Lamar Alexander

Mr. ALEXANDER

Mr. ALEXANDER. Madam President, the five remaining votes will be 10- minute votes. I urge a ``no'' vote, No. 1, because this proposal is unconstitutional. You cannot start a tax increase in the Senate. It has to start in the House. No. 2, we already have three workforce programs that we created just last year: Jobs Corps, the youth bill, and dislocated workers. No. 3, it is a big tax increase. So because it is a big tax increase, because it is duplicative of existing programs, and because it is unconstitutional, I urge a ``no'' vote.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Madam President, if I could have the attention of Senators, we have four more votes before lunch. It is 11:40 a.m. What we would like to do is to have 10-minute votes. So if Senators will stay on the floor, we will have 10-minute votes or come as close to that as we can. Madam President, this is an interesting idea, but it belongs in the Higher Education Act, which we are about to take up in our committee, and here is why: It duplicates two existing Federal programs called Gear Up and TRIO. No. 2, we already have $30 billion of tax credits that we spend. This involves more tax credits. We already spend $30 billion. We should calculate the advantages of this program, along with the $100 billion of loans we make, the $35 billion of Pell grants we make, the $30 billion of tax credits we have, and see where it fits into that. The time to do that is in the next big bill we have from our committee, which is the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. I urge a ``no'' vote.

Mr. ALEXANDER. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Madam President, I would say through the Chair to the distinguished Senator from New York and the Senator from Illinois and the Republican Senators who are interested in this that the answer to Senator Schumer's question is yes, that my commitment is to work--to keep the Senate decision in conference.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Madam President, I urge a ``no'' vote because States may already do what the amendment says they can do in this new program. There is money in titles I, II, and IV to do that. All this does is take money away from existing programs and give it to a new program which States, if they choose, can already do. Second, we are approving today an almost identical program called Promised Neighborhoods which the Center for American Progress recommended Congress consolidate with the program this amendment would authorize and create. So we are creating two programs that do the same thing in the same day. In addition, the Education Department Secretary for the Obama administration said Promised Neighborhood in full-service community schools are much more similar than different. So we need to stop this business of doing well-intentioned programs. One well-intentioned program is enough. We don't need to create two that do the same thing. I urge a ``no'' vote.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Madam President, I urge a ``no'' vote. The amendment is unnecessary because the Federal Government already spends $22 billion on early childhood education through 45 programs. States spend money through the title I program on early childhood education. Our underlying bill has an important amendment on early childhood, fashioned by Senator Murray and Senator Isakson, to spend that money more effectively. This proposal has a familiar ring. It is like a Medicaid mandate, States would pay 40 percent. It is like a national school board, the Federal Government would define teacher salaries, class size, staff- child ratios, and professional development. It is a national school board for 4-year-olds. That is the reverse of what we want to do in this bill. Another familiar ring is it would be Common Core for kindergarten, so I urge a ``no'' vote.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, the details are still coming in, but earlier today, between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., there was a violent attack in Chattanooga, where Senator Corker was once mayor. Right now Federal, State, and local officials are responding in Tennessee. I am deeply disturbed by the reports. We understand that the shooting took place at the Naval Reserve Center in Chattanooga and that a police officer has been injured. We also understand that other individuals at the Naval Reserve Center may have been injured as well. Many local businesses, schools, and hospitals are locked down. I have been in touch with Federal, State, and local officials and will continue to monitor the situation closely. My thoughts and prayers are with all of those involved.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. ALEXANDER

