ConnSENSE

Urge Congress to Adopt All of CEC's IDEA Conference Recommendations

Now that Congress has appointed conferees to the House-Senate conference committee on IDEA reauthorization, we will continue to work with both conferee members and their staff in an effort to get as many of CEC's recommendations adopted as possible.

As you know, members of Congress have recessed until November 16th, when they plan to return for a one-week lame duck session. However, staff from both bodies will continue to work on a compromise IDEA bill between now and when Congress returns. It is our understanding that this process will be both fast-moving and "closed-door," meaning that we will be able to provide information to them, but all congressional activity on the bill will be embargoed - not to be shared with outside organizations until final agreements have been made among the conferees. We have been told that all consensus-building activities are targeted to be completed by November 10.

Be aware that this scenario could change, depending on the outcome of the upcoming presidential and congressional elections. Even if the IDEA conferees do pass a compromise bill during the lame-duck session next month, conflicting priorities - including the omnibus appropriations bill - could delay or even prevent the compromise IDEA bill from coming to the House and Senate floors for a vote.

Because CEC has been proactive in sharing our IDEA reauthorization priorities and conference document with members of Congress and their staff over the past several months, we feel confident that the members have received what CEC's positions are on various reauthorization issues.

TAKE ACTION!

We now need to urge our congressional members to adopt all of CEC's IDEA conference recommendations as the conference committee proceeds with deliberations on IDEA reauthorization. To send a letter to your Senators or Member of Congress, go to CEC's Legislative Action Center at: http://capwiz.com/cek/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=6135806

To see CEC's recommendations, go to: http://www.cec.sped.org/pp/August2004AnalysisforIDEAConferenceCECRecommendations.pdf