Last Week in Congress (10/27–10/31/25)
An update will be shared every week that Congress is in session. This will include a short summary of the past week in Congress, as well as a listing of all education-related bills introduced in the House and Senate, relevant Committee and Floor activity, and education-related hearings.
Thirty-three days into the government shutdown, Congress spent a lot of energy introducing bills to correct the deep, supposedly temporary, harms caused by their continued inability to pass a continuing resolution (let alone full appropriations package). While states and municipalities reimagined budgets and accessed emergency funds, courts stepped in to force continued disbursements to SNAP recipients. Head Start preschools have begun to close after federal grant payments that were due on November 1 failed to arrive.
· H.R. 5843 (Elfreth, D-MD), the Shutdown Student Loans for Feds Act, to provide Federal student loan borrower relief for Federal employees and contractors (Education and Workforce).
· H.R. 5850 (Figures, D-AL), the Guaranteeing Retention and Aid During Shutdowns (GRAD) Act, to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to require institutions of higher education, as a condition of participating in programs under title IV of such Act, to not terminate or otherwise alter the enrollment status of a student due to a disruption of the student’s Federal student financial aid under such title caused by a lapse in appropriations (Education and Workforce).
· H.R. 5867 (Velázquez, D-NY), to amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to establish a pilot grant program to make grants to school food authorities to provide 100 percent plant-based food and milk options (Education and Workforce).
· H.R. 5884 (Moolenaar, R-MI), to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide that tasks and services performed by certain individuals in postsecondary vocational institutions not be treated as employment (Education and Workforce).
· S. 3063 (Cassidy, R-LA), to improve student privacy, parental choice, and personalized learning innovation in education (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions).
· S. 3070 (Alsobrooks, D-MD), to provide Federal student loan borrower relief for Federal employees (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions).
· The Senate continued to consider H.R. 5371, the GOP continuing resolution bill to extend funding of the federal government through November 21 or the passage of a complete appropriations package. On October 28, the Senate (54 yeas to 45 nays) rejected the motion to close further debate on the motion to proceed to consideration.