Phylicia's Law

I thank the gentleman for the time.

Mr. Speaker, today, we consider legislation that is an important step in protecting our young people as they come to explore this amazing world that we live in.

First, I want to take time to thank my friend, the Education and Labor Chairman George Miller. Earlier this year, Chairman Miller took time from his schedule to meet with Phylicia Moore's parents, Lola and Douglas Moore, and with Phylicia's brother, Christopher. Chairman Miller heard their heartbreaking story. The legislation we have before us today is a testament to his leadership and to his compassion.

I also want to acknowledge the role played by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. He also personally met with the Moores. He and his staff have suggested several important improvements to the bill. I am deeply grateful for his personal involvement.

I would also like to thank Ranking Member McKeon and my colleagues on the other side of the aisle for their bipartisan support of this very important legislation.

I would also like to recognize and to express my gratitude for the endorsements of the National Parent Teacher Association, the National Education Association and the National School Boards Association for this important bill.

Phylicia's Law bears the name of a young woman from my district who was taken from us much too soon. Phylicia Moore was an 18-year-old high school student from Teaneck, New Jersey, who died in April 2007 while on a school-sponsored trip to Ghana.

Today, however, is not about the past. We are here to talk about the future and what we can do to help ensure that no more parents endure what Douglas and Lola Moore have gone through. It is the culmination of the Moores' hard work, the dedication to their daughter and to her memory, and their desire that no other parents suffer as they have that brings us to this moment on the floor of the United States House of Representatives.

As a parent myself, when I send my children to school, I expect them to be safe. I expect them to be just as safe when the school takes them on a field trip off school premises. Public school districts are now required to have safety plans and security procedures in place for the physical campus of their schools. However, there are no such requirements when schools take students off campus for field trips or for any other reason. Phylicia's Law will fix this dangerous omission.

Phylicia's Law will require school districts to develop a safety policy for overnight school trips. However, the bill as written still gives individual schools the leeway to determine their own plans and procedures, which parents will then be able to review before the parents decide if the school district has the right security plan for their child sufficient to allow a parent in good conscience to let their child take this off-campus school trip.

Given that schools already know how to devise their security plans for on-

campus events, this new requirement for off-campus events should not be overly burdensome. On the contrary, I think this new requirement should be welcome as a plan and set of procedures that will help protect everyone on their trip.

With plans and procedures in place, there will be a blueprint for chaperones, for their trip leaders, for students, and for parents, all of whom will want to know what individual roles and responsibilities there are on this trip and what will happen should tragedy strike. We need Phylicia's Law to not only keep children safe but help schools to continue to offer important off-campus learning activities.

Off-campus school trips are an important part of the educational experience of our Nation's students. Each year, millions of our young people enjoy these trips. They provide students with invaluable learning opportunities outside the classroom. Keeping our students safe is paramount, but we also need to continue to provide these essential off-campus educational experiences.

Phylicia Moore was in Ghana on a goodwill trip. She was there to help others. She was a good, caring person. She was brave. She was filled with light. When speaking with Phylicia's parents, Douglas and Lola Moore, it is easy to see how much loved Phylicia was. Douglas and Lola's love helped make Phylicia the wonderful young woman she had become. It is with a heavy heart that I stand here today because nothing will bring this wonderful young woman back. But I commend Phylicia's parents, Douglas and Lola Moore, coming to me about Phylicia's Law, for caring about other parents and children, and I hope that we can get Phylicia's Law passed for them, for their daughter, and to make sure that parents across the country never have to face the pain that the Moores will continue to live with.

I urge my colleagues to stand up for students and parents across this country by supporting this bill.

I thank the gentleman.

The gentleman has expressed, I think, an important concern with regards to those powers that are not deemed already provided to the Federal Government with regards to the State should not be expanded. However, there are many, many instances--whether it be clean water standards or clean air standards or seatbelt standards for cars; the list is endless--to protect the public safety and good health of our people that the Federal Legislature, made up of 435 of us from all over the country, provide the minimum standards of safety that we wish to have in each of the 50 States.

But recognizing the general intention of the gentleman's objection, we changed the law to make it even more local community friendly this way. We said, We're not going to tell the local school districts what plan to have. Whatever plan they come up with is fine, period. All we require them to do is to have a plan or not have a plan but simply tell the parents, We have no plan, or, Here is our plan. This is to empower parents to make an informed judgment as to whether they want to put their children's safety in the hands of this particular school district if and when the school district decides they want to go on a school trip. I think that's why it has received bipartisan support.

I'm a former local mayor, former judge myself, and I'm very sensitive to too much intrusion in the local decisionmaking. This simply says to the school districts have a plan or don't have a plan, but you have got to tell the parents and let them make their judgment on the validity of the plan so that they can decide, as a parent, then, whether they want to go forth.

This is not just a tribute to Phylicia, although it is in some part. It is an effort to prevent these tragedies from happening again. That's why the National Parent-Teacher Association, the National School Boards Association, and the National Education Association, as well as colleagues on both sides of the aisle, have supported it.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, it is heartwarming and touching to hear the tribute to Phylicia Moore by my colleague from New Jersey, a very touching and well-deserved tribute. This bill obviously is borne out of the noblest of intentions and came, unfortunately, from a tragic consequence.

Obviously, the intention here is to safeguard our schoolchildren. Could there be any more noble intention? The effect, though, unfortunately, is to further take the Federal Government into the local schools--we've already intruded greatly into the local schools--and tell them what they must do.

Initially, it's to come up with a plan. There should be a plan. There should have been a plan. There should have been more direction from the local school, from the school board. I know from my own circumstances growing up going to school in a public school, the school board wouldn't allow us to take 2-week trips, and had anyone been allowed to take such a field trip, then they would likely have been defeated in the next school board election, because if you look at the Constitution, the Founders realized the best control is local control for so many of these issues.

