mr. alexander: thank you, madam president. madam president, first i'd like to say that i join the senator from new hampshire, senator ayotte. i thank her for her leadership on the land and water conservation fund. she's been out front on this. she cares about t sh it. she works well with the other members of the senate and my bet is she will succeed before very long. in 1985 and 1986, at president reagan's request, i was chairman of the president's commission on americans outdoors. it was our job to look ahead for a generation and try to see what kind of recreational facilities americans needed in this next generation. and our principal recommendation was that we fully fund the land and water conservation fund because since it's been created in the 1960's, it has worked with states, as well as through the federal government, to create city parks and opportunities to enjoy one of those aspects of the american character that makes us exceptional and that is the great american outdoors. so senator burr of nocial carolina, senator

senator alexander: thank you, mr. kisicki. mr. rubin. mr. rubin: thank you, senator alexander, senator murray and members of the committee, thank you for giving me this opportunity to testify about the practical impacts of the national labor relations board browning-ferris decision. i would like to focus on why the board's joint employer standard is entirely consistent with the purposes of the national labor relations act and why the board reached the proper result on the actual facts of that case. i had more than 30 years of experience representing low-wage workers in industries like warehousing, production and janitorial services. in those industries and in others where the use of perm and temp employees have become common, violation of wage, hour and discrimination laws are rampant. often, those violations can be traced to the economic pressures that result when a company that in the past would have employed those workers directly instead decides to obtain its workers from a staffing industry and tries to contract away from the staffing ag

mr. alexander: mr. president, this discussion by very good senators -- and i congratulate the senator from pennsylvania and the other senators who have spoken. the senator from pennsylvania and wisconsin are both on our education committee. we've worked well together and will continue to discuss this, but this shows how difficult it is to do what most americans say they like to see, which is to simplify, deregulate and make it easier for students to go to college. that's what we're trying to do here in the senate. almost every witness who came before us said this -- it's too complicated to fill out a form for the current form of student aid, so simplify it. and the witnesses said have one undergraduate student loan, have one loan for graduate students and have one loan for parents. right now, students might have three. they might have different loans with different interest rates and different expiration dates. the application process is so complicated, it turns away millions, we have been told, of stud

mr. alexander: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: mr. president, reserving the right to object, and i listened carefully to the distinguished senator's comments. gender discrimination is wrong, all of us know that. in the united states, we have enacted laws about sports and workplace to make sure that we reflect that. i support those laws, but we have a budget to pass, we have a debt crisis to fix, we have an education system that needs reform, we have a humanitarian crisis in europe that we ought to address. that's what the united states senate ought to be spending its time on rather than offering opinions and resolutions about a private international entity and how they should award prizes and awards, so i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. leahy: well, mr. president, last night we passed resolutions. here we're talking about taking 30 seconds out of our busy, busy, busy schedule. of course we were in a quorum call for a few hours today, but if we could take 30 or 50 or 82 seconds out of the 100 hours or so we'll sp

mr. alexander: thank you. mr. macrae: thank you, chairman alexander, ranking member murray, and all members of the committee. i'm pleased to join my colleagues today to share with you what we are doing at the health resources and services administration to address the mental health needs in our nation. as my written testimony conveys, hrsa is the primary federal agency within the department of health and human services charged with improving access to health care services for people who are medically underserved. we carry out our work in partnership with community-based organizations, state and local governments and academic institutions, among others. hrsa's programs and its over 3,000 grantees provide affordable health care to tens of millions of americans across the country and we train thousands of health care professionals. one key area of our work has been on expanding behavioral health within primary care settings, as chairman -- ranking men myrrhy, mentioned -- member murray mentioned. primary care can ofte

mr. alexander behring, who was a banker in london and a very good friend of mine, was at the ministry felt that this was a family quarrel. and that it should not be in the hands of anyone else to do this. my reaction was, once again, england sees us as a rebellious daughter, who by various means of enticement and whippings will be back to her arms of england. and so i left in one of the worst winters in many years. it took us 38 days to go from st. petersburg to amsterdam. in amsterdam i went to london, had discussions with mr. behring and other individuals who had some notion of what it was that would be the ministry's position so i could report what it was that england would be looking for in a direct negotiation. i was then informed there was a second commission which had been formed, and this would consist of myself and mr. quincy adams , mr. bayard, and included mr. henry clay, who was speaker of the house. and mr. jonathan russell in the swedish court. a very interesting group of people, you must admit. there is a story i can tell you about the nature of the negotiations. mr. quincy

