Congress was out of session last week as members continued their pre-midterm recess, but education remained on the legislative radar. First things first – the Senate has still not released its FY2027 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations proposal, leaving States, school districts, institutions of higher education, and other federal grantees without a clear picture of the Senate’s funding priorities.

Although there was little legislative activity, the House introduced several education-related bills addressing campus sexual assault, school autonomy, college athletics, and institutional autonomy.

Last week in Congress was a useful reminder that the final stretch before an election can be a particularly important time to watch federal education policy. While headlines were dominated by news of institutional response to sexual assault and misconduct and administration rescissions and new grant conditions that now touch formula grants to State Education Agencies, the legislative branch was also busy.

Five days before the end of the federal fiscal year, the White House dropped a Friday surprise: a package of proposed “pocket rescissions” totaling approximately $810 million in FY2026 funds already appropriated by Congress.

For the Department of Education, roughly $95 million is on the chopping block:

🔹 $25 million for HEP/CAMP, which supports migrant and seasonal farmworkers and their families in earning high-school equivalency credentials and helps students from migrant farmworker backgrounds succeed in their first year of college.

🔹 $70 million for international education, including funding associated with the new Centers Aligned with Areas for National Need (CAANN) competition ED announced in June.

Notably, these funds appear never to have been apportioned by OMB to the Department in the first place.

Last week, Sen. Mike Lee and Rep. Mary Miller introduced companion versions of the Student Voter Data Protection Act, legislation aimed squarely at the use of student data to measure college student voter registration and turnout.

The immediate target is the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) and the sharing and matching of institutional student data through the National Student Clearinghouse against voter records.

For colleges and universities, this is worth watching well beyond NSLVE. The proposal raises broader questions about directory information, third-party data matching, institutional research, consent, and where Congress wants the line drawn between permissible data use and student privacy.

Last week, the President signed into law H.R. 2069, the “Stop Secret Spending Act of 2025,” to amend the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 to ensure that other transaction agreements are reported to USAspending.gov. Agencies must now expand reported expenditures to include “other transaction agreements” outside of standard procurement contracts, grants, or cooperative agreements. The law also requires the Office of Inspector General of specified agencies to submit periodic reports to Congress regarding agency spending data and use of data standards. It will be interesting to see how the Department’s spending data, with significant programs and functions now being run, via interagency agreement, through the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Justice, State, Interior, and Treasury, will be considered.

On September 1, the House passed the Senate’s amended version of H.R. 6500, the Continuing Resolution bill by a vote of 370-48. The President signed the measure into law on September 2. (P.L. 119-103). The law continues federal funding through December 11, and postpones finalization and issuance of OMB’s proposed changes to the Uniform Guidance at 2 CFR Part 200. While the continuing resolution moves concerns about a government shutdown until after the midterms, it means that formula and discretionary grantees will still be operating without a clear picture of what their budgets will look like for the coming school year. The House H.R. 4795, the Protect Economic and Academic Freedom Act of 2026 by a vote of 237-169, which would limit access to HEA title IV (federal student aid) funds and title VI (federal funding for foreign language or international education programs) to institutions that participate in nonexpressive commercial boycotts of Israel or do not allow Israeli faculty, students, and institutions to participate in programs in the same manner as other faculty, students, and institutions. Representative Mannion (D-NY) introduced H.R. 10232, prohibiting the transfer of certain offices and functions of the Department of Education to other federal agencies, a partner bill to S. 5046, a bipartisan measure reported out of committee in July.

Break out the popcorn for the fading summer’s big blockbuster. Congress has been home for August recess. One month out from the end of the fiscal year, we’ve got our spotlight on appropriations. The House and Senate both have an unusually early FY2027 funding strategy taking place, with each having passed a version of a Continuing Resolution extending government funding into early December. The President released a Statement of Administration Policy in support of the Senate’s version, H.R. 6500, as amended, signaling that he will sign it as passed.

Both the House and Senate are in recess, which means Washington is pulling the Magic 8-Balls out of our dusty childhood closets and trying to predict what’s coming next.

The big questions? Appropriations and the midterms.

At this point, it looks increasingly likely that we’ll be operating under another continuing resolution (CR). But that raises some very consequential questions:

• Will the CR include the proposed delay to the Uniform Guidance changes?

• Will the larger Senate package include the Kaine-Collins-Murkowski provision prohibiting the transfer of certain Department of Education offices and programs?

• And, of course, what else gets tucked into the legislation before Congress heads back to town?

August recess is usually a good time to take a breath. This year, it feels more like the calm before the legislative storm.

Stay tuned. The Magic 8-Ball is still shaking.

