THE DAILY WHIP: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2015

H.Res. 129 – Rule Providing for Consideration ofH.J. Res. 35– Making further continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2015, and for other purposes(Rep. Rogers (KY) – Appropriations) (One Hour of Debate). The Rules committee has recommended a closed Rule that provides for one hour of general debate equally divided between the Chair and Ranking Member of the Committee on Appropriations. The Rule allows one motion to recommit, and waives all points of order against the legislation.

Despite repeated promises from the GOP Majority of openness, this closed Rule bill was introduced late last night and considered under emergency procedures at the Rules Committee. It is now being rushed to the Floor in violation of the Republican’s 3-day Rule, less than 18 hours after it was posted and made available to Members. Members are urged to VOTE NO.

H.J. Res. 35– Making further continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2015, and for other purposes(Rep. Rogers (KY) – Appropriations) (One Hour of Debate). This continuing resolution would fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through March 19, 2015.

This measure is not a solution to the problem of funding DHS for the entire fiscal year and will only heighten the uncertainty faced by the Department.  Moreover, it would deprive DHS of the resources it needs to protect the nation’s borders, ports, and airways, a fact that DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson and Deputy Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas have stressed repeatedly during this manufactured crisis. Just last night, Secretary Johnson sent a letter to Congressional Leaders, stating that “…as I have noted many times, mere extension of a continuing resolution has many of the same negative impacts. A short-term continuing resolution exacerbates the uncertainty for my workforce and puts us back in the same position, on the brink of a shutdown just days from now.”

This morning, the Senate is expected to pass a “clean” bill that funds DHS for the remainder of FY2015 – and includes no poison-pill amendments that target the President’s executive actions to address our broken immigration system.  That is what the House should be passing - not this short-term CR. Opposing the short-term CR makes clear that governing crisis-to-crisis, especially when it risks the our national security and the safety of Americans, is unacceptable. 

If House Republicans are serious about protecting our borders and citizens, they will stop playing political games and allow for an up or down vote on the clean, Senate-passed DHS funding bill. Members are urged to VOTE NO.

Bill Text for H.J.Res. 35:
PDF Version

Complete Consideration ofH.R. 5– Elementary and Secondary Education Reauthorization Act (Rep. Kline – Education and the Workforce) (One Hour of Debate). This bill reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) for fiscal years 2016 through 2021, followed by an automatic reauthorization through FY2022. It authorizes $116.5 billion in funding through FY2021 for ESEA programs, flat funding these programs at $23.3 billion per year, the FY2015 appropriated level, without allowing room for even inflationary adjustments despite a combined projected 14% decrease in purchasing power due to inflation and 3.2 million student enrollment increase before 2021.

The bill makes several detrimental funding changes to programs in ESEA. It combines the funding for all programs and subgroups included in Title I (Improving the Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged) of ESEA into a block grant called Local Academic Flex Grants. States and local districts are allowed to use these grants for any activity authorized under Title I at any school that receives Title I funds. The bill requires that 10% of the Local Academic Flex Grants be used for private sector schools. The bill also eliminates the poverty threshold requirement of current law, which states that if the percentage of students living in poverty in a particular school is less than 40, Title I funds must be spent on programs targeting those low-income students specifically. Further, it includes a portability of Title I funds provision that will divert and dilute limited funds from high-need schools or districts with a high concentration of poverty. These three changes would have the effect of allowing funds to be diverted away from schools with the highest poverty and allows districts to send less money to low-income schools and more money to wealthier schools. Lastly, H.R. 5 block-grants all funding for special populations such as English learners, migrant students, Native students, and at-risk students, and allows those funds to be spent outside of those populations.

The bill eliminates supports for teachers and eliminates collective bargaining protections in current law. H.R. 5 repeals the highly-qualified teacher requirement (under current law, in order to be deemed a highly qualified teacher, public school teachers must hold at least a bachelor's degree, have obtained full state certification or have passed the state teacher licensing examination, and hold a license to teach), as well as the requirement that qualified teachers be equitably distributed so that some areas are not disproportionately served by unqualified teachers. This allows funding for teacher supports to be shifted away from the poorest schools to wealthier ones. It also eliminates the requirement to ensure quality professional development for teachers, only assessing them for hiring or firing, and eliminates dedicated funding for this purpose.

The bill also weakens protections for students with disabilities and fails to ensure that all children receive quality education. H.R. 5 eliminates the 1% cap for the number of students allowed to be assessed under alternative standards. This would permit all students with disabilities to be held to lower standards and given different assessments, effectively allowing those students to be educated in a lesser system. Further, it removes limits on the numbers of students who can be diverted into this alternate system, creating a perverse incentive to over-identify children for special education as a way to improve the average performance score of those students who remain in the regular assessment system. Finally, the bill removes graduation rates as an accountability measure, again creating a perverse incentive to encourage lower performing students to drop out.

Instead of improving standards and accountability to ensure that students are college or career ready, H.R. 5 removes accountability provisions that ensure all students receive a quality education. The bill allows states to weaken standards, weaken the assessment process, and institute weak accountability systems that would not require performance targets for student achievement, specific actions to improve low performance, or consequences if schools do not improve. Lastly, the White House has issued a SAP stating that the President’s senior advisors would recommend that he veto this bill. 

There is no question that the Elementary and Secondary Education Act is overdue for an update. However, instead of fixing the problems and improving quality and testing provisions, H.R. 5 would provide inadequate funding and move backward on equity and accountability, harming the education of our nation’s children. Members are urged to VOTE NO.

As of last night, the House had completed debate on amendments through the Polis/Meng amendment (#41). There are 3 amendments remaining to debate, each debatable for 10 minutes equally divided between the offeror and an opponent, except for an amendment in the nature of a substitute offered by Mr. Scott of Virginia, which is debatable for 20 minutes equally divided between the offeror and an opponent.

The following amendments had recorded votes pending as of last night:

• Zeldin Amendment #30
• Hurd Amendment #31
• Grayson Amendment #32
• Wilson Amendment #33
• Carson Amendment #35
• Brownley Amendment #38
• Loebsack Amendment #40
• Polis/Meng Amendment #41

A full list of the 44 amendments made in order can be found HERE.

Bill Text for H.R. 5:
PDF Version

Background for H.R. 5:
House Report (HTML Version)
House Report (PDF Version)
CRS Report: ESEA Reauthorization Proposals in the 114^th Congress: Selected Key Issues

Motion to go to Conference on H.R. 240– Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2015 and Democratic Motion to Instruct Conferees. Members are urged to VOTE NO.