mr. alexander: i thank the chair. mr. president, tomorrow we'll be voting on the energy and water appropriations bill, and i come to the floor to make two points about that very important piece of legislation. number one, if our democratic friends would allow us to vote on it, would allow us to debate it and amend it, to pass it, send it to the president and do the same with the other 11 appropriations bills that our appropriations committee has reported, we could easily say that this year in the united states senate is one of the most productive years in a long, long time. number two, the other point i want to make is the importance of this bill. ben bernanke, the retired chairman of the federal reserve board, wrote an article to the "wall street journal" this week in which he says you can't rely on the federal reserve board to create jobs in a growth economy in the united states, that what you need to do is have better educational opportunities and more research, and you need to have supercomputing, i would add to that,

mr. alexander was called to the pastor in the second church of washington at a time when there were but two colored baptist church in the district of columbia. reverend alexander has also built four other churches, assisted in paying for them until they were all out of debt. ordained three persons to the work of the gospel ministry, who now have prominent churches and are doing well. in 1871 he was chosen chaplain of the senate of the district of columbia. he is responsible for the founding of churches in georgetown as well. the second baptist church, organized in 1848. we know there were a group of people that came out of second baptist that were active in the underground railroad in the district. here we enter into naming one of the strong black women. her name was lucinda bush clark. she was connected to several other people, several of whom had to leave the district because of their activities on the underground railroad. we believe that she actually had the mission of going around and collecting a significant amount of the more than 70 people who participated in the pearl of fair. next

mr. alexander: i want to join the majority leader in complimenting senator scott, a new member of the senate, on a significant accomplishment. it's not that easy to pass a bill in the house and in the senate. it takes a lot of work. there's good reason for that. we want to make sure that whatever passes in the senate has a thorough amount of consideration. senator scott has come to the senate as a member of the help committee. he's one of the most diligent members. i'm chairman of that committee. he took this initiative on his own working with members of the house where he formerly served, and he brought the bill to the senate. and within a few days he's got its unanimous approval. to me, that suggests the kind of united states senator that we need more of, someone who is quiet, effective, scholarly and gets results. so tim scott today, on behalf of the people of south carolina and this country, has helped workers, helped benefits, lowered premiums. he deserves our thanks and he certainly earned my respect and the respect of his colleagues on both sides of the aisle by this significant accom

alexander. peter: thank you, mr. president. up on john'slow questions about an issue that is obviously deeply personal and moving to you, and that is the gun issue. apart from congress' in action, apart from the desire for new laws and apart from the gun lobbyists, you noted the pattern is that these perpetrators are angry, aggrieved, oftentimes mentally ill young men. is there something you can do with the bully pulpit, with your moral authority, with your remaining time in office to help reach these individuals who believe that gun violence is the way out? president obama: no. speakk i can continue to to the american people as a whole and hopefully model for basic social norms about andcting violence cooperation and caring for other people, but there are a lot of , and havingt there been one myself once, i can tell , you know, us being able to identify or pinpoint who might have problems is extraordinarily difficult. i think we as a culture should think about how we nurture our kids, protect our kids, talk to them about confl

alexander. >> thanks, mr. chairman.i'm sorry senator mikulski left because i'd like for her to know that dr. collins played td guitar and sang at a place senator durbin has go and senator mikulski desires to go . what's that song, knock out disease. >> i thought you might have suppressed the whole memory. >> it's a great hit. i want to thank -- we all admire your work but we admire the work of your team. we know they could be making more money some other place, but the fact that they are here and working to help other people is something we all respect and appreciate. i'd ask you, dr. collins, earlier for the bill that senator murray mentioned she and i are working on, we're trying to create environments where precision medicine can succeed where we get inventions and discoveries through the process more rapidly. one of the problems we have is that the national academies groups have identified that investigators, these ones that we're wanting to get more money for spend 42% of their time on administrative tasks. now, if

