Reid, McConnell point fingers over No Child Left Behind fix
"Republicans and Democrats have long agreed that the No Child Left Behind is broken and needs to be fixed, but the Senate didn't do anything about it for seven long years, missing its deadlines repeatedly," McConnell said from the Senate floor, referring to Reid's time as majority leader.
The Kentucky Republican compared the inability to previously pass a reform bill to the Senate's current debate on the Every Child Achieves Act, a reform bill that passed out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee by unanimous consent.
"Just think about it, from third rail to unanimous bipartisan support. Now, that's an impressive achievement," McConnell added.
He suggested that the Senate's ability to take up the legislation was another example of Republican leadership's promise to restore regular Senate to the order and highlight the GOP's ability to govern ahead of the 2016 election.
Dozens of senators have submitted amendments to the legislation, and McConnell called on senators to "continue working cooperatively across the aisle" and "reining in the power of the executive branch."
Reid fired back that the Senate could have previously passed a fix to the No Child Left Behind law, but that he couldn't get cooperation from Republicans.
"It's nice that my friend, the Republican leader, comes and talks about all the great things being done in the Congress now, but the fact is it could have been done many years ago had we had a little bit of cooperation from the Republicans," he said.
The Democratic leader noted that former Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who chaired the HELP Committee, "tried very hard" to pass legislation, adding, "Why didn't we get it? Because the Republicans blocked us from doing it." Reid, McConnell point fingers over No Child Left Behind fix | TheHill: