To be United States district judge for the federal circuit. The presiding officer the question now occurs on the stoll nomination. Is there a sufficient second . There appears to be. The clerk will call the roll. Vote vote vote the presiding officer does any senator wish to vote or change his or her vote . On this vote, the ayes are 95. The nays are zero. The nomination is confirmed. Under the previous order the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table. The president will be immediately notified of the senates action and the senate will resume legislative session. A senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from nebraska. Mrs. Fischer i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak for up to ten minutes each. The presiding officer without objection. Mrs. Fischer mr. President . This summer parents across the country will be preparing their children for the coming school year. Whether unwinding on a family break, purchasing School Supplies returning Summer Reading books to the library or finishing a summer camp, it will almost be time to go back to school. We owe so much to our hardworking educators. They are the role models for our children who provide invaluable life lessons that go well beyond reading, writing and arithmetic. Years before i served in the Nebraska Legislature i served on my local school board. And as president of the Nebraska Association of School Boards and on the Nebraska School finance review committee. These experiences helped shape my views on education policy. As a state lawmaker and they continue to inform my work here in the United States senate. Nebraska is truly fortunate to have excellent schools. Each School District has unique strengths and they face challenges that are specific to their schools and to their students. Because of this, parents teachers School Boards and communities are in the best position to know the needs of their students. They are an integral part of every childs academic success. And thats why i believe education decisions are best made at the state and especially at the local level. The role of the federal government should be to promote policies that will improve the ability of individual states to meet the needs of their specific communities. To that end ive worked with my colleagues senator king and senator tester to offer an amendment promoting local governance in education. The purpose of this bipartisan amendment is simple. To ensure that our local School Districts are not coerced into adopting misguided education requirements. It ensures that our local stakeholders have a stronger voice in both the regulatory and the guidance processes. This amendment would ensure that communities have ultimate authority over their School Districts. It also strengthens the relationship among School Board Members and parents. These changes are long overdue. We must limit federal intrusions into local education policy. As we prepare as we prepare for the first day of school, nebraska is focused on providing students with a wellrounded education. We must ensure our Public Policy enhances the classroom experience provides essential resources for Student Success and helps place our students on the path for successful futures. Thank you, mr. President. I yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from maine. Ms. Collins thank you mr. President. I rise to support the bipartisan every child achieves act. This is landmark legislation that would reform and reauthorize the elementary and secondary education act also known as no child left behind. This bill would improve our schools and strengthen the traditional roles played by our local communities our educators, and our states. I am proud to have joined every member of the senate health, education, labor and Pensions Committee in voting to report this bill, and i applaud the chairman senator alexander and the Ranking Member, senator murray for their leadership. Mr. President , congressional action to remedy the Serious Problems with the law no child left behind while preserving its valuable parts is long overdue. Nclb was a wellintentioned law and its focus on the education of every child Greater Transparency in School Performance and more accountability for results were welcome reforms. But, mr. President some of its provisions were simply not achievable and thus, discouraging to teachers, to parents and students alike. The Current System of unattainable standards and a patchwork of state waivers has led to confusion of federal requirements. Highstakes testing and unrealistic 100 proficiency goals do not raise aspirations. They instead disspirit those who are committed to a highquality education for our students. Responding to those concerns in 2004 along with thensenator Olympia Snowe i established the maine nclb task forts to examine the issues facing maine and to provide recommendations for changes in no child left behind. Our task force brought together individuals with a great deal of expertise, experience, and perspective on the law and on educational policy in general. The task force included Teachers Principals superintendents, School Board Members, parents and state officials. It was cochaired by leo martin, a former commissioner of the Maine Department of education and dan cooler, a former professor and then associate dean at the college of education at the university of maine. The task force completed its work in 2005. Well mr. President our Maine Task Force proved to be prescient in identifying the problems with implementing no child left behind and ten years later its report is as relevant as ever. Chief among the task forces final recommendations was the need for greater flexibility for the state department of education and for local School Boards. The members pointed out that the principles of improved student prrches performance and closing achievement gaps were completely compatible with according states more flex ibility to design different accountability measures. Reflecting that recommendation, the bill before us, the every child achieves act would remove the highstakes accountability system that has been proven unworkable under no child left behind. Our bill would give states muchneeded flexibility over how to improve the accountability of schools through student achievement. Recognizing also the critical importance of Family Engagement in education the bill supports School Districts in conducting parent outreach and participation activities. The every child achieves act would also eliminate the burdensome definition of a highly qualified teacher which has proven to be unworkable in maines smaller rural schools. In such schools mr. President the reality is that teachers must often teach multiple subjects and are reassigned to different content areas because of low enrollments. For example on maines north haven island, there is one school that serves all students from kindergarten to age 12 through the 12th grade. Sorry. With fewer than 70 students, North Haven Community School is one of the smallest k12 schools in my state. Its not surprising that the educators at the North Haven Community School teach multiple subject areas across the different grades because of the schools size. Mr. President , speaking of smaller schools im particularly pleased that the every child achieves act would extend the Rural EducationAchievement Program known as reap, which i coauthored with former senator kent conrad in 2002. Students in Rural America should have the same access to federal grant dollars as those who attend schools in large urban and suburban communities. Most federal competitive Grant Programs however favor larger School Districts because those are the districts that have the ability to liar grant writers to hire grant writers to apply for these grants. If youre in a School District like north haven which only has 70 students for all the grades, you dont have the luxury or the extra funds