Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise in support of the Every Child Succeeds Act. Today will be a great day for the Senate because we will actually pass a bill that is a result of a bipartisan effort led by two very able and dedicated leaders, Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Patty Murray. They have done an outstanding job in guiding the committee and encouraging open debate with extensive hearings, consultation with Members, and committee markups that were long, hard, and sometimes quite feisty to say the least. That is the way the Congress ought to be, and I thank them. I think their dedication showed that in the Senate--we acknowledge the work of Chairman Kline and Ranking Member Scott in the House, but here, we were led by two educators: Senator Alexander, the former president of a university and former Secretary of Education and Senator Murray, a teacher herself, who has taught us many lessons in our caucus on how to do the right job in the right way. Today we come with the rewrite of a bill that started 50 years ago, when Lyndon Johnson wanted to have a war on poverty and passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. It was the first time the Federal Government was going to be involved in education and wanted to be sure there were Federal resources to help lift children out of poverty.…”