Conference Report on H.R. 1350, Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004

CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 1350, INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES EDUCATION IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2004 -- (House of Representatives - November 19, 2004)

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, by the direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 858 and ask for its immediate consideration.

The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:

H. Res. 858
Resolved, That upon adoption of this resolution it shall be in order to consider the conference report to accompany the bill (H.R. 1350) to reauthorize the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and for other purposes. All points of order against the conference report and against its consideration are waived. The conference report shall be considered as read.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Texas (Mr. Sessions) is recognized for 1 hour.

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, for purposes of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only.

This rule waives all points of order against the conference report for H.R. 1350 and against its consideration, and provides that the conference report shall be considered as read.

Mr. Speaker, shortly after my second son, Alex, was born in 1994, my father gave me some healthy words of advice when he said that Alex Sessions would be the greatest thing that would ever happen to our family. He knew and understood that in fact Alex was a very special baby. He was born with Downs Syndrome. The past 10 years have reaffirmed my father's words to me, and Alex has become one of the greatest parts of our family's life.

Ten years later, Alex is a very happy third grader at Lakewood Elementary in Dallas, Texas; and Alex has the support of numerous teachers, students, and parents who provide him with remarkable educational lessons and invaluable friendships. For each of the last 2 years, Alex has been rewarded with the school's highest citizenship honor, to be a Lakewood Super Stallion.

In the last 3 weeks, Alex has successfully written for the first time his first and last name. While these are great personal achievements for Alex and our entire family, stories like these are being told all across the country because of the extra efforts of those dedicated educators who are working diligently with these wonderful children under landmark Federal legislation known as IDEA, or Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

Several decades ago, Congress passed this legislation to guarantee children with disabilities full access to a fulfilling and appropriate public education. And while I have talked today about the many successes and achievements of this important program, there are also areas within the law that could and can use improvement and adjustment. I am proud to support the bipartisan legislation that is before us today to reauthorize and improve this most important education program to ensure that the true promise and intent of this act is carried out to the fullest extent of our abilities as Congressmen.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1350 creates an educational atmosphere focusing on the future of our most vulnerable children. It builds on the existing strengths of IDEA, while modernizing and improving the program to guarantee that children with disabilities have the most appropriate tools to fully utilize their gifts. The changes that we are making in IDEA will give children measurable goals to ensure they reach their postsecondary living and employment goals.

H.R. 1350 directly addresses perhaps the greatest problem facing IDEA, the effective monitoring and enforcement of the act. Effective July 1, 2005, it will give the Secretary of Education clear authority to enforce standards to monitor and enforce whether or not schools are in compliance with IDEA, authority that has been lacking since the inception of this education initiative. States will be empowered to create an acceptable set of standards; and if they are not met, the Secretary of Education will now have the tools necessary to take appropriate and reasonable action to work with State and local educators to remedy the situation.

This conference report provides Congress with a 6-year glidepath to fully fund IDEA by 2011. Under President Bush's leadership, funding for all education programs, in particular IDEA, have been a high priority. In his first term, President Bush increased IDEA funding to States by $4.8 billion, or what we would know as a 76 percent increase. This Republican-controlled Congress, which I am proud to be a part of, has increased the Federal share of IDEA funding to 19 percent in 10 years, whereas our predecessors in the Democrat-controlled Congresses only allowed the Federal share of IDEA costs to reach 7 percent.

H.R. 1350 also restores trust and constructive dialogue to the relationship between parents and school personnel promoting an earlier resolution to problems before they end up in court. This legislation creates the opportunity for a resolution session within 30 days of a complaint being filed to quickly resolve the problem. The constant threat of litigation creates an atmosphere of distrust between parents and schools, an environment that harms everyone involved.

Today's legislation also solves another problem that has plagued IDEA for too long. Today, many children with reading problems are misidentified as learning disabled and wrongly placed in special education classes, a costly mistake which siphons away valuable funding from students who truly need IDEA services. To address this issue, H.R. 1350 requires districts with significant over-identifying of students to operate early intervention programs to reduce over-identification, eliminating the outdated IQ discrepancy, a model that relies on a wait-to-fail approach, and introduces a response to intervention model that identifies specific learning disabilities before the students are at a failing grade level.

I am proud of this new IDEA legislation. Because of the important resources that H.R. 1350 provides to our schools, it may one day help my son Alex to further meet his goals of learning to read.

I am pleased to note that the House version of this legislation successfully passed through the Committee on Education and the Workforce, and then through the House in April of 2003. Today's conference report enjoys the overwhelming bipartisan support of its conferees, and I am confident that this report will enjoy wide bipartisan margins in both Houses before it is signed by President Bush.

I would ask that all my colleagues on both sides of the aisle demonstrate their commitment to the special education needs of our country's disabled children by supporting this conference report. I would like to thank the House sponsor of this legislation, the gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Castle), and the chairman of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner), for their dedicated hard work in producing the conference report.

I would also like to take a minute to commend the conferees from both bodies that have labored to produce this fine product, including the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller), Senator EDWARD KENNEDY, and Senator JUDD GREGG.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this rule and the underlying legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, last night, late in the Committee on Rules, the ranking member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller), came before our committee and talked with great confidence and exuberance about the hard work that had been produced by not only the conferees but also that proud committee. Today, I am very pleased to have that chairman, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner), who has worked diligently for the past few years not only with me as a parent with a child who falls under IDEA but also with all Members who bring thoughts and ideas about encouraging our teachers and our parents and our children to achieve greater things. I would like to publicly say that not only the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller) but also what the gentleman from Ohio (Chairman Boehner) has done has been of great service to our country, and I would like to thank him for that.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Chairman Boehner).

