Bipartisan negotiations have been moving at a quicker pace over the last few weeks as the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hoped to finally move forward on its Perkins reauthorization bill. Last week, Committee Chair Lamar Alexander (R-TN) formally announced committee consideration of a yet-to-be-released Perkins reauthorization bill for this Wednesday, June 20. He had also committed to moving a bill forward even if partisan agreement was not reached on a proposal.
However, on Monday, the Committee announced that the Executive Session to mark up the bill would be postponed due to conflicts with the Senate schedule. Negotiations continue, and are making progress, but legislation has yet to be released. We’ve included the full statement by Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) below:
“We have announced an Executive Session for June 20 for a series of important bills and nominations. Our goal is bipartisan agreement on the Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, and we are making significant progress toward that goal. Because Sen. Alexander will be managing the Energy and Water Appropriations bill on the Senate floor next week, we have agreed to postpone the June 20 Executive Session to Tuesday, June 26 or Wednesday, June 27 at a time to be determined.”
The Committee was also scheduled to consider the nomination of Scott Stump to serve as the Assistant Secretary of Career, Technical and Adult Education during the Executive Session, so this vote (as well as votes on a few other bills and nominations) will need to be rescheduled as well.
ACTE joined with Advance CTE to issue a statement supporting the continued bipartisan negotiations and careful consideration of Perkins. We hope to have a final date and time for the markup and draft legislation to share soon, and will let you know if action is needed!
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