HR 5 Student Success Act (NCLB): ONLY DELAYED - NOT DEFEATED!

Through the hard work of many phone calls, emails and the use of social media, the reauthorizing of No Child Left Behind or the Student Success Act (HR 5) was not passed this past week. 

While this is cause to celebrate, it is important to understand our success was only in DELAYING the Student Success Act (HR 5) from passing - it was not defeated (voted down).

We must remain vigilant & continue to contact members of Congress to tell them to NO continuation of NCLB and No on the Student Success Act (HR 5).

To contact your member of congress, click here.

From Politico --

House Republicans decided not to vote Friday on their proposed rewrite of the No Child Left Behind law, the Student Success Act, after House leadership struggled to lock down support for the bill and debate over Department of Homeland Security funding eclipsed education plans.

The House passed a nearly identical bill in 2013, but discontent with the Common Core academic standards and concerns about federal government intrusion have grown, and conservatives have said they want to get more out of an education bill in the newly Republican-controlled Congress. That left House leadership facing new criticism from the right because the GOP bill omits school vouchers, radical reductions to federal mandates and other right-wing proposals.

“My district doesn’t like it. They just feel that we’re moderating No Child Left Behind. They hate No Child Left Behind,” Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) said.

It’s not clear when a vote on No Child Left Behind will take place.

The wrangling over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, set to run out Friday, complicated matters. The debate over how to handle DHS funding has angered conservative lawmakers — who House leaders will need to vote on the Student Success Act. Handling both votes in one day would have been difficult for lawmakers, several House aides said Friday.

And that’s not to say the Student Success Act didn’t have issues of its own: On Thursday night, House leadership was still trying to shore up support for the bill, several GOP aides and lawmakers said. At a Friday morning press conference held by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and others at a charter school in the Anacostia neighborhood of D.C., lawmakers didn’t talk about the Student Success Act and didn’t hold scheduled press availability. House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline didn’t even attend, though he was originally listed to be there: He was on Capitol Hill whipping votes for his bill.

Despite anger that has built up over the law’s far-reaching scope, the politics constrained how far to the right Republicans pushing the Student Success Act could go.

Kline needed a bill that would pass the House with support from moderates. He has made clear that a bill with private school vouchers would not have the votes to pass the chamber and would not fly with President Barack Obama, who has threatened to veto the House version of the bill.

NCLB expired in 2007. The current push to update the law is the first serious attempt at reauthorization since then, but there’s only a short window to rewrite it before the 2016 elections are fully underway and legislative work slows.

Senate lawmakers are working on their own version of No Child Left Behind in a bipartisan fashion, with hopes of heading to conference later this year.

Kline has been coordinating his approach with Senate education committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, but the Senate leader is on a very different track than Kline. He’s negotiating with committee Ranking Member Sen. Patty Murray on a bipartisan bill that they hope can clear the chamber. Alexander has insisted he’s optimistic about his chances of striking a deal with Murray and wants to get a bill in front of the committee by mid-March.

“We’re making good progress,” Alexander said earlier this week. “I’m very pleased with the way we’re working with Sen. Murray right now.” With Alexander taking the moderate route, it was up to the House to push a bill that’s as conservative as possible to set the party up in a strong position for the potential conference — but without ostracizing the White House altogether.

So House Republicans supporting the bill have had little choice but to play to the center of the party. The House took up over 40 amendments but didn’t consider any proposals that would have added heavy doses of conservatism. An amendment pushed by Heritage Action that would allow states to opt out of the law’s requirements altogether but still receive federal funds was left on the cutting room floor when the bill went through the House Rules Committee. Heritage and The Club for Growth both strongly opposed the bill.

“It’s a good thing that at least the train has been stopped at the station for now and maybe there’s some time to go back and rethink this,” Club for Growth Communications Director Doug Sachtleben said.

There were signs as the week progressed that House leaders were trying harder to turn some of the “no” votes. Language slipped into the bill Thursday that included new provisions barring school-based health centers from distributing information on abortions, for example. The abortion language did not reflect a major change to education policy — and it could easily get stripped out of the bill down the line — but it catered to the right.

As of Thursday night, House leadership was still not sure whether it had the votes needed to pass the bill, several lawmakers and GOP aides said.

In the end, it appears, they didn’t. At least not this week.

