The Senate HELP Committee today passed a bill that would reauthorize programs under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. This legislation would be the successor to the 10-year-old No Child Left Behind Act. The vote was 15-7.
The bill now heads to the full Senate for a vote sometime later this year. The House is working on similar issues in multiple bills so the two bodies will have to come to some agreement about how to proceed if they hope to send something to the President.
The markup resumed after an abbreviated session Wednesday that was brought to a halt by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who objected under a rule which requires unanimous consent for a committee to meet for longer than two hours once the full Senate is in session.
This morning committee chairman Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) announced that they had reached an agreement with Sen Paul. In exchange for him dropping his objections to the markup, there will be another hearing on No Child Left Behind to be held on Nov. 8.
"I’m one of the old-fashioned conservatives who does believe that schools are and should be under local and state control,” Paul said on the Senate floor. “There’s no provisions for the federal government to be involved. Period."