There needs to be accountability. There should be accountability. I got into a rather testy discussion with our former Secretary of Education, Secretary Spellings, because Secretary Spellings, as did our immediately previous President, wanted to engage and dictate educational policy to the local schools. I didn't agree with that. I felt it was inappropriate.

Secretary Spellings at one point said, Well, if you liked what I did when I was in Austin, you ought to love what I'm doing in Washington. I said, No, because the 10th Amendment says that if a power is not specifically enumerated, it's reserved to the States and the people. When you were in Austin, you were part of the State. It was a reserved power for you. At this time, though, you're acting outside that parameter, and I don't appreciate all of the dictation from Washington. It was true under the previous administration and it's true today. It was true when the Constitution was founded.

I think the tribute to Phylicia Moore is well-deserved. She sounds like a wonderful young lady, and there is no way there could be adequate compensation or action to lessen the hurt adequately of those who loved her and suffered from her loss. But here again, this would usurp further what the previous administration did in dictating local policy. And I understand the amendment now simply requires that a policy be put in place, and that's better, but we know in the days ahead how that normally works, then someone else more zealous comes forward and says, And the policy must include this and this and this.

So I still believe the best school control is local control, State control, and holding school board members responsible to the local electorate.

I would support any tribute to Phylicia Moore and to the efforts this wonderful young lady was trying to exert on behalf of others, but I would oppose another dictation from Washington on what a local school board must do. Let's keep that control back in the local school board.

And I see my friend from New Jersey is ready to speak. I yield to the gentleman.

Thank you, and reclaiming my time, I did want to yield to you because I wasn't sure with the way the conversation was going if you had adequate time to respond, and I wanted to give you the chance and have the time to do so.

And I do appreciate the gentleman's position. And I would say that if it pertained to school trips, field trips that crossed State lines, and particularly here where it went to another country, certainly I would join in support for perhaps even further requirements than the minimum that has been offered here.

But since that's not the case, I would be in opposition to a further dictation from Washington of any requirements and would encourage every single person, Mr. Speaker, in America to start monitoring your local school board. Hold them accountable, and if they're taking actions that are irresponsible, negligent, inappropriate, then fire them by electing someone else.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 729) to help keep students safe on school-run, overnight, off-premises field trips, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I request 5 legislative days during which Members may revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material on H.R. 729 into the Record.

I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 729, which is a bill that helps keeps students safe on school-run, overnight, off-premises field trips.

In April 2007, Phylicia Moore, a high school senior, died while participating in a field trip in Ghana. Her death, ruled an accident by authorities in Ghana, is undergoing further investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The tragedy of Phylicia's death exposed a flaw in the system, and it has served as a reminder of the importance of having procedures in place when students participate in overnight field trips.

The legislation put forward today will go a long way towards keeping students safe. This bill requires school districts to receive money through the Safe and Drug-Free Schools program to develop and make public school safety policy for off-premises, overnight field trips. The bill would further encourage the Secretary of Education to develop model school safety plans and to disseminate those best practices to school districts.

Trips, like the one that Phylicia took to Ghana, are intended to change students' lives for the better. It is important to expose our young people to

learning experiences outside the classroom, but we must ensure their safety at the same time. Phylicia had worked a part-time job to cover the cost of the trip, and had raised money for an orphanage and for an AIDS charity in Ghana. Unfortunately, she was never able to experience the country. She passed away on the first night of the trip.

I want to thank Lola and Douglas Moore, the parents of Phylicia, whose hard work has brought national attention to this issue. They have worked through their grief and, fueled by the tragic loss of their child, have toiled tirelessly to keep other parents from experiencing a similar loss. With passage of this bill, Congress has the opportunity to join with this family to prevent future tragedies.

Mr. Speaker, once again, I express my support for Phylicia's Law. I thank Representative Rothman for his dedication in bringing this bill to the floor, and I urge my colleagues to pass this important law.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to recognize the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Rothman) for 8 minutes.

Does the gentlewoman from Washington have any additional speakers?

Mr. Speaker, again, I urge my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to support H.R. 729, as amended.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, unfortunately Monday night, June 15, 2009, I was unable to cast my votes on H. Res. 430, H.R. 2325, H.R. 729 and H. Res. 540.

Had I been present for rollcall No. 336, on suspending the rules and passing H. Res. 430, Expressing condolences to the citizens of Italy and support for the Government of Italy in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that struck the Abruzzo region of central Italy, I would have voted ``aye.''

Had I been present for rollcall No. 337, on suspending the rules and passing H.R. 2325, the Laredo Veterans Post Office, I would have voted ``aye.''

Had I been present for rollcall No. 338, on suspending the rules and passing H.R. 729, Phylicia's Law, I would have voted ``aye.''

Had I been present for rollcall No. 339, on suspending the rules and passing H. Res. 540, Expressing condolences to the families, friends, and loved ones of the victims of the catastrophic explosion at the ConAgra Foods plant in Garner, North Carolina, I would have voted ``aye.''

Madam Speaker, yesterday my flight was delayed and I missed the four suspension votes.

On rollcall No. 336--H. Res. 430--Expressing condolences to the citizens of Italy and support for the Government of Italy in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that struck the Abruzzo region of central Italy, I would have voted ``Aye.''

On rollcall No. 337--H.R. 2325--To designate the ``Laredo Veterans'' Post Office in Laredo, Texas, I would have voted ``Aye.''

On rollcall No. 338--H.R. 729--Phylicia's Law, I would have voted ``No.''

On rollcall No. 339--H.Res. 540--Expressing condolences to families affected by ConAgra Foods Plant Explosion in Gamer, North Carolina, I would have voted ``Aye.''