On the recordFebruary 25, 2015
I hate to throw cold water on the last colloquy, but I think it is important to note as we debate this bill, which never had the benefit of a public hearing or a single subcommittee hearing, is that the Federal mandate for annual testing does not change as a result of this law. What does change regarding that testing requirement is that the dedicated funding stream, which Congress at least had the decency to pass back in 2002, that is eliminated. What you are doing is you are maintaining a mandate and you are eliminating the funding to pay for that mandate for testing. What we are ending up with, for all the talk about reducing the Federal footprint, is that we are doubling down on the Federal requirement that States have to have annual testing in schools, which every Member in this Chamber has heard about in loud protest over the last 13 years. What this shows is that when the process is broken--and it was broken in this case, no committee-subcommittee meetings, no hearings, rushing it to the floor on a hyperpartisan basis, not one single Democratic amendment was accepted at the committee during markup, that is what you end up with, is a deformed bill, which should be defeated. I urge in the strongest terms possible a ``no'' vote. Let's go back and do this the right way.
