barack Obama signed into law a long-awaited education bill that overhauls the much-maligned No Child Left Behind Act.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, did not hold back when describing the new law in historic terms.
"We are unleashing a new era of innovation and excellence in student achievement — one that recognizes that the path to higher standards, better teaching and real accountability is classroom by classroom, community by community and state by state — and not through Washington, D.C.," Alexander said.
Alexander described the law as an eagerly awaited Christmas present for 50 million schoolchildren and 3.4 million teachers in 100,000 public schools across America.
Kicking that up a notch, Obama called the law a "Christmas miracle" at a White House bill-signing ceremony, noting the decadelong effort that led to the rare bipartisan vote to revise the national education law.
He noted that while No Child Left Behind included the goals of high standards, accountability and closing the achievement gap, it fell short.
According to a congressional summary, key provisions of the new law replace the one-size-fits-all "adequate yearly progress" system with a state-designed system to help identify and support struggling schools. It bars the federal government from interfering with local decisions on accountability, maintains assessments in reading, math and science, but offers states more flexibility and recognizes the need to reduce unnecessary testing.
For some, the new law does not go far enough in returning authority over education back to local and state officials.
"A one-size-fits all approach handed down by Washington has proven ineffective," Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said in explaining his opposition.
Blunt said the new law should do more in reforming or eliminating programs that are not working and rolling back flawed testing mandates.
He also took issue with the rapid growth in spending the new law will allow.
The bill passed 85-12 in the Senate.
Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Dean Heller, R-Nev., voted for the measure.
Visa waivers
The House passed a security bill to beef up the nation's visa waiver program that is used to promote travel and tourism. The action followed recent terrorist attacks in the U.S. and abroad.
Dating back to the 1980s, that program allows foreign visitors from 38 nations to enter the U.S. with only passports but no visas. They can stay for 90 days.
Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., the measure's sponsor, said its key provisions would strengthen requirements for intelligence sharing by giving the secretary of Homeland Security the authority to suspend or terminate a foreign country's participation if concerns are triggered about that sharing.
Anyone who has visited Syria, Iraq, Iran or the Sudan automatically would be disqualified from the program and would have to undergo additional screening before entering the U.S., Miller said.
Opponents expressed concern the measure discriminates by country of origin instead of behavior and could lead to retaliatory measures against American tourists by foreign nations.
The bill passed 407-19.
Reps. Dina Titus, D-Nev., and Cresent Hardy, Joe Heck and Mark Amodei, all R-Nev., voted for it.
Trade enforcement
The House approved a bill to strengthen customs enforcement, including the prevention of counterfeit goods from entering the U.S. and facilitating legitimate movement of trade and travel.
Opponents criticized a provision to block efforts to address greenhouse emissions and noted approval of the bill came as climate change talks continued in Paris.
The bill passed, 256-158.
Titus voted against the bill while Hardy, Heck and Amodei supported it.
Both chambers also approved by voice vote a stopgap measure to fund the government until Wednesday to give key lawmakers more time to work out differences on a fiscal year 2016 spending bill and a tax proposal.
Contact Jim Myers at jmyers@reviewjournal.com or 202-783-1760. Find him on Twitter: @myers_dc.
