Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/593313
ByEricaWerner TheAssociatedPress WASHINGTON House Re- publicans embraced a new leader Wednesday and pre- pared to get behind a crisis- averting budget-and-debt deal in a day of dramatic fresh starts at the Capitol after years of division and disarray. Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, the 2012 GOP vice presidential candidate and a telegenic spokesman for conservative priorities, was nominated by his col- leagues in a secret-ballot election to serve as speaker of the House, second in line to the presidency. The full House will confirm that choice on Thursday. "This begins a new day in the House of Represen- tatives," Ryan, 45, said af- ter the vote. "We are turn- ing the page." Immediately after choos- ing Ryan to chart a new course for their fractured party, Republicans trooped onto the House floor to be- gin casting votes on a huge two-year budget deal struck in recent days between President Barack Obama and congressional leaders of both parties. The agreement would raise the government's bor- rowing limit through March of 2017, averting an unprec- edented default just days away. It would also set the budget of the federal gov- ernment for the next two years, lifting onerous spend- ing caps and steering away from the brinkmanship and shutdown threats that have haunted Congress for years. Outgoing Speaker John Boehner of Ohio announced his resignation last month after a quarter-century in Congress and nearly five years in the speaker's chair, beset by the intractable di- visions between the par- ty's pragmatists and pur- ists that now will be Ryan's to resolve. Ryan sounded an opti- mistic note. "We are not going to have a House that looks like it looked the last two years," he said after Wednesday's vote. "We are going to move forward, we are going to unify. Our party has lost its vision, and we are going to replace it with a vision." Earlier, inside the ornate Ways and Means Commit- tee room where the vote occurred, Ryan asked law- makers to pray for him, and pray for each other. He easily dispatched his sole opponent, Florida Rep. Daniel Webster, the choice of a group of hard-core conservatives, winning 200 votes to Webster's 43. He still must prevail in a vote of the full House on Thursday, when Democrats will have a say, too, and will back the minority leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California. Still, the only real sus- pense surrounds Ryan's margin of victory, as he is certain to draw the sup- port of the vast majority of Republicans, including some who supported Web- ster but pledged to vote for their party's nominee on the House floor. Wednesday's budget bill makes good on Boehner's promise to "clean the barn" for Ryan on the way out, removing the most con- tentious issues that would have confronted him im- mediately upon becom- ing speaker. Conservatives loudly protested the price tag and a secretive, back- room process, and farm- state Republicans raised alarms about cuts to federal crop insurance programs. The accord also became a punching bag for GOP pres- idential candidates, includ- ing Sens. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Rand Paul, all of whom denounced it ahead of a Wednesday night pres- idential debate. But the House appeared likely to approve the legisla- tion and send it to the Sen- ate, relying on a majority of Democratic votes, a feature of a number of significant deals cut under Boehner's leadership. "The outgoing speaker of the House has partnered with Democrats and Senate leadership to craft a mon- strosity of a budget deal," one hardliner, Rep. Mark Meadows of North Caro- lina, complained, calling on candidates for speaker to reject the bill. Ryan did not oblige. He criticized the process used to reach the bill, say- ing that it "stinks," but is- sued a statement announc- ing he would be voting for the deal because it "will go a long way toward reliev- ing the uncertainty hang- ing over us." Indeed Ryan could ask for no better parting gift from Boehner at a moment when GOP leaders are fret- ting about the deep Repub- lican divisions on display in Congress and the presiden- tial campaign, where out- sider candidates are lead- ing established politicians. Dealing with the debt limit and winning a bud- get agreement would al- most certainly have forced Ryan into the same types of compromises with Obama and the Democrats that conservatives routinely de- nounced in Boehner. Now he will have a freer hand, though he faces his own challenges, including the need to pass a package of spending bills by Dec. 11 to fill in the broad budget out- lines in this week's deal. CONGRESS Republicans tap new speaker, vote on budget deal By Michael Tarm The Associated Press CHICAGO Dennis Hastert pleaded guilty Wednesday to evading banking laws in a hush-money scheme, averting a potentially lurid trial by agreeing to a deal with prosecutors that rec- ommends the former House speaker serve no more than six months in prison. In the written agreement, the Illinois Republican di- rectly acknowledged for the first time that he sought to pay someone $3.5 million to hide misconduct by Hastert against the person. Before accepting the plea, the 73-year-old was warned by the judge that he could go beyond the recom- mendation and give Hast- ert up to five years behind bars when he is sentenced in February. Because the plea agree- ment has a sentencing range from no prison time to six months, U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin could also decide to put Hastert on probation or home confinement. The plea helped seal the downfall of a man who rose from obscurity in ru- ral Illinois to the nation's third-highest political of- fice. During his eight years as speaker, Hastert was sec- ond in the line of succession to the presidency. As he stepped to the lec- tern to answer a series of questions, he spoke in a voice so soft that the judge told him to speak up. The hearing revealed no new details about why Hastert agreed to pay the money. The indictment and the plea language both said the payments were meant to conceal past misconduct by Hastert, but neither doc- ument explained the nature of the wrongdoing. The Associated Press and other