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Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Today we are having a discussion about some of America's greatest gifts, and that is our children with disabilities. An observation I would make is the kind words on both sides have come as a result of a lot of hard work, a lot of hard work not only within this body but also with the Senate. It also came as a result of a lot of hard work where members of that committee and subcommittee had to go out all across America and listen to parents and listen to educators and to listen to people. Certainly the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller) was a huge part of this success.

Mr. Speaker, at this time, however, I would like to suggest that the gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Castle) was a great leader in this process. He made sure of the strength of his argument so this law would make a difference. So I, like the gentleman from Ohio (Chairman Boehner), stand here to say that the gentleman from Delaware (Chairman CASTLE) has done a great job on behalf of so many students.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Castle), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Education Reform.

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Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Petri).

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Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

I, too, would join with the gentleman from Massachusetts in enunciating our support of not only the staff members of the Rules Committee and for the hard work that they put in day in and day out and night in and night out but also would join in support of what the gentleman from Massachusetts said when he talked about our colleague MARTIN FROST. The gentleman from Texas (Mr. Frost) has served for 26 years as a distinguished Member of not only the House of Representatives but also in his service to the people of the 24th Congressional District of Texas. During that period of time the gentleman from Texas has distinguished himself as a person who would articulate not only the position of the Democrat Party but also a position that was very successful in support of veterans all across this country and in many other issues that he so deeply believed in, including a major piece of legislation which was known as the Amber Alert system for children who had been taken from their parents.

Mr. Speaker, I include for printing in the Congressional Record a resolution that was passed by the Rules Committee last night, November 18, 2004:

Resolution of the House Committee on Rules November 18, 2004
Whereas, Martin Frost has served the United States House of Representatives and the citizens of the United States with excellence since first elected to this body in 1978;

Whereas, Martin Frost began developing his extensive political and legislative expertise as a reporter for Congressional Quarterly, and then as a practicing attorney in the Dallas area, while honorably serving the country as a member of the United States Army Reserves;

Whereas, Martin Frost has represented the constituents of the 24th district of Texas, serving the citizens of the Dallas and Fort Worth areas for 26 years in the House of Representatives with outstanding diligence and passion. He has taken on issues of importance to the diverse population of his district, such as the active- and reserve-duty military, and Medicare, and has been an integral figure in the creation of the nationwide AMBER Alert system for missing children;

Whereas, Martin Frost has utilized his status as the highest ranking Southern Democrat in the House, and as a senior member of the Texas delegation, to address concerns vital to his region, such as transportation issues, veterans affairs and youth violence;

Whereas, Martin Frost has exemplified himself as a model of leadership of the Democratic Party in the House, serving in the capacity of chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, as well as chairman of the House Democratic Caucus during his career in Washington, proving himself to be an astute policy and political strategist;

Whereas, the Committee on Rules has benefitted greatly by the service of Martin Frost since his appointment to the committee as a freshman in 1978, most recently through his leadership as Ranking Minority Member of the Committee, acting as a sounding board for the Democratic delegation in advocating legislative priorities and providing his extensive knowledge of the House rules and practices garnered from his 26 year service to the Committee to ensure success in fulfilling its jurisdictional duties;

Whereas, the tenure of Martin Frost in this United States Congress has been characterized by honesty, integrity, and a general willingness to work together with colleagues, on a variety of important issues: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Committee on Rules, That its Members express their deep appreciation for the service Martin Frost has selflessly given to the country, our citizens, the House Rules Committee, and the United States House of Representatives, and wish him the best of luck and godspeed on all future endeavors.

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. SESSIONS. I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts.

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman for his resolution last night and for his words today.

Mr. SESSIONS. I thank the gentleman for his comments, also, about our colleague from Texas (Mr. Frost).
Mr. Speaker, we have also earlier thanked a number of people, the Members of Congress who were a part of making this bill, IDEA, successful. Certainly we will have in a few minutes the opportunity to hear from Chairman Boehner once again and his colleague, the ranking member, George Miller, from California. Both of these gentleman spent an incredible number of hours working together. We have heard obviously from the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey). We will also hear from the gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Castle).

But I think it is important that we also say that there have been a number of people who have worked behind the scenes to make this bill successful and they really come from both sides of this great hall, the Senate and the House. I would like to personally thank Connie Garner from the office of Senator Kennedy; David Cleary from the office of Chairman Boehner. David has worked tirelessly not only on behalf of these children but also doing town hall meetings to make sure that we got this right. Melanie Looney, who is also from Chairman Boehner's office; Alex Nock, who is from Mr. Miller's office; Denzel McGuire from the office of Senator Judd Gregg.

I would also like to thank from my staff Bobby Hillert and from the White House Elan Liang for their hard work to make sure that this document not only enunciated a better policy but also took in all the feedback from educators, parents and students from across this country who wake up every day to make IDEA better.

I do, too, encourage all my colleagues to support this bipartisan piece of legislation.

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.

The previous question was ordered.

The resolution was agreed to.

A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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