alexander. >> thank you, mr. president. you addressed, i want to follow-up on john's questions about the issue that's obviously deeply personal and moving to you, that is the gun issue. apart from congress's inaction, apart from the desire from new laws and beyond that apart from the gun lobby, as you noted the pattern is that these perpetrators are angry, aggrieved, oftentimes mentally ill young men. is there something that you can do with the bully pulpit, with your moral authority, with your remaining time in office to help reach these individuals who believe that gun violence is the way out? >> no. i think i can continue to speak to the american people as a who whole, and hopefully model for them basic social norms about rejecting violence and cooperation and caring for other people. but there are a lot of young men out there. and having been one myself once i can tell you that, you know, us being able to identify or pinpoint who might have problems is extraordinarily difficult. so i think we as a culture should continu

alexander. >> thank you, mr. president. i want to follow up on john's question, that is the gun issue. apart from congress' inaction, apart from the desire from new laws and beyond that, apart from the gun lobby, as you noted the pattern is that these perpetrators are angry, aggrieved, oftentimes mentally ill young men. is there something that you can do with bully pulpit with your moral authority, with your remaining time in office to help reach these individuals who believe that gun violence is the way out? >> no. i think i continue to speak to the american people as a whole and hopefully model for them basic social norms about rejecting violence and cooperation and caring for other people, but there are a lot of young men out there and having been one myself once, i can tell you that us being able to identify or pinpoint who might have problems is extraordinarily critical, so i think we as a culture should continuously, you know, think about how we can nurture our kids, protect our kids, talk to them about conflict resolution, discourage violence, i think there are poor communities

mr. kusiki. >> thank you chairman alexander, ranking member murphy. appreciate the opportunity to be here and testify about this very important legislation. the protecting local business opportunities act would amendment the national labor relations act but it would accomplish far more than its title or its simple language suggests. it would require the nlrb to employ an ordinary meaning of the term "employer" when interpreting the act. just as congress intended, not the far fetched definition that the board just adopted in bfi or browning farris. the touchstone of the national labor relations act is the right of employees as a group to collectively decide if they want union representation to act on their behalf collectively or if they want to deal directly with their employer on an individual basis. in order for them to exercise that right -- and indeed for employers to know what their rights and obligations under this law are -- it is a fundamental importance to be able to identify who is the employer of any particular group of employees. yet the bo

alexander? peter: thank you mr. president. i want to talk to you about the gun issue. apart from congresses in action, apart from the desire for new laws, apart from the gun lobby's , you know that the pattern that these perpetrators are angry, aggrieved, often mentally ill young men. is there something that you can do with the bully pulpit, your moral authority, your remaining time in office, to help reach these individuals who believe the gun violence is the way out? president obama: no. i think i continue to speak to the american people as a whole, and hopefully model for them basic social norms about rejecting violence and cooperation, and caring for other people. there are a lot of young men out there. having been one myself once, i , you know,u that being able to identify a pinpoint who might have problems it's extraordinarily difficult. i think we, as a culture, should about how wethink can nurture our kids, protect our kids, talk to them about conflict resolution, discourage violence, and i think there are poor communities where, rather than mass shootings, you

alexander? >> thank you, mr. president. you addressed, i want to follow up on john's questions about the issue that is deeply moving and personal to you. that is the gun issue. apart from congress's inaction, apart from the desire from new laws and beyond that, apart from the gun lobby, as you noted, the pattern is that these perpetrators are angry, aggrieved, often times mentally ill, young men. is there something that you can do with the bully pulpit, with your moral authority, with your remaining time in office, to help reach these individuals who believe that gun violence is the way out? >> no. i think i can continue to speak to the american people as a whole and hopefully model for them basic social norms about rejecting violence and cooperation and caring for other people, but there are a lot of young men out there. and having been one myself once, i can tell you that us being able to identify or pinpoint who might have problems, is extraordinarily difficult. so, you know, i think we as a culture, should continuously,

alexander. >> thank you, mr. president. you addressed, i want to follow up on john's question about the issue that is deeply personal and moving to you, the gun issue. apart from congress' inaction, apart from the desire from new laws andon that, apart from the gun lobby, as you noted, the pattern is that these perpetrators are angry, aggrieved, often times mentally ill, young men. is there something that you can do with bully pulpit, with your moral authority, with your remaining time in office to help reach these individuals who believe that gun violence is the way out? >> no. i think i can continue to speak to the american people as a whole. and hopefully model for them basic social norms about rejecting violence and cooperation and caring for other people, but there are lot of young men out there. and having been one myself once, i can tell you that us being able to identify or pinpoint who might have problems is extraordinarily difficult. so, i think we as a culture should continue obviously -- continueously think abou