to hire grant writers to apply for these competitive Grant Programs. So what reap does is it provides Financial Assistance to small and highpoverty rural districts to help them address their unique local needs and also to meet federal requirements. This program has helped to support new technology in classrooms distancelearning opportunities, and pro proprofessional Development Professional development for educators as well as an array of other programs that benefit students and teachers in rural districts. Since the law was enacted at least 120 maine School Districts have collectively received more than 42 million from the Rural Education assistance program. Thats money that has made a real difference to these small rural, highpoverty districts and it is federal funds that they would never have been able to successfully compete for when they were applying against large urban School Districts. Mr. President , maines educators are working hard to develop highquality assessments that better track student performance and growth. Im pleased that the every child achieves act includes a Pilot Program to support states that are designing alternative assessment systems based on student proficiency not just traditional standardized tests. Such systems often give teachers parents and students a fuller understanding of each students abilities and better prepare them for college or the career path that they choose. The federal government should cooperate with states and School Districts that are designing new assessment systems and this Pilot Project is an important step in the right direction. During the committees consideration of this bill i offered an amendment with senator standards to allow more states to participate in the innovative Incentive Program and to give participating School Districts more time to scale up their systems statewide. Our amendment passed unanimously in committee and i would like to thank chairman alexander and Ranking Member murray for continuing to work with me to refine and improve this Pilot Program. Mr. President , the bottom line is that washington should not be imposing a topdown, onesizefits all approach to assessment. What works in chicago may not be the answer for turner, maine which was named a Blueribbon School last year. Assessing the progress of our students is critical but there are many effective ways to determine students level of learning. Mr. President , 50 years ago and alongside significant civil rights Legislation Congress first passed the elementary and secondary education act to improve access to education particularly for the students from lowincome families. Providing a good education for every child must remain a National Priority so that each child reaches his or her full potential has a wide range of opportunities and can compete in an increasingly Global Economy. The every child achieves act honors those Guiding Principles while returning greater control and flexibility to our states to local School Boards to educators. Again, i want to thank the chairman of the committee and the Ranking Member for their work in crafting this bipartisan bill. I look forward to the debate on it in the week to come and i urge my colleagues to support its passage. Thank you mr. President. I would yield the floor. A senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from utah. Mr. Lee mr. President i rise today to pay tribute to elder boyd kay packer, president of the quorum of the 12 pos he 12 apostles of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints, who passed away on saturday at the age of 90. He was a man of principle and a man who knew the power of principles. He taught that taughting about principles and doctrine changes behavior far better than talking about behavior changes behavior. He claimed the principles that lead to faithful families, Strong Communities and ultimately better nations. Trained as an educator, elder packer was truly a teacher. First, last and always. Whether interacting with an individual speaking in front of thousands writing one of his many inciteful books my insightful books or simply spending time with one of his beloved children, he was forever teaching. And to be clear he wasnt preaching, he was teaching teaching principles that would instruct inspire and improve all who came within the sound of his distinct and powerful voice. Boyd k. Packer understood the important influence of simple stories in teaching. He masterfully we have priceless principles into powerful modernday parables, keen observation from everyday living and spiritual lessons that were meaningful and memorable. Experiences such as tuning in an old radio getting his boys to stop wrestling in the living room. Visiting a small church in denmark, carving and painting birds. Learning about crocodiles in africa or observing the pleadings for help from an orphan boy while serving as a serviceman in japan. All emerged as foundational stories from which to teach lifechanging principles. Faith and family were always at the center of elder packers teaching and he often illustrated that intersection of faith and family. And thats where his critical lessons are taught. He illustrated that this intersection between faith and family is precisely where critical lessons are taught and learned and where children are prepared to live nobly and serve selflessly. In describing how to prepare children for life, he taught that children should be formed with a shield of faith. And out of that was necessity, a cot an industry. In his own way we can teach about the materials from which a shield of faith is made reverence, courage forgiveness compassion we can learn how to assemble and fit them together in many places, but the actually making of and fitting on of the shield of faith belongs in the family circle. Otherwise it may loosen and come off in a crisis. As a watchman on the tower boyd k. Packer was perpetually ahead of his time. He could see around difficult societal corners and had a clear view of the blessings and benefits that flow from principled living. What some may have interpreted as a stern and serious speaking style was simply elder packer teaching out of both love and urgency because he could see and he could sense what was on the horizon. Its been said that the ability to see ahead is both a blessing and a tremendous burden. Its a blessing because you can prepare and its a burden because often the people youre trying to help cant see what you can see. Elder packers ability to see ahead was unrivaled. Occasionally underestimated but always an unmatched blessing for those who chose to follow the visionary principles he taught. Elder packer was indeed, a Master Teacher because he he studied because he followed, he studied and he became to know the Master Teacher. Im confident that the principles boyd k. Packer shared with the world will continue to impact and improve behavior for generations to come. Thank you mr. President. I note the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call mr. Mcconnell mr. President . The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell are we in a quorum call . The presiding officer yes, we are. Mr. Mcconnell i ask that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 102 s. 286. The presiding officer the clerk will report. The clerk calendar number 102 s. 286 a bill to amend the indian selfdetermination and Education Assistance acts, and so forth. The presiding officer without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. Mr. Mcconnell i ask consent the amendment numbered 1471 be agreed to, the bill as amended be read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell now mr. President , i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its Business Today it adjourn until 10 00 a. M. Wednesday, july 8. Following the prayer and pledge, the morning business be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day. Following leader remarks the