{"id":103555,"date":"2026-07-16T09:31:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T15:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/?p=103555"},"modified":"2026-07-16T09:31:01","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T15:31:01","slug":"house-takes-step-toward-dismantling-doe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/2026\/07\/16\/house-takes-step-toward-dismantling-doe\/","title":{"rendered":"House Takes Step Toward Dismantling DOE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Shauneen Miranda, States Newsroom<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 A major legislative package that would put into law President Donald Trump\u2019s push to greatly reduce the responsibilities of the U.S. Department of Education advanced out of a U.S. House panel on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce approved \u2014 nearly along party lines \u2014 each of the package\u2019s 10 bills <\/a>that would permanently transfer several of Education\u2019s functions to other departments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The measure, largely reflecting many of the interagency agreements,<\/a> or IAAs, Education has signed with other agencies, signifies a sweeping effort from Republicans in Congress to carry out the Trump administration\u2019s plan to do away with the 46-year-old department as part of the president\u2019s quest to return education \u201cback to the states.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That drive continues, though much of the oversight and funding of schools already occurs at the state and local levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the legislation faces an uncertain fate. Even if passed in the full U.S. House down the line, it would face steep odds in the narrowly GOP-controlled Senate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The upper chamber requires at least 60 senators to advance a bill past the filibuster, and Republicans hold just 53 seats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Tim Walberg, chair of the House panel, lauded the package as the \u201cfirst step toward ending the Department of Education\u2019s reign over our nation\u2019s education system,\u201d during his panel\u2019s markup. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Michigan Republican added that the legislation advances Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon\u2019s \u201cvision for an education system that empowers families, students, workers and local communities.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

McMahon said \u201ctoday marks a major step by Congressional leaders to cement the Trump Administration\u2019s historic reforms to right-size the federal role in education,\u201d in a statement after the package advanced out of the committee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other departments to take over<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Under multiple bills, the Department of Labor would manage Education\u2019s programs surrounding elementary and secondary education; postsecondary education; and career, technical and adult education \u2014 mirroring earlier IAAs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In another piece of legislation, the Treasury Department would manage Education\u2019s federal student aid functions, a nod to a March agreement<\/a> Education signed with Treasury to take over its responsibility for collecting on defaulted federal student loan debt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That agreement marked the first step in a multiphase process toward Treasury taking on Education\u2019s entire roughly $1.7 trillion federal student loan portfolio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under other bills in the package, the State Department would manage Education\u2019s international education and foreign language studies programs, as well as its foreign gift and contract reporting \u2014 also mirroring earlier agreements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflecting additional IAAs, the Department of Health and Human Services would manage Education\u2019s accreditation for foreign medical schools; functions regarding child care access for low-income parents in postsecondary education; and family engagement programs for elementary and secondary education. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Interior Department would also manage tribal education and job training programs under the package. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notably, the 10-bill package does not include any efforts to transfer Education\u2019s responsibilities regarding special education programs and civil rights enforcement to other agencies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In perhaps the Trump administration\u2019s most far-reaching attempts yet to dismantle the Education Department, the agency in June said HHS will administer programs under the Education\u2019s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, while civil rights enforcement under its Office for Civil Rights, or OCR, will be transferred to the Department of Justice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Bobby Scott, the top Democrat on the panel, said that the committee\u2019s move to not consider either of the two actions in the package was possibly because \u201ceven my colleagues recognize how politically unpalatable such transfers would be.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Pain and suffering\u2019<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the legislative package drew fierce pushback from congressional Democrats on the committee, who offered up a slew of amendments to the bills in an attempt to block the dismantling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scott, a Virginia Democrat, said \u201cit\u2019s difficult to articulate how impractical these proposals are, to say nothing of the pain and suffering they\u2019ll inflict on students, educators and their communities, if they were to become law.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He pointed to the GOP\u2019s objective of stripping down the department as part of its intent to \u201creturn education to the states,\u201d saying these proposals \u201cwill actually contribute to the creation of miles of bureaucratic red tape, inconsistent education policy and enforcement across the federal government and a significant waste of the taxpayers\u2019 money.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Suzanne Bonamici said the bills under consideration \u201cdemonstrate that Republicans in Congress know that the Department of Education lacks the authority to transfer offices and programs to other federal agencies without congressional action, and are now trying to cover for the unlawful actions already taken.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Oregon Democrat, who introduced an impeachment resolution<\/a> against McMahon in June, added that the secretary \u201chas said that it is her mission to shut down the Department of Education, something she does not have the authority to do, but that is exactly what she is doing, disguised as a series of interagency agreements.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Shauneen Miranda, States Newsroom WASHINGTON \u2014 A major legislative package that would put into law President Donald Trump\u2019s push to greatly reduce the responsibilities of the U.S. Department of Education advanced out of a U.S. House panel on Wednesday.\u00a0 The U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce approved \u2014 nearly along party lines \u2014 each […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[3500,3604],"class_list":["post-103555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national","tag-u-s-department-of-education","tag-u-s-house-of-representatives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103555\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}