alexander? >> reporter: thank you, mr. president. you addressed i want to follow up on john's questions about the issue that's deeply personal and moving to you, that is the gun issue. apart from congress' inaction, apart from the desire from new laws and beyond that apart from the gun lobby, as you noted the pattern is that these perpetrators are angry, aggrieved oftentimes mentally ill young men, is there something you can do with the bully pulpit, with your moral authority, with your remaining time in office to help reach theseds have that believe that gun violence is the way out? >> no. i think i can continue to speak to the american people as a whole and hopefully model for them basic social norms about rejecting violence and cooperation and caring for other people, but there are a lot of young men out there, and having been one myself once, i can tell you that us being able to identify or pinpoint who might have problems is extraordinarily difficult. so i think we as a culture should continuously think about how we can nurture

myers' deputy setting up the system is a captain in the union army, nobody name of the alexander porter. mr. porter says, i would rather go home and serve the south, and he takes myers' system with them. the wig-wag system becomes a central communication system for the confederacy as well, public hitting things. each side can read each other's communications. both sides have developed code systems to encode their communications. myers would remain with the core long after the war, and would end up being the founder of the u.s. weather service. this is the major albert myers who fort myer in virginia is named after. they signal communications as their primary mission, but you can imagine if you are studying a 100 foot tower in the countryside, you are looking for the highest absolute point to do that for the maximum visibility. once you get that tower constructed and get a signal, he can see confederate or northern forces. they are often collecting intelligence on dispositions or movements when that is not primarily the purpose. a good amount of intelligence would come from the signal corps.

alexander: thanks, mr. chairman. i'm sorry barbara left because i would like for her to know that dr. collins played the guitar and sang at a place senator durbin has been and barbara likes to go, blue bird cafe in nashville. it was quite a show. [laughter] what is that song, "knockout disease"? dr. collins: that was it. i'm surprised you remember. i thought you might have suppressed -- sen. alexander: it's a great hit. i want to thank -- we all admire your work but we admire the work of your team. we know they could be making more money some other place. but the fact that they are here and working to help other people is something we all respect and appreciate. i would ask you, dr. collins, earlier, for the bill that senator murray mentioned. she and i are working on. we are trying to create environments where precision medicine can succeed where we get discoveries through the process more rapidly. one of the problems we have is that the national academies groups have identified that investigators, these ones that a

alexander. reporter: thank you, mr. president. i want to follow up on john's isstions on the issue that deeply personal, the gun issue. apart from congressional actions, apart from the desire for new laws, and apart from the gun lobby's, even though the pattern is that these perpetrators are angry, grieved, oftentimes mentally ill young men, is there something that you can do with the bully pulpit with your moral authority, with your remaining time in office, to help reach these individuals who believe that gun violence is the way out? pres. obama: no. continue to speak to the american people as a whole and hopefully model for basic social norms about protecting violence and cooperation and caring for other people, but there are a lot of young men out there. having been one myself once, i us being ablehat to identify or can point to might have problems is extraordinary difficult. -- or can point to might have pointnms -- or who might have problems is extraordinarily difficult. i think we should talk to our kids about conflict reso

alexander. >> reporter: thank you, mr. president. addressed i want to follow up on jon's questions about the issue that's obviously deeply personal and moving to you that is the gun issue. apart from congress' inaction, apart from the desire from new laws and beyond that apart from the gun lobby as you noted the pattern is that these perpetrators are angry, aggrieved, oftentimes mentally ill young men. is there something that you can do with the bully pulpit, with your moral authority, with your remaining time in office to help reach these individuals who believe that gun violence is the way out? >> no. i think i can continue to speak to the american people as a whole and hopefully model for them basic soerm norms about rejecting violence and cooperation and caring for other people, but there are a lot of young men out there and having been one myself once i can tell you that us being able to identify or pinpoint who might have problems is extraordinarily difficult. so i think we as a culture should continuously, you know, think abou

