Last Week in Congress (9/21–9/25/26)
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.
Last Friday, five days before the end of the Federal Fiscal Year, the White House sent Congress a package of proposed “pocket rescissions” totaling approximately $810 million in FY2026 funds previously appropriated by Congress. For the Department of Education, the package targets approximately $95 million across two areas: International Education and Foreign Language programs, and Special Programs for Migrant Students.
HEP/CAMP: The White House proposes to rescind approximately $25 million from the Department’s High School Equivalency Program (HEP), which assists migratory and seasonal farmworkers and members of their families in obtaining high school equivalency credentials and transitioning to postsecondary education, training, employment, or military service. The College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) assists students from migrant and seasonal farmworker backgrounds during their first year of undergraduate study through academic, financial, counseling, and other support services.
CAANN: The White House proposes to rescind approximately $70 million from international education programs from a program the Administration requested to cut last year. The Centers Aligned with Areas for National Need (CAANN) program provides grants to institutions of higher education or consortia of IHEs to address areas of national need in modern foreign language instruction, providing instruction in fields needed to provide understanding of areas in which the language is used, and supporting international study, research, and training. The Department ran a new CAANN grant competition in June 2026.
The funds being rescinded for both these programs appear to have never been apportioned by OMB to the Department.
This last-minute rescission, coming at the very beginning of the academic year and the tail end of the fiscal year, with little flexibility to adjust or appeal on either end, has significant negative impacts on the impacted programs. The legal issue is bigger than these two programs, however.
Under the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (ICA), the President may propose that Congress rescind previously appropriated budget authority. After transmitting the required special message, the Administration may generally temporarily withhold the proposed funds while Congress considers the request. But the ICA itself does not give the President authority to permanently cancel an appropriation. Congress must itself enact the rescission. If Congress does not do so within the statutory 45-day period, the funds ordinarily must be made available for obligation.
Here, the White House is attempting to use so-called “pocket rescissions” to exploit the calendar. The Administration transmitted the proposal on September 25, only five days before the end of the fiscal year. If the Administration withholds one-year FY2026 funds during the ICA review period, those funds can expire before Congress has the opportunity contemplated by the statute to approve or reject the proposed rescission. The practical result is the cancellation of the appropriation without Congress ever enacting a rescission.
That presents a significant legal problem. In a 2018 legal decision, GAO concluded that the ICA does not authorize the Administration to withhold funds until they expire. GAO reasoned that the President may propose a rescission and temporarily withhold funds while Congress considers it but cannot use the timing of a rescission proposal to shorten the period of availability Congress enacted into law. GAO concluded that if Congress has not affirmatively rescinded the funds, the Administration must make them available with sufficient time for their “prudent obligation” before expiration. In other words – separation of powers still applies and Congress controls the purse.
GAO doubled down on that position in 2025 – a pocket rescission, in GAO’s view, effectively allows the President to change appropriations law unilaterally by shortening the period during which Congress directed that funds remain available. The Administration has not been shy about its own position, taking its arguments to the Supreme Court in 2025 over pocket rescission of foreign-assistance funds. The Court stayed fund availability during litigation but did not decide on the merits whether pocket rescissions are lawful.
The White House’s Friday surprise was not received well by Congress. Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins stated that Congress received the rescission package “without warning or consultation,” characterized it as another attempt by the Administration to undermine Congress’ constitutional power of the purse, and said she would work with colleagues to address the Administration’s “illegal actions.” Senate Appropriations Vice Chair Patty Murray similarly characterized the announcement as an illegal end-run around Congress’ bipartisan appropriations package, and noted that she and colleagues, after last year’s rescissions, had sought to include prohibitory language in the Continuing Resolution enacted last month.