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, the vote was 81 to 17. What that says to me and should say to the American people is that not only is there a consensus in this country that everybody wants to fix No Child Left Behind, that is the consensus we began with. Not only was there consensus in the Senate's education committee about how to fix it-- which was unanimous in a 22-member committee that includes Members who are about as diverse as you could find in the Senate--the entire Senate has a consensus on how to fix it. The Senator from Washington and I were just talking. This is a complicated piece of legislation. There are crocodiles in every corner, any of which could have made it difficult for this bill to succeed. For the Senate to take a look at the 100,000 schools in this country for the 50 million children and the 3.5 million teachers and say, ``We hear you. We know you want to end the confusion, the anxiety, and the feeling that you are not in charge of your own children. We hear you. We have listened to you, and we have come up with a solution with which you agree''--and that we voted by a vote of 81 to 17 is a remarkable event. So we have a remarkable consensus that No Child Left Behind needed to be fixed. We had a remarkable consensus on how to fix it in the committee. There are not many times on a bill this difficult and this encompassing that we have a consensus this remarkable--81 to 17--in the Senate. I mentioned in my earlier remarks the importance of the Senate in this way. Someone said the Senate is the one authentic piece of genius in the American political system. The only claim we would have to that exalted description would be that we are the only part of our government that is created for the express purpose of developing consensus. The House of Representatives is America's sounding board. The country moves suddenly, the House moves suddenly. Our job is to take all the different points of view and to consult with each other and to see whether we can create the kind of consensus so that when people look at the Senate and see a result, they may say: Well, I am not sure I agree with every single thing they did, but if 81 Senators of both parties--out of 100--believe this is the right way to fix No Child Left Behind, I will accept it. That is the way the civil rights bill was done in the 1960s and the 1970s. Large majorities--bipartisan groups--came to a complicated decision on a complex problem. The way you govern a complex country is by consensus, and the only agency in the government that is capable of creating that kind of consensus on a major piece of legislation is the United States Senate. It has done that today, and I am very proud of my colleagues for the way they have done this. I especially thank the majority leader for creating the time to deal with it. We took a little more than a week. We came on the floor a week ago Tuesday, so we didn't really take that long. We got on and off the floor pretty quick. I also thank him for creating an environment where we could adopt a lot of amendments. Senators are here to have their say whether or not we agree. People of North Dakota expect that. People of Texas expect that. Senator McConnell has created that environment. Senator Cornyn, Senator Thune, Senator Barrasso, and the other leaders on the Republican side have been an enormous help. I have during the week thanked the Democratic leader, Senator Reid. Senator Reid allowed this bill to come to the floor without delay. That helps a lot. During the week, he, Senator Schumer, Senator Durbin, and the other members of the Democratic leadership, along with Senator Murray, created the environment where we could do what we have accomplished--especially Senator Murray. I have often said that the reason we are here is because she suggested to me a way to go forward, a way to do this together. She did that after both of us watched the last two Congresses where we just fell apart in the partisan differences. I took her advice--it was good advice--and that is why we are where we are today. I deeply respect the way she works toward a result. She is deeply passionate on the things she cares about, but she knows we are here to get a result, and that means in this case we need to work with the House of Representatives, which we will begin to do in the next few weeks. Then we will produce a bill and send it to the President in a form he is comfortable signing. There are a number of Senators who, because we are able to offer amendments on the floor, withheld their amendment or stepped aside because what they were doing might have interfered with our result. I think of Senator Franken on an amendment he feels powerfully about. He stepped aside and didn't offer it in committee but waited until the floor. Senator Vitter stepped aside on an amendment he felt strongly about because he could bring it up in the Judiciary Committee. Senator Lee, Senator Toomey, and Senator Burr all did that. They showed some restraint in pursuit of a result. I thank those outside this Senate whose work was so important to us. There are a lot of remarkable things about this consensus, but none was more remarkable than what those outside of the Congress thought. It is rare that you see the National Governors Association, the Council of Chief State School Officers, the American Association of School Administrators, the National Education Association, and the American Federation of Teachers all agree that