Heidi Alexander: “if I could gain the attention of the Democratic leader for just a moment, before he leaves the floor. In a few moments…”

“if I could gain the attention of the Democratic leader for just a moment, before he leaves the floor. In a few moments, the Senator from Washington and I will make our opening statements on our proposed committee legislation to fix No Child Left Behind, but before we do that, I want to first express my appreciation to the majority leader for his putting it on the floor, bringing it up. I know the majority leader has a variety of other options, and he is giving us a chance to take our bill, which we will be describing in a few minutes, and put it on the floor. I also want to acknowledge and thank the Democratic leader because he has allowed the bill to come to the floor without delay so that we can move to the bill and allow Senators to begin to vote on it. We hope to begin having those votes tomorrow morning. We have a good example of cooperation here with the majority leader bringing the bill to the floor, a unanimous bill by the committee. Senator Murray, a member of the Democratic leadership, played a major role in the legislation. In fact, it was her advice that I took which caused us I think to have success in the committee by presenting a bipartisan bill. But I specifically want to thank Senator Reid for his attitude on the bill. I think that will create the environment in which we will have to frankly work through some contentious issues. This is not an issue-free piece of legislation. We are 7 years overdue.…”