Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Dear
E-Newsletter Subscriber,
Recently, I joined 396 of my colleagues in the House of Representatives in passing the Conference Report to H.R. 1350, the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It governs the education of students with disabilities and maintains important civil rights provisions to protect students with disabilities. The Conference Report, while lacking the full funding provisions I and many others would prefer, greatly improved upon the House version of IDEA reauthorization.
In 2003, after I (and other members) unsuccessfully tried to improve the proposed bill through amendments, I voted against the bill hoping an expression of opposition would strengthen the Senate's hand in Conference. Fortunately, the better Senate provisions largely prevailed in the Conference, resulting in a better bill that could be supported.
To view a chart of the new law, which affects IDEA with respect to monitoring & enforcement, discipline, nurses' roles in the Individualized Education Program (IEP) Teams, early intervening (pre-referral), transition, teacher quality, teacher preparation, pre-school and early intervention services, civil rights, accountability, funds, paperwork and meetings, and special education research and studies, please visit my web site at www.house.gov/tierney/idea112204.shtml.
Attached please find my statement on the Conference Report. Please feel free to forward this to those who might be interested in special education.
Sincerely,
John F. Tierney
Member
of Congress
Floor Remarks – IDEA Conference Report
Congressman John F. Tierney
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) for yielding me time and also for the excellent work she did on this bill. I also want to add my congratulations to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner), the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller), the gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Castle), as well as the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) who did do a good job and who went to conference and brought back a bill that I believe is going to get great support in this House.
While the final proposed version of IDEA does not meet 100 percent of the things that I and my constituents might have wanted if left to our own drafting devices, it does reach a reasonable compromise; and for that reason I support it.
Back in April of 2003, I spoke against this bill in the House version of H.R. 1350. Subsequently, I urged adoption of the bill that was a lot closer to the Senate version and, in fact, in committee I joined a number of colleagues on various proposed amendments that would have moved the House bill in that direction if they had passed. They did not. Those amendments were close votes and, sadly, they were along party lines; but I am glad to say that the conference report essentially incorporates the provisions that we sought in committee with at least one notable exception and that is the funding.
The heart of IDEA lies in the protection of children with disabilities and the individualization of their education to account for those disabilities. Therefore, the conferees were, I believe, wise to retain language requiring a determination of whether misbehavior was a manifestation of a child's disability or not. That ensures that no child is unfairly punished for their disabilities.
In addition to improving the House's version of discipline provisions, the conference report improves the monitoring and enforcement aspects to ensure the States actually comply with the law. It worked a fair compromise on early intervention. It does a much better job than existing law in addressing transition services for older students, a task I believe that we are going to have to pick up in the Workforce Investment Act as we reauthorize it in 2005, and I understand that the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner) has expressed a similar desire.
It sets standards for highly qualified teachers and focuses the resources on their professional development and preparing them for this specialized field. While it does not satisfy everyone, it does work out a compromise on these families' and students' civil rights. That is a significant improvement over the House version of this bill.
So the major issue still remaining, of course, is the funding. We did take the gentleman from Ohio's (Mr. LaTourette) bill and my bill, which would close a loophole. The Spending Integrity Act would close that loophole that otherwise would have let districts use up to 20 percent of additional funding for noneducational purposes, and this is important to close that, but we are still falling short in that mandatory full funding is not provided.
We have a commitment to reach that goal by 2011, and I hope that everybody who is involved in making that commitment will be just as vigorous in making sure that it becomes an actuality. But given last night's vote on once again raising the debt ceiling of this Nation another $800 billion and realizing that the budgets that have been proposed by this administration continually fall short, there is no assurance that that is going to be met. We have a lot of work to do to make sure we move in that direction.
We authorize and appropriate too little this year and presumably in future years. It is a serious problem that mars an otherwise reasonable compromise, but, Mr. Speaker, with that reservation in mind, I will vote for this conference report.
Again, I want to thank all of the constituents that worked on this bill with us, as well as all the people in the committee and the leaders in conference.
For more information on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), please visit www.house.gov/tierney/idea112204.shtml.
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