Democrats, meanwhile, balked at Republicans’ bill, and at Alexander and Kline’s optimism about a potential compromise on education. The White House veto threat called out a provision that would allow education funds for low-income students to follow students as a particularly harmful measure. Democrats say the net effect of the provision would be to drain billions of dollars from poor school districts, where the funds are needed most.

“The goal here isn’t to pass a bill — it’s to pass a good bill,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said this week.

Education doesn’t always divide along party lines, but current differences between leadership of the two parties are vast. Republicans want to cede more control to states and localities to make decisions on education and dump many defined programs.

To Democrats and the civil rights community, stripping the federal role out of education would signal a return to times before No Child Left Behind, when many states didn’t even collect data about the achievement gap between poor and minority students and their peers. Democrats want the bill to retain strong accountability measures and would like to see a new title in the bill devoted to early education.

House Democrats have also criticized Kline’s approach to passing the Student Success Act: There wasn’t a single hearing on the bill in the new Congress. (The House education committee has held many hearings on the bill in previous years.)

The Student Success Act “turns the clock back on educational progress and jeopardizes the civil rights of young people,” House Education and the Workforce Committee Ranking Member Bobby Scott said this week.

Action Alert: Call Senate GOP Leaders Now! Stop Them From Caving on DHS Funding!

           Action Alert        

Throughout the election cycle Republicans vowed to do everything they could to stop the President's overreach. 

Now, the Republicans in the Senate under Majority Leader McConnell's guidance are playing games. Bowing to President Obama, Sen. McConnell now plans to bring a bill to the Senate floor that would fully fund the Department of Homeland Security without defunding executive amnesty! 

McConnell is now offering a stand-alone anti-amnesty bill, but the current plan is to vote on it after they pass the DHS funding. This means the vote will be meaningless because it will not be attached to something that must pass Congress and be signed by the president.

Congress has the "power of the purse" and is responsible for serving as a check on the President's actions. We have a very narrow window of time to put a stop to President Obama's executive amnesty, and Congress needs to act now!

Please call Sen. McConnell, the Senate Republican Leadership & Ohio Senator Rob Portman to let them know that you want Congress to defund executive amnesty. 

Remind them of their oath to support and defend the Constitution and urge them to vote on one bill that funds the Department of Homeland Security, while stripping funds from President Obama's unilateral amnesty.

Tell them that the Senate must vote to defund President Obama's amnesty before they vote on a clean DHS appropriations bill.

Senate Republican Leadership:

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

Phone: (202) 224-2541

Twitter: @McConnellPress

Email: Click Here

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)

Phone: (202) 224-2934
Twitter: @JohnCornyn

Email: Click Here

Sen. John Thune (R-SD)

Phone: (202) 224-2321

Twitter: @SenJohnThune

Email: Click Here

Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY)

Phone: (202) 224-6441

Twitter: @SenJohnBarrasso

Email: Click Here

Senator Rob Portman (R-OH)

Phone: (202) 224-3353
Twitter: @PortmanPress
Email: Click Here

Millions Spent Illegally on Obama Amnesty Plan; So Who is Going to Prison?

From Ernest Istook --

Some bureaucrats could end up in prison for implementing President Obama’s amnesty plan for illegal aliens. Even if they don’t violate the brand-new court injunction, they are accountable under a special federal statute.

It’s illegal to spend federal money on purposes never approved by Congress. Yet Mr. Obama has bureaucrats going full-speed ahead to create the mechanism that would process amnesty for millions, even while a court injunction requires that actual processing cannot yet begin.

Preparations are proceeding “full-throttle,” according to Judicial Watch, which works to make government accountable. The group has uncovered details about some of the tens of millions of dollars already being spent to launch Mr. Obama’s amnesty plan and called for a full investigation. Billions more in tax dollars are also on the line.

However, there is personal risk for all who do Mr. Obama’s bidding rather than obey the laws that govern federal payments.

Each person who violates what’s called the Anti-Deficiency Act (31 U.S. Code Sec. 1341) could be fined $5,000, sent to prison for two years, lose their job, or all of these. That law makes no exceptions for those who claim they merely obeyed orders from superiors, including the president.