media, citing anon- ymous sources, have re- ported that the payments were meant to hide claims of sexual misconduct from decades ago. At the half-hour hearing in Chicago, a subdued Hast- ert read from a brief state- ment that — like his indict- ment — focused narrowly on how he technically broke banking laws. By pleading guilty, Hast- ert avoids a trial that could have divulged the em- barrassing secrets dating back to his days as a high- school wrestling coach that he presumably wanted to keep under wraps by pay- ing hush money. Judges are also generally more likely to give lighter sentences to defendants who accept responsibility for their actions and spare the cost of a trial. Hastert, who was charged with the banking violation and lying to the FBI, also acknowledged in the plea deal that he lied to the agency about the rea- sons for the withdrawals. The agreement indicates prosecutors will dismiss that charge. When the judge asked Hastert to describe his wrongdoing in his own words, he read his state- ment, telling the court that he had been withdrawing cash, $50,000 at a time. Af- ter banking officials ques- tioned him, he said, he be- gan taking out less than $10,000 to avoid reporting requirements. Hastert did not say why he required so much cash or why he sought to skirt re- porting requirements. As he finished, the judge immedi- ately asked: "Did you know that what you were doing was wrong?" He responded, "Yes, sir." The 15-page plea deal, which Hastert signed Wednesday, was released after the hearing. FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER Ha st er t pl ea ds g ui lt y, a ck no wl ed ge s hu sh -m on ey s ch em e CAROLYNKASTER—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., walks from a House GOP candidate forum on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Wednesday. CHRISTIAN K. LEE — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert departs the federal courthouse in Chicago. By Jennifer C. Kerr The Associated Press WASHINGTON It's a not-so rosy report card for the na- tion's schoolchildren. Math scores slipped for fourth and eighth grad- ers over the last two years, and reading grades were not much better, flat for fourth graders and lower for eighth graders, accord- ing to the 2015 Nation's Re- port Card. The results of the test, officially known as the Na- tional Assessment of Edu- cational Progress or NAEP, were released Wednesday. The report suggests stu- dents have a ways to go to demonstrate a solid grasp or mastery of their reading and math skills. Only about a third of the nation's eighth-grad- ers were at proficient or above in math and reading. Among fourth graders, the results were slightly bet- ter in reading and in math, about two in five scored proficient or above. And the report found a continuing achievement gap between white and black students. There were a few bright spots. The District of Co- lumbia and Mississippi both saw substantial gains in reading and math. Education Secretary Arne Duncan urged parents, teachers, and others not to panic about the scores as states embrace higher ac- ademic standards, such as Common Core. "We should expect scores in this period to bounce around some, and I think that 'implementation dip' is part of what we're see- ing here," Duncan said in a phone call with reporters. "I would caution everyone to be careful about drawing conclusions ... anyone who claims to have this all fig- ured out is pedaling a per- sonal agenda, rather than an educational one." Reacting to the scores, Chris Minnich, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, said one year's worth of data shouldn't send the na- tion's schools and teachers off in a different direction. "Having the higher ac- ademic standards caused the states and teachers and districts to change the way they're teaching certain things," Minnich said in an interview. "We may be in a place where some of the questions that are asked on this national test aren't be- ing taught at the same time they were being taught be- fore." The Common Core stan- dards were developed by the states with the sup- port of the administration. They spell out what stu- dents should know in Eng- lish and math at each grade level, with a focus on criti- cal thinking and less of an emphasis on memorization. But they have become a ral- lying point for critics who want a smaller federal role in education and some par- ents confounded by some of the new concepts being taught. The NAEP tests don't align completely with Com- monCore,butNAEPofficials said there was "quite a bit" of overlap between the tests andcollege-readystandards. Among the findings from the exam: • 36 percent of fourth graders were at or above the proficient level in read- ing, about the same as 2013. Only 34 percent of eighth- grade students were profi- cient or better in reading, a two-point drop. But both measures were sharply higher than 1990 results. • 40 percent of fourth- grade students were at or above proficiency in math this year. That's down two points from 2013, and marks the first decline for that measure since 1990. For eighth graders, only 33 percent of students were proficient or better in math, also a two-point decline. • Fourth-grade math scores were higher in the District of Columbia and Mississippi — up three points for each. In 16 states, scores dropped. They were flat in the rest. In eighth- grade math, there were no gains across the states, and 22 states had lower scores than in 2013. • For reading, scores were higher for fourth-graders in 13 states and jurisdictions, including the District of Co- lumbia — up seven points. Mississippi and Louisi- ana were also higher, both states up six points. At the eighth-grade level, reading improved only in West Vir- ginia, up three points from 2013. • There were no sig- nificant changes in the achievement gap for read- ing between white students and their black and His- panic peers. But for math, there was a small narrow- ing in the gap between white fourth graders and their black peers. The av- erage score for white stu- dents was 24 points higher, slightly smaller than the 26-point gap in 2013. REPORT CARD Math, reading scores decline for nation's school children | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2015 8 A