This morning, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee marked up a bill to reauthorize the Education Sciences Reform Act or ESRA. The Senate Committee passed voice vote a bipartisan substitute amendment that closely tracks the House-passed version of this bill, H.R. 4366, the Strengthening Education through Research Act. The House passed the bill in March of this year.
ESRA authorizes education research activities at the Institute of Education Sciences, which is the research arm of the Department of Education.
The Senate version of ESRA represents a bipartisan, bicameral agreement on H.R. 4366. After it is approved by the full Senate, the House is expected to approve the Senate’s changes to the bill before it goes to the President.
The schedule for Senate floor action and final House action is not yet clear. It is unlikely the bill receive final Congressional approval before the November elections.