not only did No Child Left Behind need to be fixed but that this was the way to fix it, and that made it easier to get a vote of 81 to 17. Finally, all of us in the Senate know how important staff work is. In this case, staffs have worked for days and days, and the trust Senator Murray and I have developed is the same kind of trust they have developed. So I especially thank David Cleary, who is the staff director of the education committee, our HELP Committee, Peter Oppenheim, Lindsay Fryer, Lindsey Seidman, Liz Wolgemuth, Jim Jeffries, Margaret Atkinson, Bill Knudsen, Jordan Hynes, Steve Townsend, Hillary Knudson, Jake Baker, Kayla McMurray, Bobby McMillin, Matthew Stern, Diane Tran, Haley Hudler, Patrick Murray, and Allison Martin. On Senator Murray's exceptional staff, I thank Evan Schatz, Sarah Bolton, Mike Spahn, Amanda Beaumont, John Righter, Jake Cornet, Leanne Hotek, Allie Kimmel, Aissa Canchola, Ariel Evans, Aurora Steinle, Leslie Clithero, Sarah Cupp, Eli Zupnik, and Helen Hare. On the floor, I thank those who have the oil cans, Laura Dove and Robert Duncan, who keep this side greased and working, Gary Myrick on Senator Reid's side, Chris Tuck, Mary Elizabeth Taylor, Megan Mercer, Tony Hanagan, Mike Smith, and Chloe Barz. I would also like to thank the Senate Legislative Counsel's staff who worked long hours on the bill and then on the amendments, so I would like to especially thank Amy Gaynor, Kristin Romero, and Margaret Bomba. We always rely on the experts at the Congressional Research Service to give us good information in a timely manner, so on behalf of the Committee I extend our thanks to Becky Skinner, Jeff Kuenzi, Jody Feder, and Gail McCallion. On Senator McConnell's staff, I would like to thank Sharon Soderstrom, Don Stewart, Jen Kuskowski, Katelyn Conner, Erica Suares, John Abegg, Neil Chatterjee, and Johnathan Burks. On Senator Cornyn's staff, I thank Russ Thomasson, Monica Popp, Emily Kirlin, John Chapuis, and Michele Chin. I would also like to thank the following staff who played critical roles to help pass this important legislation. Dana Barbieri with the Republican Policy Committee: Meghan Taira and Veronica Duron with Senator Schumer; Dena Morris and Brad Middleton with Senator Durbin; Natasha Hickman and Chris Toppings with Senator Burr; Josh Yurek with Senator Roberts; Tara Shaw and Kristin Chapman with Senator Enzi; Natalie Burkhalter with Senator Paul; Bret Layson with Senator Isakson; Katie Neil and Bill Castle with Senator Hatch; Katie Brown with Senator Collins; Karen McCarthy with Senator Murkowski; Cade Clurman with Senator Kirk; Lizzy Simmons, Will Holloway, and Daniel Bunn with Senator Scott; Pam Davidson and Chris Gillott with Senator Cassidy; Josh Delaney and Julie Morgan with Senator Warren; David Cohen with Senator Sanders; Brenna Barber, and Chris Stavish with Senator Whitehouse; Michael DiNapoli and Brian Moulton with Senator Baldwin; Brent Palmer with Senator Mikulski; Jared Solomon and Joe Hill with Senator Casey; Boris Granovskiy and Gohar Sedighi with Senator Franken; Juliana Hermann with Senator Bennet; Russell Armstrong with Senator Murphy; Aisha Woodward with Senator King; David Cole with Senator McCain; Sharon Burd with Senator Fischer; Dana Richter with Senator Capito; Jordan Hess with the Republican Steering Committee; Christy Knese with Senator Lee; Devon Brenner and Constance Payne with Senator Cochran; Jennifer Bowman with Senator Inhofe; Crystal Martinez with Senator Feinstein; Nancy Richardson and Viraj Mirani with Senator Coats; Desiree Mowry with Senator Blunt; Moira Lenehan with Senator Reed; Mary Blanche Hankey with Senator Sessions; Jessica-Phillips Tyson with Senator Graham; Jane Lucas and Jon Abdnor with Senator Thune; Travis Johnson and Kate LaBorde with Senator Vitter; Daniel Auger with Senator Ayotte; Jennifer Humphrey and Toni-Marie Higgins with Senator Boozman; Mike Thomas with Senator Cardin; Robert Murray with Senator Wicker; Brian Perkins with Senator Moran; Shawn Affolter with Senator Hoeven; Emily Bouck with Senator Rubio; Sean Riley with Senator Johnson; James Mikolowsky and Ethan Saxon with Senator Blumenthal; Rachel Green with Senator Heller; Will Holloway and Daniel Bunn with Senator Scott; Sarah Towles with Senator Flake; Jonathan Elkin with Senator Hirono; Elizabeth Hill with Senator Heinrich; Jeff Murray, Andrew White, and Courtney Asbill with Senator Cruz; Clint Bowers with Senator Heitkamp; Chris Slevin and Ashley Eden with Senator Booker; Curtis Swager and Alison Toal with Senator Gardner; Katherine Mayne with Senator Lankford; John Martin with Senator Cotton; Dan Gerig with Senator Daines; John Eustice with Senator Perdue; Joe Nolan with Senator Tillis; Peter Eckrich with Senator Rounds; Tony Frye with Senator Ernst; Alyene Senger and Andy Reuss with Senator Sasse, and Kate Wolgemuth with Senator Sullivan. I also thank members of the education community for their persistent help with this bill, including Mary Kusler with the National Education Association; Tor Cowan with the American Federation of Teachers; Chris Minnich, Peter Zamora Carissa Moffat Miller, and Jessah Walker with the Council of Chief State School Officers. There are many others who have helped, but this is a day I am very proud of the Senate. For 50 million children, 3\1/2\ million teachers, and 100,000 public schools, it is a big step forward.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, will the Senator from Indiana yield for 60 seconds?

