Chair's Press

MYTH: The Every Child Achieves Act allows for federal involvement in state standards. FACT: FALSE. The bill explicitly prohibits any federal involvement with State standards. The HELP Committee incorporated language from bills introduced by Sen. Pat Roberts and Sen. David Vitter that prevents the Secretary from reviewing state standards,...

 “This is a real answer to inequality in America: giving more children more opportunity to attend a better school.” – Lamar Alexander WASHINGTON, D.C., July 8 – Senate education committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today offered an amendment (Click HERE for video) to the bill being debated by the...

Senate education committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., rose to the Senate floor Wednesday to tell his colleagues that state and local governments know best when it comes to educating students. Alexander was speaking in support of a K-12 education bill that would replace No Child Left Behind. "We need to show some humility and recognize, as...

Senators began work in earnest Wednesday on a bipartisan bill to replace No Child Left Behind by congratulating themselves on finally taking up legislation that is eight years overdue, and then unanimously passing an amendment to support school libraries. That comity is likely to yield to more vigorous debate in the days ahead, but for the moment,...

Pell grants, state aid, modest loans and scholarships put a four-year public institution within the reach of most. Paying for college never is easy, but it’s easier than most people think. Yet some politicians and pundits say students can’t afford a college education. That’s wrong. Most of them can. Public two-year colleges, for...

Next week the United States Senate will begin debate on a bipartisan agreement to fix No Child Left Behind. I negotiated this bill, the Every Child Achieves Act of 2015, with the Senate education committee’s Ranking Member Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. We found a consensus about the urgent need to fix this law as well as a remarkable consensus...

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 7 - Senate labor committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today made the following statement on the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) announcement that it would suspend its call for briefs on whether employees in right-to-work states should be forced to pay union fees, even if they are not a member...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., today sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and to U.S. Secretary of Health & Human Services Sylvia Burwell, urging them to base the final 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans on “sound scientific evidence and medical...

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 7 – As the United States Senate today began debate on his and Sen. Patty Murray’s (D-Wash.) bipartisan bill to fix No Child Left Behind, Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today said the bill reflects the shared belief by both Democrats and Republicans that lawmakers should respect the judgments of those...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is making another run at rewriting the Bush-era No Child Left Behind education law, even as the White House urges changes that the administration says would ensure that schools be held accountable when their students are seriously lagging their peers in other better-performing elementary and middle schools. The...

           Before the Democratic Leader leaves the floor, in a few moments, the Senator from Washington and I will make our opening statement on our proposed committee legislation to fix No Child Left Behind. Before I do that, I want to say to the Majority Leader first, to express my appreciation for his putting this...

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate, for the first time in 14 years, will debate an all-new federal education policy this week. The bipartisan proposal would do away with the No Child Left Behind law and reduce — but not end — the federal government's role in public elementary and secondary education. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and...

When it comes to setting standards for America’s public schools, there’s a remarkable degree of consensus: The system the federal government has in place—known as No Child Left Behind—doesn’t work. Fixing it, however, is about to set off a new round of fierce political combat in Washington, D.C., and draw in 2016...

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 30 – Senate labor committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today made the following statement on the Department of Labor’s proposal to more than double the salary threshold for exemption from overtime pay: “Just imagine how discouraging this rule will be to the working mother who can no longer...

Congressional Republicans are using the power of the purse to do battle against a series of controversial labor regulations from the Obama administration. They say the National Labor Relations Board (NRLB) gave a gift to labor unions by issuing what they call an “ambush election” rule that speeds up the process for organizing in the...

Senate HELP Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, who sits on the Appropriations Committee, applauded the education spending bill approved by the committee today — including its controversial policy riders. The bill “prevents other unhelpful and burdensome regulations on our nation’s 6,000 colleges and universities,” Alexander...

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 25 – Senate health committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today released the following statement on the Supreme Court’s decision in King v. Burwell:  “It’s unfortunate that the Supreme Court didn’t read the law the way that Congress wrote it. The 36 percent increase in some...

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 25 – U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, today voted for the fiscal year 2016 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies appropriations legislation, which he said is an example of “the Senate at...

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 24 – Senate education committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-Wash.), following Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s announcement that the Senate would take up their bipartisan agreement to fix No Child Left Behind on Tuesday, July 7, said they look forward to an...

WASHINGTON, June 23 – Seventeen Republican lawmakers last week called on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to make significant changes to the agency’s proposed rule on workplace wellness programs to ensure the agency does not create any further confusion for employers who want to offer these programs to lower their...