Mr. Obama did not personally sign an executive order to put his amnesty plan in place. Although Mr. Obama claims credit and blame, the orders technically come from a Cabinet secretary. Orders then are carried out by subordinate agency heads plus a small army of bureaucrats who process the paperwork and get checks issued.

Those payments are already happening despite being spent on a program not authorized by law. Congress has never approved spending money for this purpose.

While Mr. Obama avoided a personal signature on the incriminating paperwork, a multitude of clerical workers don’t have that luxury. They are risking their jobs and freedom. So is Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, who issued the formal instructions to do Mr. Obama’s bidding.

Carrying out illegal orders is no excuse under federal law. Because there evidently is no statute of limitations on the Anti-Deficiency Act, therefore a new president and attorney-general in 2017 could pursue criminal charges as well as firings or job disciplines against all persons who approve payments on the amnesty program. And these fall guys would likely have to pay their own legal fees.

Federal Judge Andrew Hanen last week enjoined the government from launching the amnesty program. Judge Hanen’s order did not dispute Mr. Obama’s authority to avoid deportations by applying prosecutorial discretion. But the judge pointed out that Mr. Obama was creating new law by going farther, namely by issuing certifications of “lawful presence” plus work permits.

Even if the executive branch had legal power to create new programs — which the judge’s order questioned — Judge Hanen ruled that it still would require months of prior public notice and comments about the details, as required by the Administrative Procedures Act.

Instead, Mr. Obama had things prepared secretly in advance, then launched his blitzkrieg before opponents could learn the details. To enable processing 4 million to 5 million expected amnesty applications, since the end of November, the Department of Homeland Security:

• Has received 5,000 applications for 1,000 workers it is hiring at salaries up to $157,000 a year (One estimate says these salaries will run $50-million a year.);

• Signed a $7.8-million lease to provide them with office space in Arlington, Virginia;

• Solicited for hundreds of contractors to assist with managing the program and its data;

• Requested proposals to purchase 39-million high-tech plastic ID cards with built-in RF chips (used to create “lawful presence” and “work authorization” identity cards for millions of illegal aliens) 

Plus, the IRS is ready to respond to Obama’s actions by unleashing billions in federal cash payments directly to those receiving executive amnesty.

The amount actually spent so far is a secret closely-guarded by the Obama team, as are projections of future expenses. A group of Republican senators on Jan. 22 sent a formal request to find out the full costs. Sen. Jeff Sessions, Alabama Republican; Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican; and Sen. Ron Johnson, Wisconsin Republican, wrote the Citizenship and Immigration Services to ask for a detailed accounting.

The eventual answers may reveal that a lot of federal workers are in trouble for going along with Obama’s secret and unauthorized plan.

Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, has labeled it illegal for money to be spent on Obama’s amnesty program.

Training materials for federal workers are chock-full of warnings about not violating the Anti-Deficiency Act.

For example, materials from the General Services Administration warns never to initiate any purchases or contracts without obtaining approvals that include “written assurance from responsible fiscal authority,” plus checking with their legal department and budget officers.

The 2013 Fiscal Law Deskbook published by the federal Judge Advocate School advises federal workers they can only “incur … obligations for expenditures within the limits and purposes of appropriations.”

The White House claims that the massive expenses of amnesty processing will be covered by fees charged to applicants, but that fails the laugh test because: 1) expenses are already massive, but zero fees have been collected to date; 2) there have been no calculations released to match expenses with fees; and 3) the Constitution forbids spending any money unless it first is approved by Congress.

Mr. Obama’s disregard for the law seemingly has no limits. His publicly-stated goal is to use his last two years to determine the shape of America for the next ten years. Changing the composition of America is just part of his strategy.

Smirking, Mr. Obama considers himself immune from consequences. But he can only usurp power with the assistance of others within the bureaucracy.

If those now spending millions of our money without authority are punished eventually, they may finally realize that their proper loyalty is to obey the laws of our land instead of a blind loyalty to President Obama. 

If HR 5 passes, the federal government will own education

Art credit: thearrowsoftruth.com

While we continue to fight for local control of education, the federal government looks to eliminate it.  

The No Child Left Behind law created a culture of extreme testing and oppressive federal intervention on students, teachers and school administrators. 

Next week the House will vote to reauthorize No Child Left Behind (H.R. 5 Student Success Act), thereby extending this outdated education policy through 2021 and it MUST BE STOPPED!  