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I forgot to mention the number of amendments that were considered, and I would like to place that in the Record. In the committee, we adopted 29 amendments. On the floor, 178 amendments were filed, 78 were considered, and 65 amendments were adopted--10 of those through rollcall votes, 28 through voice votes, and 27 by unanimous consent through two managers' packages. Nearly 100 amendments were adopted to the bipartisan draft that Senator Murray and I presented to our education committee earlier this year. I think the fact so many Senators not only had a chance to have their say but had their ideas included in the bill--and I think especially of the Senator from Rhode Island who has worked for the last couple of years on a particular provision--was one important reason why we had a consensus that rose to 81 votes. I thank the Senator from Indiana for his courtesy.

Mr. ALEXANDER

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senator from Washington and I be permitted to speak for as much time as we require.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. ALEXANDER

Mr. ALEXANDER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that, notwithstanding rule XXII, there be 10 minutes of debate equally divided before the vote to invoke cloture on the Alexander-Murray substitute amendment.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, on behalf of Senator Murray from Washington and myself, I ask unanimous consent that at 3:15 p.m. today, the Senate vote on the following amendments in the order listed: Markey amendment No. 2176, 60-vote threshold; Heitkamp amendment No. 2171, 60- vote threshold; Kirk amendment No. 2161, 60-vote threshold; and Murphy amendment No. 2241, 60-vote threshold.

Mr. ALEXANDER. I further ask unanimous consent that the Wicker amendment No. 2144 be withdrawn.

Mr. ALEXANDER. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senator from Maine be allowed to speak for 5 minutes following my comments.

Mr. ALEXANDER

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Environment and Public Works be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 15, 2015, at 9:30 a.m., in room SD- 406 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, to conduct a hearing entitled ``Nomination hearing for Kristen Kulinowski to be a Member of the Chemical Safety Board and Greg Nadeau to be Administrator of the Federal Highways Administration.''

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 15, 2015, at 2:30 p.m., to conduct a hearing entitled ``Overview of U.S. Policy Towards Haiti Prior to the Elections.''

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 15, 2015, at 3:30 p.m., to conduct a hearing entitled ``Nominations.''

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 15, 2015, at 10 a.m. to conduct a hearing entitled ``Securing the Border: Understanding Threats and Strategies for the Maritime Border.''

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Indian Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 15, 2015, in room SD-628 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, at 2:15 p.m., to conduct a hearing entitled ``Juvenile Justice in Indian Country: Challenges and Promising Strategies.''

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Special Committee on Aging be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 15, 2015, at 2:15 p.m., in room SDG-50 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, to conduct a hearing entitled ``Diabetes Research: Improving Lives on the Path to a Cure.''