S. 1177: Every Child Achieves Act of 2015
This was a vote to pass S. 1177 (114th) in the Senate.
It was not the final Senate vote on the bill. See the history of S. 1177 (114th) for further details.
The Every Child Achieves Act is a bipartisan educational policy reform bill that would expand state responsibility over schools, provide grants to charter schools, and reduce the federal test-based accountability system of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The bill was referred to the Senate committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, or HELP, who issued this summary. The chairman of HELP, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), sponsored the bill. In his press release on July 8, Alexander explained that the bill would continue NCLB’s federal assessments of student learning, but would give states the authority to act based on those results. HELP ranking member Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) issued her own press release in support of the bill. The Senate started debate on the bill last Tuesday.
Amendments:
S.Amdt. 2107 limits federal authority to create new regulations without Congressional approval. It was accepted by a vote of 56-41. 42 Democrats and 13 Republicans voted yea.
S.Amdt. 2139 would have allowed states to let federal funds for the education of disadvantaged children follow low-income students to the State-approved school they attend. It was rejected by a vote of 45-52. All supporting votes came from Republicans.
Totals
| All Votes | Republicans | Democrats | Independents | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yea | 83% |
81
|
39
|
40
|
2
|
| Nay | 17% |
17
|
14
|
3
|
0
|
| Not Voting |
2
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
|
Bill Passed. Simple Majority Required. Source: senate.gov.
The Yea votes represented 78% of the country’s population by apportioning each state’s population to its voting senators.
Ideology Vote Chart
Vote Details
“Aye” and “Yea” mean the same thing, and so do “No” and “Nay”. Congress uses different words in different sorts of votes.
The U.S. Constitution says that bills should be decided on by the “yeas and nays” (Article I, Section 7). Congress takes this literally and uses “yea” and “nay” when voting on the final passage of bills.
All Senate votes use these words. But the House of Representatives uses “Aye” and “No” in other sorts of votes.
Statistically Notable Votes
Statistically notable votes are the votes that are most surprising, or least predictable, given how other members of each voter’s party voted and other factors.
All Votes
Study Guide
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You can find answers to most of the questions below here on the vote page. For a guide to understanding the bill this vote was about, see here.
What was the procedure for this vote?
- What was this vote on?
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Not all votes are meant to pass legislation. In the Senate some votes are not about legislation at all, since the Senate must vote to confirm presidential nominations to certain federal positions.
This vote is related to a bill. However, that doesn’t necessarily tell you what it is about. Congress makes many decisions in the process of passing legislation, such as on the procedures for debating the bill, whether to change the bill before voting on passage, and even whether to vote on passage at all.
You can learn more about the various motions used in Congress at EveryCRSReport.com. If you aren’t sure what the Senate was voting on, try seeing if it’s on this list.
Take a look at where this bill is in the legislative process. What might come next? Keep in mind what this specific vote was on, and the context of the bill. Will there be amendments? Will the other chamber of Congress vote on it, or let it die?
For this question it may help to briefly examine the bill itself.
What is your analysis of this vote?
- What trends do you see in this vote?
- How did your senators vote?
- How much of the United States population is represented by the yeas?
Members of Congress side together for many reasons beside being in the same political party, especially so for less prominent legislation or legislation specific to a certain region. What might have determined how the roll call came out in this case? Does it look like Members of Congress voted based on party, geography, or some other reason?
There are two votes here that should be more important to you than all the others. These are the votes cast by your senators, which are meant to represent you and your community. Do you agree with how your senators voted? Why do you think they voted the way they did?
If you don’t already know who your Members of Congress are you can find them by entering your address here.
GovTrack displays the percentage of the United States population represented by the yeas on some Senate votes just under the vote totals. We do this to highlight how the people of the United States are represented in the Senate. Since each state has two senators, but state populations vary significantly, the individuals living in each state have different Senate representation. For example, California’s population of near 40 million is given the same number of senators as Wyoming’s population of about 600,000.
Do the senators who voted yea represent a majority of the people of the United States? Does it matter?
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