Bipartisan Senate Bill to Block Education Department Office Transfers Clears Key Committee
A bipartisan bill that would prohibit the U.S. Department of Education from transferring four of its key offices to other federal agencies advanced out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Thursday, July 30, in a 13-9 vote, setting up a broader fight over the Trump administration’s effort to disperse the department’s functions across the federal government.
What the Bill Would Do
The legislation, known as S. 5046, would specifically block the Education Department from outsourcing four offices to other federal agencies: the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, the Office of Postsecondary Education, the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, and the Office of Indian Education, according to K-12 Dive. The bipartisan bill would also prevent federal agencies from using existing interagency agreements, contracting, or transfer authorities to work around the ban.
The bill was introduced by Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, according to a statement from Collins’s office. It now heads to the full Senate for a vote, having cleared the committee stage.
Why the Bill Exists: A Pattern of Interagency Agreements
The legislation responds to a pattern that’s unfolded over roughly the past year. Since May 2025, the Education Department has signed 14 interagency agreements with six other federal agencies, transferring many K-12 and higher education responsibilities away from the department itself, according to Higher Ed Dive. The department has framed these agreements as a way to cut through federal bureaucracy and give states more authority over fiscal and policy decisions in education, consistent with the Trump administration’s broader stated goal of dismantling the Education Department.
Collins offered a sharply different characterization of the same agreements in her statement announcing the bill’s advancement. “The moves to dismantle the Department of Education by dispersing its functions to other federal departments have been particularly damaging,” Collins said. “The administration has created a multiagency structure with overlapping responsibilities, duplicated costs and unclear chains of accountability. This is neither streamlining nor reform — it’s an abdication and abandonment of America’s future.”
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten echoed that concern in the same statement, saying the bipartisan bill “would ensure that American families have access to that expertise” by keeping the affected offices within the department, and would help “protect students, families, schools and communities from losing the support to which they are entitled under law.”
Not Fully Bipartisan Support — Even Among the Bill’s Backers
The vote wasn’t a simple party-line split, and even some of the legislation’s ideological allies had reservations about specific pieces of it. HELP Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy, R-La., said during the markup that he would not vote in favor of S. 5046 because he doesn’t oppose all of the Education Department’s interagency agreements that the bill would affect, according to Higher Ed Dive.
Democrats on the committee, meanwhile, pushed for the bill to go further. Senate Democrats attempted to add an amendment during the markup that would have also blocked the transfer of the department’s Office for Civil Rights — widely seen as one of the more contentious interagency agreements, given reports that its functions have moved toward the Department of Justice — but that amendment was rejected in a 12-11 vote, according to Higher Ed Dive. Collins herself opposed the amendment blocking the Office for Civil Rights transfer specifically, according to Education Week’s reporting on the markup, even as she supported the broader bill covering the four other offices.
A Companion Bill on Special Education
The same committee markup also advanced a related, more narrowly focused bill: the Special Education Administration Protection Act, sponsored by Cassidy himself. That legislation would specifically bar the Education Department from outsourcing special education programming to the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a summary from the National Association of Pupil Services Administrators. The special education interagency agreement with HHS — now led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — has been a particular point of contention, with special education advocates arguing the move could hurt services for children with disabilities, according to Education Week.
Notably, neither S. 5046 nor Cassidy’s special education bill would apply retroactively: interagency agreements that were already in effect as of February 1, 2025, would be exempt from the proposed bans under both pieces of legislation, according to the National Association of Pupil Services Administrators’ summary.
Other Education Bills That Advanced the Same Day
Thursday’s committee session was a broader markup covering multiple pieces of education legislation, not just the office-transfer fight. According to K-12 Dive, the committee also advanced S. 4689, the Reading Excellence and Achievement for Development Act, which would update state literacy development grant programs and align them with the “science of reading” approach to federal accountability, teacher preparation, and evidence-based instruction. The committee separately advanced S. 3010, the 21st Century Dyslexia Act, which would amend the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to promote earlier screening for dyslexia in children.
What Happens Next
With S. 5046 having cleared committee, it now awaits a vote before the full Senate. Given that the bill passed committee with bipartisan support — including from two Republican senators — but also drew explicit opposition from the committee’s own Republican chairman over its scope, its path through a floor vote remains uncertain, and it would still need to pass the House and be signed into law to take effect.
FAQ
What offices would this bill protect from being transferred? The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, the Office of Postsecondary Education, the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, and the Office of Indian Education.
Does the bill address the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights? No. An amendment to include the Office for Civil Rights was proposed during the committee markup but was rejected in a 12-11 vote.
Who sponsored the bill? Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) introduced S. 5046.
Why did the HELP Committee chairman vote against his own committee’s bill? Sen. Bill Cassidy, the committee’s Republican chairman, said he doesn’t oppose all of the Education Department’s interagency agreements the bill would affect, so he declined to support it as written.
How many interagency agreements has the Education Department already signed? 14 agreements with six other federal agencies since May 2025, transferring various K-12 and higher education responsibilities.
Has this bill become law? Not yet. It has cleared the Senate HELP Committee and now awaits a vote before the full Senate, followed by the House, before it could take effect.
Conclusion
The bipartisan support behind S. 5046 — including two Republican co-sponsors and a 13-9 committee vote — signals real bipartisan discomfort with how the Trump administration has moved to disperse the Education Department’s functions, even as the bill’s scope remains a point of contention among its own supporters. With the Office for Civil Rights transfer left unaddressed and the committee’s own chairman declining to back the measure, the fight over how much of the department Congress will actually act to preserve is far from settled as the bill heads toward a full Senate vote.
Sources: Higher Ed Dive, K-12 Dive, Education Week, Office of Sen. Susan Collins, National Association of Pupil Services Administrators (reporting dated July 30-August 1, 2026).