Political Quotes

“I thank Chairman Rokita, and I rise in strong support of the legislation on the floor today. This bill, if passed by the House and Senate and signed by the President, will go a long way toward protecting students in our Nation's schools. I thank the ranking member, Mr. Miller, for bringing this bill up today and for bringing to light an issue that is compromising student safety throughout our country. H.R. 2083, the Protecting Students from Sexual and Violent Predators Act of 2013, will ensure consistent and comprehensive school employee background checks in all States. The bill also includes language from a bill that I introduced, the Jeremy Bell Act. This piece of the larger bill blocks Federal funding to schools that knowingly hire or transfer teachers involved in sexual misconduct. The Jeremy Bell Act is named after a 12-year-old West Virginia elementary school student who was sexually abused and murdered by his principal, a man that had a long record of sexual misconduct, but who was allowed to transfer and leave schools without punishment and without informing new districts. In a 2010 Government Accountability Office investigations report, it was found that inconsistent State laws regarding background checks facilitated the hiring and transferring of sexual predators in our schools. If, by cutting off funds to schools that knowingly ``pass the trash,'' we can save one student from Jeremy's fate, then this bill has succeeded.…”