On Tuesday, March 27, Houston A+ held an NCLB hearing and town meeting in which approximately 250 people participated, including a bus load of students brought to Houston by Austin Voices of Austin, Tex. Besides the excitement that was created by over 25 roundtable discussions about how to improve NCLB, an added benefit was the fact that PEN President Wendy D. Puriefoy was able to deliver the hearing’s recommendations personally to the full U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee during her testimony the next day. Puriefoy was one of five witnesses asked to provide testimony and comments on “effective strategies for engaging parents and communities in schools.” The hearing was one of a series called by the committee as they work to receive information about re-authorizing NCLB. While a bit of luck was involved in the timing of the testimony and Houston A+ event, it was an opportunity to showcase the work of LEFs in educational reform. It also provided a chance to talk to the committee about the NCLB positions that PEN’s policy committee has been proposing and to link the Houston A+ hearing results to policymakers. This has been the chief intent of the 19 NCLB hearings that PEN has hosted with its LEF members and local partners.

For information and a link to the webcast of the Houston A+ hearing, please click:

Houston A+ Speaks Out on No Child Left Behind

Houston A+ No Child Left Behind Hearing Recommendations

For information and the webcast of the Senate HELP Committee hearing, please click: Full Committee Hearing - NCLB Reauthorization: Effective Strategies for Engaging Parents and Communities in Schools
March 28

The education committees of both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are gearing up for No Child Left Behind (NCLB) re-authorization, dispelling some beliefs that NCLB won’t be reauthorized until 2009. Although a 2009 re-authorization is possible, you would not know it by the number of meetings, roundtables and hearings the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee (HELP) and the House Education and Labor Committee staffs have said are in the plans between now and late spring.

See information about the HELP Committee hearings by clicking:
 

•	Kennedy on No Child Left Behind Re-authorization
•	Full Committee Hearing - NCLB Reauthorization: Effective Strategies for Engaging Parents and Communities in Schools (March 28)
•	Joint Committee Hearing - Elementary and Secondary Education Act Reauthorization Improving NCLB to Close the Achievement Gap (March 13)
•	Full Committee Hearing - Strengthening American Competitiveness for the 21st Century (March 7)
•	Full Committee Hearing - NCLB Reauthorization: Strategies for Attracting, Supporting, and Retaining High Quality Educators (March 6)

On the House side, a lot of activity will be divided between the full committee, Education and Labor, and the Subcommittee of Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education.

Click on the links below for information and web casts about committee hearings and activities.
 

•	Joint Committee Hearing—Elementary and Secondary Education Act Reauthorization Improving NCLB to Close the Achievement Gap
•	ESEA Reauthorization: Options for Improving NCLB's Measures of Progress (March 21, 2007)
•	How NCLB Affects Students with Disabilities (March 29, 2007)
•	Impact of NCLB on English Language Learners (March 23, 2007)
Upcoming Bearings Thursday, April 4, 2007 Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education Field Hearing on "Local Perspectives on the No Child Left Behind Act" scheduled at 11:00 a.m. at the Sarvis Conference Center, 1231 East Kearsley St. in Flint, Mich. Witnesses to be announced. Friday, April 20, 2007 Full Committee Hearing on "Mismanagement and Conflicts of Interest in the Reading First Program" scheduled at 9 a.m. in Room 2175 Rayburn H.O.B. Witnesses to be announced.

In the final weeks of March, the House and Senate adopted budget resolutions for Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 by narrow margins and will now work to find a compromise resolution in conference committee. The two $2.9 trillion budget plans are broadly similar. Both seek to reach a budget surplus by the year 2012, establish reserve funds to extend the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to all eligible children, and embrace pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) principles. However, their slightly differing spending provisions and definitions of PAYGO, as well as a Senate amendment to extend some of President Bush's middle-income tax cuts, will present some critical choices in conference.

The Senate passed its budget resolution, S. Con. Res. 21, on March 23, by a 52-47 vote, with Sen. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both Republicans from Maine, joining the 49 Democrats and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) in support. The Senate's non-binding budget blueprint provides $18 billion more in domestic discretionary spending for next year than the president's proposed FY 2008 budget. It also projects a $132 billion surplus by 2012, offers a two-year patch for the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), and establishes a strict PAYGO regime.

During floor debate on the resolution, the Senate voted 97-1 to add an amendment by Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) that recommended $195 billion — about $60 billion over and above the projected surplus — be used to extend President Bush's 2001 and 2003 middle class tax cuts, expand SCHIP, and make modest changes to the estate tax. More drastic amendments to cut the estate tax were rejected.

