SILVER CREEK — Will Reimert, communications director for Congressman Tom Reed told the OBSERVER that the controversial H.R. 5199 bill known as the Education Savings Accounts for Military Families Act was ruled Tuesday by the Rules Committee to be out of order.

“(The bill) was attached to the Defense Authorization Act,” Reimert said, explaining that the Rules Committee wouldn’t allow that to happen, and for the near term the bill is effectively dead in the water.

The bill, submitted by Indiana Congressman James E. Banks in March, proposed that funds be moved from some Federal Impact Aid (FIA) programs into what was being called Education Savings Account (ESA), directly affecting four local school districts here in Western New York. It would “direct the Department of Education to establish a program to provide children with parents on active duty in the uniformed services with funds for specified educational purposes.”

During a recent board of education meeting, Superintendent Todd Crandall had voiced his concerns about the bill.

Because Silver Creek school district belongs to the National Association of Federally Impacted Schools, it would stand to lose approximately $500,000 in annual federal aid should the bill become law.

Crandall said that other schools in the area that rely on the FIA program include Salamanca, Lake Shore and Gowanda districts.

After reaching out to Reed, Crandall said that he was given assurances from a senior aid that Reed “adamantly supports the Impact Aid and that he adamantly opposes taking this away from schools.”