Heidi Alexander: “the Senator from Washington and I are here to recommend to Members of the Senate that we vote yes on allowing the…”

“the Senator from Washington and I are here to recommend to Members of the Senate that we vote yes on allowing the majority leader and the minority leader to appoint conferees so our committee can continue its work on a bill to fix No Child Left Behind. The vote we are about to have is not a vote on the merits of the bill. The reason it is not a vote on the merits of the bill is because there is no bill. What we are asking for is the usually routine request to permit us to take our legislation, which passed the Senate 81 to 17, and to meet with Members of the House of Representatives, who passed a similar bill, and see whether we can come up with a bill that the conference would recommend to the House and the Senate to approve. When that occurs--and it could occur this week--then Senators would have at least a week to consider whether to vote for or against the bill. I emphasize to Senators and their staffs who may be watching that this is a routine request. This is the kind of request that the Senate should almost always approve, giving our leaders a chance to allow us to continue our committee work, especially given this bill. Newsweek magazine recently reminded us what everybody knows. Everybody knows this law needs to be fixed. We are 7 years overdue. The Senator from Washington and I spent an entire year working with our committee, which is as diverse as any committee in the Senate, to produce a result. The process allowed numerous amendments.…”