mr. president, i'd like to point out i recently received letters -- we wrote -- senator flake and senator alexander, the chairman of the help committee wrote a letter to secretary carter -- and i quote from some of it -- "we believe that these earned benefits and educational opportunities for our service members should not be jeopardized because of political or ideological opinions of some members of congress regarding the types of institutions that provide secondary education to our troops. however, it is our understanding that miss billadoe" -- that is the person who is the d.o.d.'s voluntary education partnership head -- "and threats of termination of participation in the t.a. program rely on technical violations of the memorandum of understanding. what we are saying is, we want due process." and these questions that have been asked, we hope we can get an answer sooner rather than later. now, because senator durbin wrote also to other agencies of government, we are also writing to them. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to include the letter to the secretary of defense from myself, senator

alexander butterfield let the secrets out, cover story reported by david martin. >> subcommittee will come to order. bombshell of the biggest political scandal in american history. >> mr. butterfield are you aware of the installation of any listening devices in the oval office of the president? >> i was aware of listening devices, yes, sir. >> white house aide, alexander butterfield revealing the existence of a white house taping system to the senate watergate committee. >> when butterfield gave that 1973. watergate. >> reporter bob woodward, and carl bernstein who exposed the machinations of the nixon whitehouse tried and failed to interview butterfield. so he passed the name on to the watergate committee. >> do you think the tapes would be revealed if not for butterfield? have. >> turns out he was siting on more. ni. 1971, and each of these is a month. >> two years ago he turned over to woodward. >> did you ever, in your wildest dreams think that you would one day be collaborating with bob woodward of all people? >> not at all. >> what did you think when you walk into his apartment, and you see those 20 boxes? >> i thought, wow. let's start looking. >> the result is

mr. de abreu had deliberately bumped him and was, quote, trying him. >> prosecutors identify the friend with hernandez last night as alexander bradley, the same alexanderlater shot out his right eye seven months later. but why? because it's said he was trying to shut bradley up after he had made a comment about the boston killings. do those two violent acts suggest a dangerous pattern of behavior driven by paranoia? eight months into the case, the state adds murder charges against the two men with hernandez the night odin lloyd is killed. earnest wallace and another man, carlos ortiz. >> how do you plead? >> not guilty. >> nogd. not guilty. >> this is what you call a joint murder prosecution, where anybody that actively participates in the murder can be held guilty for the murder. >> joint venture means hernandez can be found guilty of murder even if it is unclear who fired the gun. ahead, videotape, tire tracks, gun shells, but no gun. aaron hernandez' first murder trial begins. >> i pray every single day for justice. s first murder trial begins. >> i pray every single day for justice. iflike i love shrimp, come to red lobster's endless shrimp... ...f

mr. butterfield are you aware of the installation of any listening devices in the oval >> i was aware of listening devices, yes, sir. >> reporter: white house aide alexander butterfield revealing the existence of the white house taping system to the senate watergate committee. >> when butterfield gave that dramatic testimony in july, 1973, it was a pivot point in watergate. >> reporter: reporter bob woodward along with carl bernstein famously exposed the machinations of the white house, tried and failed to interview butterfield. he passed the name on to the committee. >> do you think the tapes had ever been revealed had it not been for butterfield? >> probably would not have. >> reporter: turned out butterfield was sitting on a lot more secrets. 20 boxes full of them. >> this is the year, 1971. and each of these is a month. >> reporter: two years ago he >> reporter: did you ever, in your wildest dreams, think that you would one day collaborating with bob woodward of all people? >> no, not at all. >> reporter: what did you think when you walked into his apartment and you see the 20 boxes? >> i thought -- wow. let's start looking. >> reporter: the result is

mr. butterfield are you aware of the installation of any listening devices in the oval office of the president? >> i was aware of listening devices, yes, sir. >> reporter: white house aide alexanderterfield revealing the existence of the white house taping system to the senate watergate committee. >> when butterfield gave that dramatic testimony in july, 1973, it was a pivot point in watergate. >> reporter: reporter bob woodward along with carl bernstein famously exposed the machinations of the white house, tried and failed to interview butterfield. he passed the name on to the committee. >> do you think the tapes had ever been revealed had it not been for butterfield? >> probably would not have. >> reporter: turned out butterfield was sitting on a lot more secrets. 20 boxes full of them. >> this is the year, 1971. and each of these is a month. >> reporter: two years ago he turned over to woodward. >> reporter: did you ever, in your wildest dreams, think that you would one day collaborating with bob woodward of all people? >> no, not at all. >> reporter: what did you think when you walked into his apartment and you see the 20 boxes? >> i thought -- wow. let's start looking. >> re