From NCLB came Race to the Top, and from RTTT came the Common Core State Standards Initiative.  If HR 5 passes, the federal government will own education!

HR 5 will transform all schools into government run schools, just like Europe.  This will be accomplished through the use of NATIONALIZED TESTS and CURRICULUMS and Title I money.

Page 552-553 in this 597 page bill clearly states that if a State participates in federal funding grants and programs (Title I) the state waives its rights and gives full authority to the federal government.  Click Here to read the bill

TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION!

Call your Representative and tell him/her to vote "NO" on HR 5!

Tell them we want to SUNSET NCLB and defund the Dept of Education.  We do not want this failed program to continue.

Click here to read the legislative brief 

The vote is expected nextTuesday, so ACT NOW!

Click here to contact your representative

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Grover Norquist Promotes MORE Immigration in Daytona 500 Ad

Given that Grover Norquist and his Americans for Tax Reform have long been nothing more than pawns for the U.S. Chamber - that he would support more illegal immigrants to flood the work force and drive down wages should come as no surprise....

From Breitbart --

 

Grover Norquist stars in a pro-immigration ad that a George Soros-funded pro-amnesty group is running this weekend at Daytona International Speedway during the Daytona 500.

The National Immigration Forum ad promotes increased immigration.

“Immigration is part of the secret sauce that makes America work,” Norquist says in the ad. “More people are a resource, they’re an asset; they’re not a liability.”

Ali Noorani, the Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum, said that, “at the end of the day, immigration is about people, not politics.

“We need to welcome immigrants and afford them the opportunity, skills and status they need to succeed,” Noorani said. “When new Americans are able to reach their fullest potential, America thrives as well.”

Norquist teamed up with Michael Bloomberg’s pro-amnesty Partnership for a New America group earlier in the week to host a conference call in which top 2016 GOP donors pushed for comprehensive amnesty legislation.

The ad will run this weekend on the Daytona 500 Jumbotron twice an hour, 12 hours a day, including during the Great American Race. It will also run at the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 500 races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway later in the year.

While the ad touts the benefits of increased immigration, a recent Gallup poll found that a majority of Americans are dissatisfied with the country’s immigration levels and just seven percent want more immigration at this time.

State Rep. Wes Retherford & State Rep. Terry Boose introduce State-based Alternative to Obamacare in Ohio

Below is a great article explaining the Health Care Compact (HB 34) introduced in Ohio by State Rep. Wes Retherford & State Rep. Terry Boose.
Please contact your State Rep (Click Here) and ask them to support true healthcare freedom in Ohio by supporting HB 34 - the Health Care Compact.

From The Sidney Post --

If Ohio likes its Obamacare, it can keep its Obamacare – but it won’t have to if a group of state lawmakers have their way.

State Rep. Wes Retherford, Hamilton - House District 51, and Rep. Terry Boose, Norwalk – House District 57, have introduced legislation that would give Ohio greater control over federal health care programs. It’s called the Health Care Compact, and it would allow Columbus to regulate health care and provide an alternative to Obamacare.

“We’ve begun to see with Obamacare and the Veterans Administration debacles that a centralized health care system run out of Washington is destined to fail. States should be free to come up with the approach that best reflects the needs and wants of its citizens,” Retherford said. “By transferring decision-making authority, responsibility and control of federal health care funding from Washington, D.C. to Columbus, the Health Care Compact gives Ohio the option to choose a different health insurance system than Obamacare, one that actually works to meet our families’ needs.

“The Health Care Compact will shield Ohio citizens and businesses from the burdensome regulations of Obamacare, and protect our seniors from the $700 billion dollars that Obamacare cuts from Medicare to pay for Medicaid expansion and insurance subsidies,” he said.

The move to give states more say-so over health care policy is gaining momentum. The Health Care Compact has been approved by nine states — Indiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Texas, Kansas and Utah.

“Under the Healthcare Compact we won’t have a national program. Some states could implement a single-payer system, while others push more market-oriented mechanisms. Others could choose to remain in the federal program,” Retherford said. “The Health Care Compact has only one single requirement for every state: it requires that federal health-care dollars be spent on health care, and only on health care – they cannot be siphoned off to other, non-health-care programs. After that, the citizens of Ohio and their representatives in Columbus will decide how those dollars will be spent to provide the best health care for the citizens of Ohio.”