Last week, the Senate passed the Continuing Appropriations and Extension Act, 2027, which would continue funding through December 11, 2027. Section 157 of the bill would also delay implementation of OMB’s proposed changes to the Uniform Guidance until December 11. Introduced legislation also hints at looming separation of powers concerns with respect to Executive discretion and Congress’ control over the power of the purse: H.R. 10014 “Restoring Accountability in Appropriations Act” seeks to establish private and congressional rights of action for withholding of federal funds that are not disbursed in line with Congressional authority. 

The Senate Appropriations Committee introduced its Continuing Resolution proposal on Sunday, August 2, which, in the very likely event that a full appropriations package for FY2027 is not enacted by rapidly-approaching end of the fiscal year, would provide continued funding through December 11, 2026. Section 157 of the Continuing Resolution would temporarily pause the implementation of the Office of Management and Budget’s revisions to the Uniform Guidance regulations. In releasing the bill, Chairwoman Collins (R-ME) stated “I am also pleased that this bipartisan agreement prevents the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)’s proposed rule regarding federal financial assistance from taking effect. I advocated for significant changes to the proposed rule in a July 6 letter to the agency, citing its potential to politicize grants and harm small, rural communities, families, and biomedical research.” Missing from the package is any mention of the bipartisan S. 5046 (Kaine, D-VA, Collins, R-ME, Murkowski, R-AK, Baldwin, D-WI, Hassan, D-NH), and Van Hollen, D-MD), which, as reported by the Senate HELP Committee on Thursday, would prohibit the transfer of certain offices out of the Department of Education.

Last week Congress introduced a number of bills directly responding to administrative actions on issues including:

·       Department of Education reorganization;

·       Accreditation reform; and

·       Immigration and education.

The House also passed the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2027, which contains numerous education-related provisions and incorporates the SAVE America Act, which would require individuals to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote, and to require photo identification to vote, in federal elections.

On July 15, the House Education and Workforce Committee approved ten bills intended to begin codifying the Trump administration’s plan to move major Department of Education functions to other federal agencies. The bills would transfer statutory responsibilities involving federal student aid, K–12 programs, career and technical and adult education, foreign gift reporting, international education, foreign medical school accreditation, child care for student parents, Tribal and Native education programs, family engagement, and other higher education functions.

Last week, Republican members of the House Education and Workforce Committee introduced the "Less Bureaucracy, Better Education" legislative package, a series of bills that would codify — and even expand — the administration's efforts to reorganize the Department of Education by transferring statutory responsibilities to other federal agencies and reducing the Department's role in administering federal education programs.

Last week, the House Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government held an oversight hearing on the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Director Russell Vought faced questions about OMB's recently proposed rule, "Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance," which would amend the government-wide grant regulations at 2 CFR Part 200.

On June 25, Representative Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), along with 16 cosponsors, introduced H.Res. 1391, to Impeach Linda M. McMahon, Secretary of Education, for high crimes and misdemeanors. Specifically, the resolution finds that Secretary McMahon: (1) violated federal law by illegally transferring the operations of six offices under the Department of Education to other Federal agencies, fundamentally obstructing the ability of the Department to conduct statutory oversight and disperse Congressionally-appropriated funds; (2) knowingly and willfully made materially false statements during testimony before the United States Senate during hearings on February 13, 2025; (3) has breached the public trust by terminating approximately 2,000 employees at the Department, resulting in delayed disbursement of federal education funds.

Last Tuesday, the Department of Education announced four new interagency agreements (IAAs) that would, in part, move the functions and responsibilities of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services to the Department of Health and Human Services, and move the Office for Civil Rights and Student Privacy Policy Office to the Department of Justice.

On June 8, lacking anything better to do, the Senate agreed to S.Res. 757, designating June 11 as “National Seersucker Day,” designating every subsequent Thursday through August as “Seersucker Thursday,” and designating June 2026 as “Seersucker Appreciation Month.”

On June 4, the House Appropriations Committee released its FY2027 billfor the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee. The bill would provide a discretionary total of $70.7 billion to the Department of Education, which is approximately 10% below the FY2026 enacted level.

Last week, the Senate was out of session and the House operated on a limited schedule. Despite the lighter legislative calendar, the House filed reports on two bills aimed at combating FAFSA fraud. These measures join a growing number of FAFSA-related anti-fraud proposals introduced in recent months, many of which align with the administration’s broader identity fraud prevention initiative announced in June 2025.

Last week, the Department of Justice announced a $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fundto “provide a systematic process to hear and redress claims of others who suffered weaponization and lawfare.” The announcement came as Mark Lieberman at Education Week reported that OMB has not apportioned $2 billionin funding that was appropriated in February for federal education programs.