mr. speaker. i rise today to highlight the accomplishments of a truly remarkable lady in my district. ashley mitchell is a student at alexander high school in louisiana and her hard work and dedication to the sport that she loves so much has paid off in huge dividends. miss mitchell just broke two world records while participating in the world power lifting championships in the czech republic. those records were the dead lift at 326.5 pounds and the other at 762 pounds. those are impressive numbers, but even more impressive is when you consider, keep in mind, that this young lady is 94 pounds. she represented the united states well and has returned home as a world champion for the united states of america. it's young people like ashley that are leaders among their peers and will leads in new communities very soon that we encourage. i urge my colleagues to keep these young people, their potential, and their impressive accomplishments in mind as we do our jobs here in d.c. i commend ashley for her talent, for her tireless effort, and for representing this country on an international stage in such an impressive manner. thank you

. >> everybody alexander their names thank you enthusing ms. fewer mr. haney ms.doza-mcdonnell ms. norton mr. walton ms. wynns dr. murase. >> 7 i's. >> thank you very much we are now at we have completed item jshgsz and came back we're at l special order of business the next goes together i begin by calling a public hearings affordable unit on the textbook from 2015 as required by the educational towed code may i have a motion and second by the educational code so moved. >> second. >> thank you superintendant gerrero. >> yes. we have our excessive economic officer brents steve's that will speak to this item. >> commissioners good evening typically on a night like this i've excused my colleagues i'll be reading the be it therefore resolved section of the document into the record to conduct williams structural related materials i'm reading from page 31 of the agendas therefore, be it resolved. >> i'm sorry if you could only read the requested action on page 29 this is sufficient. >> i can yes and requested action the board of education san francisco unified school d

alexander are standing by tonight. good morning to you both. peter, let's look at these iowa polls. trump is falling pretty far behind carson. what is this dip doing to mrtrump and his campaign? >> well, i think that's what we're all going to watch for tonight, isn't it? how donald trump, now in second place for the first time in months, how he handles this sort of moment of adversity, as it were. here is what we do know. the latest national poll. this may be as telling as any right now. it shows as he acknowledges, if not scientific, it shows a trend. he is now trailing by 4 percentage points to dr. ben carson right now. the number that's the standout and what everybody on the stage realizes tonight is more than 70% of republicans stay they still haven't made their mind up about who they'll support in the race. 28% of them say they believe they are locked in. in fact, about a half of donald trump's supporters say they're locked in on trump the rest of the way, which is good news for him. it's the fluidity, the softness of the support right now that makes tonight so critical for the candidates. >> it's not just any candidate that's overtaken trump. it's

mr. assad, was crumbling and it was insufficient for him simply to send them arms and money. now he's got to put in his own planes and his own pilots. >> joining the panel is alexandersia practice. alex, i want to ask you about the two different visions that president obama and president putin have. is there any middle ground here? >> it's very difficult to see middle ground at the moment. the big -- everyone agrees that isis is abhorrent and is a regional threat with global implications. the point of disagreement is how do you deal with that. the russians say in order to deal with isis you need first to secure and stabilize the assad regime, then maybe go after isis. the americans say, no, actually you need to weaken and remove assad, then you can go after isis. both reasonable arguments on both sides. the difference is that the russians are actually putting skin in the game on their side of the argument. the u.s. has not done a very good job of bolstering the forces that are seeking to remove mr. assad whereas russia has now put a tremendous amount of military hardware behind the project of strengthening him. and until the u.s. -- the u.s. basically has to choices

mr. alexander: mr. president, over the weekend, president obama announced that all 100,000 public schools across the nation should limit testing to 2% of a student's time in the classroom. it's a recommendation, not a requirement. and it comes in response to a nationwide backlash from teachers, students, and parents who are sick of overtesting. i was glad to see the president's comments. he's right about students taking too many tests. i hope the president will stop and think before trying to cure yoaferl -- overtesting by telling teachers how much time to spend on testing or what the tests should be. classroom teachers know better than washington how to assess their students progress. they also know the real reason we have too many tests is there are too many federal mandates that put high stakes on student test results, and that one more washington decree, even if it is only a recommendation for now, is not the way to solve the problem of too many federal mandates. instead the best way to fix overtest