IB
Union Calendar No. 236
105TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 2846
[Report No. 105–409]
To prohibit spending Federal education funds on national testing without
explicit and specific legislation.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
NOVEMBER 6, 1997
Mr. GOODLING (for himself, Mr. GRAHAM, Mrs. ROUKEMA, Mr. PAUL, Mr.
NORWOOD, Mr. DEAL of Georgia, Mr. HILLEARY, Mr. DUNCAN, Mr.
DELAY, Mr. LARGENT, Mr. PAPPAS, Ms. WATERS, Mr. SHADEGG, Mr.
MCKEON, Mr. GINGRICH, Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania, Mr. HYDE, Mr.
SOUDER, Mr. ARMEY, Mr. BLUNT, Mr. WICKER, and Mr. KASICH) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Edu-
cation and the Workforce
JANUARY 30, 1998
Additional sponsors: Mr. WATTS of Oklahoma, Mr. EHRLICH, Mr. ISTOOK,
Mr. ENSIGN, Mr. DICKEY, Mr. BACHUS, Mrs. CUBIN, Mr. HUTCHINSON,
Mr. BOEHNER, Mr. CANADY of Florida, Mr. RIGGS, Mr. TALENT, Mr.
HOEKSTRA, Mr. PETERSON of Pennsylvania, Mr. WELDON of Florida,
Mr. MCINTOSH, Mr. OWENS, Mr. SAM
JOHNSON
of Texas, Mr.
BALLENGER, Mr. BEREUTER, Mr. CANNON, Mr. ADERHOLT, Mr.
CHABOT, Mr. TIAHRT, Mr. GOODE, Mr. MORAN of Kansas, Mrs. EMER-
SON, Mr. LAHOOD, Mrs. LINDA SMITH of Washington, Mr. SALMON, Mr.
LEWIS of Kentucky, Mr. ENGLISH of Pennsylvania, Mr. GIBBONS, Mr.
NETHERCUTT, Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina, Mr. CUNNINGHAM, Mr.
PORTMAN, Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland, Mr. COX of California, Mr. BLI-
LEY, Mr. DOOLITTLE, Mr. SCHIFF, Ms. DUNN, Mr. MCCRERY, Mr.
CRANE, Mr. BARTON of Texas, Mr. NEUMANN, Mr. SOLOMON, Mr. COM-
BEST, Mr. COLLINS, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Mr. SHIMKUS, Mr. BAR-
RETT of Nebraska, Mr. HOSTETTLER, Mr. HEFLEY, Mr. CALLAHAN, Mr.
COBURN, Mr. BUNNING, Mr. HERGER, Mr. JONES, Mr. BASS, Mr. KING-
STON, Mr. PORTER, Mr. LEACH, Mr. SESSIONS, Mr. BRADY, Mr. PACK-
ARD, Mr. LATHAM, Mr. HASTERT, Mr. KLINK, Mr. CHRISTENSEN, Mr.
WALSH, Mr. WATKINS, Mr. RILEY, Mr. SUNUNU, Mr. LINDER, Mr. PICK-
ERING, Mrs. MYRICK, Mr. PITTS, Mrs. CHENOWETH, Mr. SCARBOROUGH,
Mrs. FOWLER, Mr. BONILLA, Mr. GILLMOR, Mr. THUNE, Mr. GOSS, Mr.
SMITH of Oregon, Ms. PRYCE of Ohio, Mr. MANZULLO, Mr. INGLIS of
South Carolina, Mr. BURTON of Indiana, Mr. CRAPO, and Mr. KNOLLEN-
BERG
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole
House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic]
A BILL
To prohibit spending Federal education funds on national
testing without explicit and specific legislation.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. PROHIBITION ON NATIONAL TESTING.
(a) GENERAL EDUCATION PROVISIONS.—Part C of
the General Education Provisions Act is amended by add-
ing at the end the following:
‘‘SEC. 447. PROHIBITION ON NATIONAL TESTING.
