The federal government should not dictate state and local spending decisions as a condition of receiving federal funds.

Energy development in Indian Country is a top priority for me.

Unlike the administration's plan to offer temporary waivers that keep schools tied to a failing law, the proposals before us today take a step closer to enacting lasting education reforms that will raise the bar for student achievement and…

The provisions included in the Student Success Act and the Encouraging Innovation and Effective Teachers Act reflect the input we have received from parents, teachers, principals, superintendents, and others in the education community.

Clean energy development is a powerful tool to create jobs and foster economic development.

There is no doubt that clean energy development is a powerful tool to create jobs.

What are the obstacles there? What is that like? Why does everything have to work that way? Why does everything have to be so slow?

reauthorization is crucial to providing the nation's schools with relief from current law, which is both broken and lacking in the flexibility states and local school districts need to support student learning and achievement.

We urgently need Congress to reauthorize the ESEA law because for the past 10 years American schools have lived under a law that I have referred to as--it reminds me of the old Clint Eastwood movie, 'The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,'…

Again, I want to thank Chairman Kline for these proposals to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, what today we refer to as No Child Left Behind.

The stakes couldn't be higher.

Thankfully, states have not waited for the federal government to act on ESEA and we have acted on our own to advance meaningful, state-driven levels of high accountability.

I would remind the ranking member that the expressed reason given by S&P was the dysfunction of some in Congress who seemed willing to threaten to go into default.

Why should we have to go through all that effort, time and expense just to be able to act like an actual state?

Reauthorization is crucial to providing the nation's schools with relief from current law, which is both broken and lacking in flexibility states and local school districts need to support student learning and achievement.

I think that we need to invest in energy. I think we need to invest in energy of the future.

Accountability measures must be transparent, fair, and use multiple measures of evidence of growth.

For 40 or 50 years we have been doing things in a very similar way.