Orrin Hatch: “I wish to engage in a colloquy with the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Senator…”

“I wish to engage in a colloquy with the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Senator Alexander, to clarify questions that have arisen since S. 1177 was introduced. Under the Every Student Succeeds Act, pursuant to section 1201, we authorized Federal funding to provide grant opportunities for States to administer academic assessments and to carry out activities that ensure ``the continued validity and reliability of state assessments.'' Furthermore, under the same provision, we authorized funds to allow States to collaborate with organizations to provide services that will ``improve the quality, reliability, validity, and reliability of State academic assessments.'' I ask the chairman, is it your understanding that the references in section 1201 to activities and services that ensure and improve the ``validity and reliability of state assessments'' were intended to allow funds to be used for test security activities and services designed and utilized to prevent, detect, and respond to testing irregularities and incidents that threaten the validity of assessment results?”