‘‘(a) GENERAL PROHIBITION.—Notwithstanding any
other provision of Federal law, funds provided to the De-
partment of Education or to an applicable program under
this Act or any other Act, may not be used to develop,
plan, implement (including pilot testing or field testing),
or administer any national testing program in reading or
mathematics or any other subject that is not specifically
and explicitly provided for in authorizing legislation en-
acted into law.
‘‘(b) EXCEPTION.—Subsection (a) shall not apply to
the Third International Math and Science Study.’’.
(b)
FUND
FOR
THE
IMPROVEMENT
OF
EDU-
CATION.—Section 10101 of the Elementary and Second-
ary Education Act of 1965 is amended—
(1) by redesignating subsection (d) as sub-
section (e); and
(2) by inserting after subsection (c), the follow-
ing:
‘‘(d) GENERAL PROHIBITION.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other
provision of this section, funds provided under this
section may not be used to develop, plan, implement
(including pilot testing or field testing), or admin-
ister any national testing program in reading or
mathematics or any other subject that is not specifi-
cally and explicitly provided for in authorizing legis-
lation enacted into law.
‘‘(2)
EXCEPTION.—Paragraph
(1)
shall
not
apply to the Third International Math and Science
Study.’’.
SECTION 1. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) High State and local standards in reading,
mathematics, and other core academic subjects are es-
sential to the future well-being of elementary and sec-
ondary education in this country.
(2) State and local control of education is the
hallmark of education in the United States.
(3) Each of the 50 States already utilizes numer-
ous tests to measure student achievement, including
State and commercially available assessments. State
assessments are based primarily upon State and lo-
cally developed academic standards.
(4) Public Law 105–78, the Labor, Health and
Human Services and Education Appropriations Act,
1998, ensures that Federal funds may not be used to
field test, pilot test, implement, administer, or distrib-
ute in any way, any federally sponsored national test
in fiscal year 1998, requires the National Academy of
Sciences to conduct a study to determine whether an
equivalency scale can be developed that would allow
existing tests to be compared one to another, and per-
mits very limited test development activities in fourth
grade reading and eighth grade mathematics in fiscal
year 1998.
(5) There is no specific or explicit authority in
current Federal law authorizing the proposed feder-
ally sponsored national tests in fourth grade reading
and eighth grade mathematics.
(6) The decision of whether or not this country
implements, administers, disseminates, or otherwise
has federally sponsored national tests in fourth grade
reading and eighth grade mathematics or any other
subject, will be determined primarily through the nor-
mal legislative process involving Congress and the re-
spective authorizing committees.
SEC. 
2. 
PROHIBITION 
ON 
FEDERALLY 
SPONSORED
TESTING.
Part C of the General Education Provisions Act is
amended by adding at the end the following:
‘‘§ 447. Prohibition on federally sponsored testing
‘‘(a) GENERAL PROHIBITION.—Notwithstanding any
other provision of Federal law and, except as provided in
sections 305 through 311 of Public Law 105–78, the Labor,
Health and Human Services and Education Appropria-
tions Act, 1998, funds provided to the Department of Edu-
cation or to an applicable program under this Act or any
other Act, may not be used to develop, plan, implement (in-
cluding pilot testing or field testing), or administer any fed-
erally sponsored national test in reading, mathematics, or
any other subject that is not specifically and explicitly pro-
vided for in authorizing legislation enacted into law.
‘‘(b) EXCEPTIONS.—Subsection (a) shall not apply to
the Third International Math and Science Study or other
international comparative assessments developed under au-
thority of section 406(a)(6) of the National Education Sta-
tistics Act of 1994, and administered to only a representa-
tive sample of pupils in the United States and in foreign
nations.’’.
Union Calendar No. 236
105TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 2846
[Report No. 105–409]
A BILL
To prohibit spending Federal education funds on
national testing without explicit and specific leg-
islation.
JANUARY 30, 1998
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Commit-
tee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, and
ordered to be printed