S.Amdt. 2113

SA 2113. Mr. BENNET submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to
amendment SA 2089 submitted by Mr. Alexander (for himself and Mrs.
Murray) to the bill S. 1177, to reauthorize the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act of 1965 to ensure that every child achieves;
which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

On page 424, strike lines 5 through 12 and insert the
following:
``(1) not more than 5 percent for national activities
authorized under section 4109;

On page 452, between lines 4 and 5, insert the following:

``SEC. 4109. NATIONAL ACTIVITIES.

``(a) APRA-ED.--From the funds reserved under section
4103(a)(1) to carry about this section, the Secretary may
reserve not more than 40 percent for each fiscal year to
carry out the activities of the Advanced Research Projects
Agency-Education established under section 221 of the
Department of Education Organization Act, as added by part C
of title X of the Every Child Achieves Act of 2015.
``(b) National Activities.--From the funds reserved under
section 4103(a)(1) and not further reserved in accordance
with subsection (a), the Secretary may carry out national
activities directly or through grants, contracts, or
agreements with public or private entities or individuals, or
other Federal agencies, such as providing technical
assistance to States and local educational agencies carrying
out activities under this part or conducting a national
evaluation.''.

At the end of title X, add the following:

PART C--ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY-EDUCATION

SEC. 10301. ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY-EDUCATION.

The Department of Education Organization Act (20 U.S.C.
3401 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 220 the
following new section:

``SEC. 221. ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY-EDUCATION.

``(a) Establishment.--There shall be in the Department an
Advanced Research Projects Agency-Education (referred to in
this section as `ARPA-ED').
``(b) Purposes.--ARPA-ED is established under this section
for the purposes of pursuing breakthrough research and
development in educational technology and providing the
effective use of the technology to improve achievement for
all students, by--
``(1) identifying and promoting revolutionary advances in
fundamental and applied sciences and engineering that could
be translated into new learning technologies;
``(2) developing novel learning technologies, and the
enabling processes and contexts for effective use of those
technologies;
``(3) developing, testing, and evaluating the impact and
efficacy of those technologies;
``(4) accelerating transformational technological advances
in areas in which the private sector, by itself, is not
likely to accelerate such advances because of difficulties in
implementation or adoption, or technical and market
uncertainty;
``(5) coordinating activities with nongovernmental entities
to demonstrate technologies and research applications to
facilitate technology transfer; and
``(6) encouraging educational research using new
technologies and the data produced by the technologies.
``(c) Authorities of Secretary.--The Secretary is
authorized to--
``(1) appoint a Director, who shall be responsible for
carrying out the purposes of ARPA-ED, as described in
subsection (b), and such additional functions as the
Secretary may prescribe;
``(2) establish processes for the development and execution
of projects and the solicitation of entities to carry out the
projects in a manner that is--
``(A) tailored to the purposes of ARPA-ED and not
constrained by other Department-wide administrative
requirements that could detract from achieving program
results; and
``(B) designed to heighten transparency, and public- and
private-sector involvement, to ensure that investments are
made in the most promising areas;
``(3) award grants, contracts, cooperative agreements, and
cash prizes, and enter into other transactions (in accordance
with such regulations as the Secretary may establish
regarding other transactions);
``(4) make appointments of up to 20 scientific,
engineering, professional, and other mission-related
employees, for periods of up to 4 years (which appointments
may not be renewed) without regard to the provisions of title
5, United States Code, governing appointments in the
competitive service;
``(5)(A) prescribe the rates of basic pay for the personnel
described in paragraph (4) at rates not in excess of the
maximum rate of basic pay authorized for senior-level
positions under section 5376 of title 5, United States Code,
notwithstanding any provision of that title governing the
rates of basic pay or classification of employees in the
executive branch, but those personnel shall not receive any
payment for service (such as an award, premium payment,
incentive payment or bonus, allowance, or other similar
payment) under any other provision of that title; and
``(B) pay any employee appointed pursuant to paragraph (4)
payments in addition to that basic pay, except that the total
amount of those payments for any calendar year shall not
exceed the lesser of--
``(i) $25,000; or
``(ii) the difference between the employee's annual rate of
basic pay under paragraph (4) and the annual rate for level I
of the Executive Schedule under section 5312 of title 5,
United States Code, based on the rates in effect at the end
of the applicable calendar year (or, if the employee
separated during that year, on the date of separation);
``(6) obtain independent, periodic, rigorous evaluations,
as appropriate, of--
``(A) the effectiveness of the processes ARPA-ED is using
to achieve its purposes; and
``(B) the effectiveness of individual projects assisted by
ARPA-ED, using evidence standards developed in consultation
with the Institute of Education Sciences, and the suitability
of ongoing projects assisted by ARPA-ED for further
investment or increased scale; and
``(7) disseminate, through the comprehensive centers
established under section 203 of the Educational Technical
Assistance Act of 2002 (20 U.S.C. 9602), the regional
educational laboratories system established under section 174
of the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (20 U.S.C.
9564), or such other means as the Secretary determines to be
appropriate, information on effective practices and
technologies developed with ARPA-ED support.
``(d) Evaluation Funds.--The Secretary may use funds made
available for ARPA-ED to pay the cost of the evaluations
under subsection (c)(6).
``(e) Federal Advisory Committee Act.--Notwithstanding any
other provision of law, any advisory committee convened by
the Secretary to provide advice with respect to this section
shall be exempt from the requirements of the Federal Advisory
Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.) and the definition of
`employee' in section 2105 of title 5, United States Code,
shall not be considered to include any appointee to such a
committee.
``(f) Nonduplication.--To the maximum extent practicable,
the Secretary shall ensure that grants, contracts,
cooperative agreements, cash prizes, or other assistance or
arrangements awarded or entered into pursuant to this section
that are designed to carry out the purposes of ARPA-ED do not
duplicate activities under programs carried out under Federal
law other than this section by the Department or other
Federal agencies.''.
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