news

As a parent, grandparent and former teacher, Rep. Young knows all too well about the varied and unique needs of our children in Alaska.  Our children should expect a high quality education, access to health care and a safe place to live.  He has spent his entire Congressional career working to make sure that our Alaskan children are not forgotten in Washington, D.C. and he will continue to fight on their behalf.

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) - The Education and Labor Committee hosted a listening session in May of this year to give members the opportunity to provide positive and negative feedback about NCLB.  Rep. Young submitted testimony to the Committee that focused on the changes he has included in his bill, H.R. 648.  His legislation calls for continued testing of students, but includes increased flexibility for local school districts to best decide how to test and monitor student progress.  The Committee is expected to introduce the bill to reauthorize NCLB this fall and several items from H.R. 648 will be incorporated into it.

Secretary Spellings’ Visit - Congressman Young worked with Senators Stevens and Murkowski in inviting and welcoming Education Secretary Margaret Spellings to Alaska.  During her tour of the state, Secretary Spellings visited and met with students, parents, teachers, administrators and local officials in Bethel, Eek, Nome, Shishmaref and Anchorage.  She was able to see first-hand, the unique challenges and achievements in our schools.

Legislation Cosponsored by Rep. Young

H.R. 567- Children of Fallen Soldiers Pell Grant Act - Ensures Pell Grant eligibility for any student whose parent or guardian died as a result of performing military service in Iraq or Afghanistan after September 11, 2001.

H.R. 687 - Keeping Families Together Act - establishes a State family support grant program to end the practice of parents giving legal custody of their seriously emotionally disturbed children to State agencies for the purpose of obtaining mental health services for those children.

H.R. 719 - Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators (KIDS) Act - Amends the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act to require a convicted sex offender to provide any email, instant messaging or other similar identifier used to communicate over the Internet to National Sex Offender Registry and to keep it current.  Penalties include a fine or prison sentence of up to 10 years for failure to provide the information and a sentence of up to 20 years for age misrepresentation with the intent to use the Internet to engage in criminal sexual conduct with a minor.

H.R. 887 - Graduation Really Achieves Dreams (GRAD) Act - Authorizes the Secretary of Education to award a grant to Project GRAD USA, a nonprofit educational organization for improving high school graduation and college attendance and completion rates for disadvantaged students, to provide technical assistance and support through subgrants to existing and new programs that implement a set of integrated education reform services.

H.R. 1532 - Comprehensive Tuberculosis Elimination Act - Amends the Public Health Service Act to set forth research and demonstration projections for the prevention, control, and elimination of tuberculosis that shall receive priority from the Secretary of Health and Human Services in awarding research grants for tuberculosis.

H.R. 2021 - Right Start Child Care and Education Act – This bill increases the tax credit for employers establishing workplace child care facilities, increases the child care tax credit to encourage greater use of quality child care services, and provides incentives for students to earn child care-related degrees and to work in child care facilities.

H.R. 2287 - Teacher Tax Credit Act – This legislation provides a $2000 tax credit for an individual who is a teacher, instructor, counselor, principal, or aide in any of grades kindergarten through 12 in a low income elementary or secondary school for at least 900 hours during a school year.

Legislation Passed by the House and Supported by Rep. Young

H.R. 5 - College Student Relief Act of 2007 - This bill cuts the interest rate on certain federal student loans in half - from a fixed rate of 6.8% to a fixed rate of 3.4%.  Today's college students are graduating with increasing levels of student loan debt. The average student graduates with $17,500 in loan debt; almost 45 percent more than just 11 years ago.

H.R. 976 - State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) - This bipartisan compromise will expand enrollment from 6.6 million children to about 10 million children.  It provides an additional $35 billion in funding over the next five years and brings total spending on the program to $60 billion.  Specifically, the bill will: require dental benefits for all children enrolled in the program, as well as "mental health services on par with medical and surgical benefits" covered under SCHIP; reinforce coverage of early periodic screening diagnosis and treatment benefits; allow states to enroll pregnant women in SCHIP or cover them through other approaches; and provide grants to states, local governments, schools, community organizations and others to enroll eligible children in the program.

H.R. 1429 - Improving Head Start Act - This bill revises and reauthorizes Head Start programs.  It includes children's growth in language, literacy, mathematics, science, social and emotional functioning, physical skills, and approaches to learning among the aims of Head Start programs.

H.Res. 299 - Increase public awareness of child abuse and neglect - This resolution expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that Congress should increase public awareness of child abuse and neglect and should continue to work with states to reduce the incidence of child abuse and neglect through such programs as the Child Welfare Services and Promoting Safe and Stable Families programs.