Mr. President, this is not a killer amendment. This just kills a bad part of the bill. The reconciliation bill makes a bad employment situation even worse. It imposes $52 billion in new taxes on employers who cannot afford to provide…

I urge my colleagues to protect Americans' jobs by supporting my motion. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Begich). The Senator from Montana.

Mr. President, I rise in opposition to the reconciliation legislation the Senate will be considering later this week. Similar to many of my colleagues, I first read this legislation when it was hot filed in the House last week. One of my…

This blueprint will help the committee move forward to develop legislation that builds upon what we have learned from the latest version of ESEA, called No Child Left Behind, and fix what isn't working.

A better balance is needed between prescriptive Federal mandates and State and local flexibility.

I am also concerned about the potential impact the legislation has on rural schools, school districts, and States.

No Child Left Behind has been criticized for being a one-size-fits-all law, a claim that has rung especially true in the rural areas.

Thank you for holding this hearing.

We must reject proposals that make employers less likely to create new positions and fill vacant ones.

I am still convinced that a lot of the gap is due to occupational segregation that exists, not due to an employer, but the decisions that are made by an employee.

So there shouldn't be that gap, and it is no surprise to me that there are more women's businesses that are being started and that the men are the ones being laid off when we have a decrease in employment.

The legislative process being promoted here today will not create jobs, except for trial lawyers.