Under the Interstate Health Care Compact, Ohio would receive annual federal funding that must be spent on health care programs within the state. Ohio’s allotment would be calculated from a baseline of 2010 federal health care spending in the state, adjusted for changes in population and inflation.

State compacts are governing tools that have been used on a number of occasions to establish agreements between and among states. Mentioned in Article 1, Section 10 of the Constitution, compacts are the constitutional instruments that provide authority and flexibility to the states for administering specific programs. Congressional approval is required for states to enter into a legally binding compact.

More than 96 percent of health care is provided and consumed within a state by residents of that state. The Health Care Compact recognizes that since the lions share of health care is locally provided and locally consumed, regulating it at the state level makes more sense than mandating a single set of policies from Washington. Centralized micromanagement of a complex industry serving more than 300 million people won’t work.

“Americans are expected to spend $4 trillion on health care this year,” Retherford said. “Letting one group of bureaucrats manage that in Washington makes no sense. Each state is different — different demographics, different insurance companies, different political perspectives — so a single national solution is madness. The Interstate Health Care Compact allows for uniquely tailored, state-based solutions to health care delivery and affordability problems.

“A one-size-fits-all health care policy handed down from Washington simply does not work.

The Health Care Compact gives states decision-making authority so they can design healthcare programs that meet their unique needs and priorities,” said Shonda Werry, executive director of Competitive Governance Action, the non-profit organization that advocates for interstate compacts.

Click Here to visit the Health Care Compact Website.

Home Rule in Ohio Takes a Big Hit

Art credit: salsa3.salsalabs.com

  

Here’s the Akron Beacon Journal editorial at Ohio.com here:

Oil and gas interests prevail again in Ohio

By the Beacon Journal editorial board 

Published: February 20, 2015 - 10:26 PM

The oil and gas industry won a narrow victory this week over the city of Munroe Falls. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that the city’s local permitting and zoning ordinances are pre-empted by a 2004 state law giving control over drilling to the state Department of Natural Resources. Because Beck Energy Corp. has a state permit, it can proceed to drill on a site in Munroe Falls.

In its ruling, the majority effectively blocked local governments from acting as a voice for citizens legitimately concerned about the effects of oil and gas drilling. The new wells being drilled in Ohio represent nothing less than heavy industrial development, well within the boundaries of local control. Horizontally drilled and hydraulically fractured, each new oil and gas well can use millions of gallons of water mixed with sand and toxic chemicals.

In stopping Munroe Falls, the court missed an important opportunity to restore a balanced approach to industry oversight. In 2004, the state went too far in seizing control over oil and gas drilling from local governments, the legislature under the influence of the industry’s powerful lobby. That influence continues. The legislature is unable to pass even a modest increase in the state’s severance taxes to fairly compensate citizens for the one-time extraction of resources.

In a thoughtful dissent, Justice Judith Lanzinger noted that the 2004 state law did not expressly prohibit local zoning regulations on oil and gas drilling, arguing persuasively that the law leaves room for state and local input. She pointed to several examples in which the legislature set up a regulatory mechanism, then specifically excluded local control through zoning.

Important to her thinking is preserving the exercise of home rule powers through zoning, local governments acting to reflect citizens’ concerns and protect the general health and welfare of the community. That is in contrast to the state’s role, to deal with the highly technical aspects of drilling. Lanzinger pointed to other states, among them Colorado, Pennsylvania and New York, where the courts have found that state regulations and local zoning can work together. In other words, some local control over drilling does not necessarily conflict with state law.

Lanzinger thus invites the legislature to bring clarity to the situation, spelling out more precisely how local governments could use their home rule power to play a meaningful role in overseeing what can be a dangerous and environmentally damaging activity. She rightly describes the state now as “the thousand-pound gorilla.”

At the Statehouse, the oil and gas industry certainly has gotten its way. It lobbied hard for the Department of Natural Resources to take control of oil and gas drilling. Gov. John Kasich has tried unsuccessfully for four years to gain an increase in severance taxes. Perhaps the ultimate irony is that while Republicans control of all branches of state government in Ohio and often pay homage to local control in principle, many of them are most willing to crush it when it gets in their way.

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