Current Policy Initiatives

                                                                                                                                                                                                           
Fattah Neuroscience Initiative - The Fattah Neuroscience Initiative (FNI) is an innovative, non-incremental policy initiative designed to make major progress in understanding the human brain by intensifying, in a collaborative fashion, federal research efforts across brain disease, disorder, injury, cognition and development.  The initiative aims to coordinate Federal research across agencies and draw upon public-private partnerships and the world of academia.  The initiative promotes research and discovery across brain cognition, development, disease and injury.

Equity and Excellence Commission – At the direction of Congressman Fattah and Congressman Mike Honda (CA-15), Secretary of Education Arne Duncan established the Equity and Excellence Commission to recommend appropriate policies at all levels of government to ensure all children have access to a high-quality education.  The Commission, comprised of experts from across the country, is currently preparing a report to the Secretary.

ESEA Fiscal Fairness Act (H.R. 1294) - Addresses the “comparability” provision in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to require that federal Title I dollars in high-poverty schools, cover some of the additional cost of educating children in concentrated poverty and do not subsidize the inequitable allocation of state and local dollars within school districts.  Currently, real dollars spent at the school level are not taken into account, so federal funds are used to fill gaps instead of provide additional resources.

Student Bill of Rights (H.R. 1295) – Calls for States to provide highly effective teachers, early childhood education, college prep curricula and equitable instructional resources to all students who attend public schools. By requiring the reporting of high-impact resource allocation, and requiring remediation plans to address inequities, this legislation aims to close the significant resource gaps between school districts

Communities Committed To College Tax Credit Act (H.R. 4349) – Provides a 50% tax credit to donors who contribute to “qualifying scholarship trusts,” which are partnerships between local school districts and community based organizations. The legislation will encourage communities all across the nation to provide a pathway and an incentive for pumping local capital directly toward the education of local students.

American Dream Accounts Act (H.R. 4207) - Under Dream Accounts, low income students would establish secure Web-based accounts that track their college readiness, contain information about academic preparedness, financial literacy and high-impact mentoring and would be tied to a college savings account. Instead of approaching these threads independently, this bill connects students, parents and teachers across silos, and takes a small but significant step toward helping more under-served students of all income levels access, afford and complete a college education. The Dream Accounts Act authorizes the Department of Education to award three-year competitive grants to encourage innovative and comprehensive partnerships supporting low-income students in preparation for a college education.

American Discoveries and American Jobs Commission Act of 2011 (H.R. 2015)
Establishes a commission to study and recommend improvements to the existing system of federally funded research. H.R. 2015 requires the commission to assess the benefits of collecting royalties from government subsidized research that leads to the commercialization of products. The fees would be reinvested in the federal agencies for future discoveries. The commission is further directed to make certain that products developed with federal research funds are manufactured in the United States. This would not only produce jobs but guarantee broader benefits from initial investments.  The bill also provides for increased transparency about the many technologies Americans use on a daily basis that were developed from research they, as taxpayers, funded.

The Debt Free America Act (H.R. 1125) – Proposes to eliminate the national debt, reduce the national deficit and reform the current tax system. The measure calls for a dedicated penny fee on every dollar transacted in the United States, with the exception of stock transactions and transactions involving personal bank accounts.  In addition to eliminating the national debt, the bill provides the framework for fundamental federal tax reform by eliminating the federal personal income tax and the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) 10 years after the bill’s implementation.  The Debt Free America Act is the only legislation before the Congress that would pay down the federal debt within a decade.  Other debt and deficit reduction proposals either take too long or don’t go far enough to address the problem.

National Cooperative Development Act (H.R. 3677) - Cooperatives are owned and controlled by the people who use the co-op's services or buy its goods. They range in size from the local corner store to Fortune 500 companies, and can include insurance, healthcare, housing, recreation materials and equipment as well as more traditional uses such as rural electricity. This legislation creates a National Cooperative Development Center that will: (1) award grants to nonprofit organizations, colleges, and universities so that they can provide technical assistance to operating cooperatives or groups that are attempting to form cooperatives;  (2) provide guidance, information on best practices and technical assistance to communities seeking to establish cooperatives; (3) create a revolving loan fund to provide loans and seed capital to groups who are attempting to form cooperative; and (4) establish cooperative development centers in areas that currently do not have them.