The House adopted its own budget resolution, H. Con. Res. 99, on March 29, by a 216-210 margin, with 12 Democrats and two Republicans crossing party lines. The House resolution calls for a $153 billion surplus by 2012, a nearly $25 billion increase for domestic programs, a one-year AMT patch, and a less rigorous PAYGO rule than the Senate's.

The House voted on, but rejected, alternative budget resolutions proposed by the Progressive Causes (by 81-340), the Congressional Black Caucus (by 115-312), and the GOP conference (by 160-268). The Republican alternative, offered by Budget Committee Ranking Member Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), would have cut entitlement spending by $270 billion over five years, added $168 billion to the deficit, and violated the House PAYGO rule. The alternative was defeated by a vote of 160-268. This vote produced a wider-than-expected margin, with 40 Republican members breaking ranks to oppose it.

Much of the partisan debate surrounding the budget resolutions has focused on the Democrats' assumption that many of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts would not be extended, thus yielding nearly $400 billion more revenue than the president's budget over the next five years. The GOP has claimed repeatedly that the Democratic budget resolutions require "the largest tax increase in American history." However, they do not assume tax increases, but only the same increase in revenues assumed under the very same tax cut laws. The major fiscal difference between the House and Senate resolutions lies in how this increased revenue is handled.

Under the Baucus amendment, about $180 billion is set aside after 2010 to renew current middle class tax cuts. These include the expanded child tax credit, marriage penalty relief, and the 10-percent tax bracket, as well as a fixing of the estate tax at the current 2009 exemption levels ($3.5 million for individuals and a tax rate of 45 percent). These provisions consume all of the Senate's projected 2012 surplus and then some and they also call for an additional $15 billion for SCHIP. The Baucus amendment does not propose how that additional funding should be offset, although Senate Democrats would still be free to adhere to PAYGO principles in all of their legislation. Their commitment to fiscal responsibility will in some ways be measured by their ability to draft deficit neutral bills, even for their most popular priorities such as middle class tax cuts. Finally, conference treatment of PAYGO itself will be telling. The House's PAYGO rule allows up-front expenses to be offset by future cuts or tax increases, so long as there is no aggregate increase in entitlement spending or decrease in taxes over the five- or ten-year period following the current fiscal year. The Senate plan permits only paid-for entitlement increases or tax cuts in any given fiscal year and extends PAYGO through 2017.

In any event, the budget resolution conference committee report, expected by the end of April, is all but certain to include some version of PAYGO along with additional resources for a new farm bill, SCHIP, education, and veterans' health. This reflects a significantly increased Congressional commitment to fiscal responsibility as well as many underserved domestic spending priorities such as children's health care.

Although the budget resolution process does not allocate funds to specific programs (that is done by the various appropriations committees), it does provide “goals and parameters” for federal spending. Many in the education and child advocacy community support both resolutions, with a slight preference for the House version. The House version provides $5 billion more than the Senate’s for annually appropriated discretionary domestic programs, including $7.9 billion more for education and social service programs and $3.5 billion more for veterans programs for FY 2008 than the president's budget. These increases and the commitment to PAYGO principles are seen as a start, a "down payment" on future efforts to redress the last several years' chronic underfunding of social service needs across the country.
 

STEP-BY-STEP BUDGET PROCESS:
Thursday, March 29:	House passed FY 2008 Budget Resolution 216-210
Week of April 2:	The Senate and House are in recess. House and Senate staffs “pre-conference” the Budget Resolution.
Week of April 9:	The Senate reconvenes while the House in recess for an additional week. House and Senate staffs “pre-conference” Budget Resolution.
Week of April 16:	House-Senate Conferences on FY 2008 Budget Resolution. Final votes expected on Budget Resolution Conference Report.
April 27:	House Appropriations Committee deadline for submission of FY 2008 earmark requests.
Late April 2007:	House and Senate Appropriations Committees make critical discretionary spending allocations (known as 302(b) allocations) among their 12 subcommittees. This is a key step in setting federal spending priorities.

For those who are totally confused about the budget resolution, OMB (Office of Management and Budget) Watch has provided as easy to understand guide about the process. Click on the following:

http://www.ombwatch.org/budget/budgetresolutionbackgrounderfinal.pdf

The Public Education Network National Office provides the Federal Legislative Update exclusively for its members, staff and board of directors. The Updates are designed to provide LEFs the most recent federal legislative developments related to public education, community engagement. Readers are encouraged to send comments to Arnold F. Fege (Director of Public Engagement) or call 202-628-7460.

Produced by Mary Stanik, Director of Communications, 202-628-7460, ext. 258