A second, related legal issue: whether, as carefully investigated and reported by Mark Lieberman of Education Week, the Administration impermissibly withheld the money before September 25 in order to create the unobligated balances it now seeks to rescind. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins has raised precisely that concern, arguing that any earlier delay in making the funds available may itself constitute an unreported impoundment. Indeed, given OMB’s failure to apportion funds to the Department, and ED and OMB’s delay in grant competitions and awards, continuation awards, and other steps necessary to obligate these appropriations, the potential legal problems predate Friday’s rescission notice.
· H.R. 10515 (Bonamici, D-OR), to establish a human-centered Federal framework for artificial intelligence in education and the workforce, promote the ethical and responsible teaching and learning of artificial intelligence, provide for equitable access to artificial intelligence-ready workforce development, and safeguard student and worker data privacy (Education and Workforce; Science, Space, and Technology; Ways and Means).
· H.R. 10518 (García, D-IL), the Diversifying by Investing in Educators and Students to Improve Outcomes for Youth (DIVERSIFY) Act, to remove college cost as a barrier to every student having access to a well-prepared and diverse educator workforce (Education and Workforce; Budget).
· H.R. 10528 (Valadao, R-CA), to amend the Financial Literacy and Education Improvement Act to include secondary schools in best practices for teaching financial literacy (Financial Services; Education and Workforce).
· H.R. 10530 (Adams, D-NC), the Quality Educator Partnership Act, to support educators (Education and Workforce).
· H.R. 10543 (Dean, D-PA), the Promoting Reentry through Education in Prisons (PREP) Act of 2026, to amend title 18, United States Code, to establish an Office of Prison Education (Judiciary; Veterans’ Affairs).
· H.R. 10551 (Figures, D-AL), the Public Service Educational Assistance Act, to direct the Secretary of Education to establish a Public Service Educational Assistance Program to provide educational assistance to the dependents of public service employees (Ways and Means; Education and Workforce).
· H.R. 10560 (James, R-MI), to amend the National Apprenticeship Act to require sponsors of registered apprenticeship programs to employ a certain amount of journeyworkers (Education and Workforce).
· H.R. 10562 (Jayapal, D-WA), to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to make for-profit institutions ineligible for Federal student aid and to protect the integrity of nonprofit institutions of higher education.
· H.R. 10612 (Torres, D-CA), to provide for the basic needs of students at institutions of higher education (Education and Workforce).
· S. 5445 (Blumenthal, D-CT), to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to extend the time period for the contribution of military death benefits to Roth IRAs and Coverdell education savings accounts (Finance).
· S. 5451 (Banks, R-IN), to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to require that recipients of Pell Grants be citizens or nationals of the United States (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions).
· S. 5456 (Sanders, I-VT), to prohibit the Secretary of Education from garnishing social security payments from individuals in default on their Federal student loans (Finance).
· S. 5460 (Heinrich, D-NM), to amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act and the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 to increase reimbursement rates of school meals (Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry).
· S. 5467 (Murphy, D-CT), to amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to expand the Magnet Schools Assistance Program (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions).
· S. 5468 (Murphy, D-CT), to divert Federal funding away from supporting the presence of police in schools and toward evidence-based and trauma informed services that address the needs of marginalized students and improve academic outcomes (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions).
· S. 5470 (Murphy, D-CT), to prohibit the use of corporal punishment in schools (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions).
· S. 5480 (Kaine, D-VA), to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow rehabilitation expenditures for public school buildings to qualify for rehabilitation credit (Finance).
· S. 5481 (Warren, D-MA), to expand youth access to voting (Rules and Administration).
· S. 5482 (Schatz, D-HI), to amend title 18, United States Code, to establish an Office of Prison Education (Judiciary).
· S. 5495 (Kim, D-NJ), to amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to exclude certain military housing allowances from the calculation of household income (Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry).
· S. 5504 (Rosen, D-NV), to require the Secretary of Defense to establish a pilot program on Department of Defense partnerships with institutions of higher education recognized in the National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity program for Cyber Research (Armed Services).
· S. 5533 (Bennet, D-CO), to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide an exclusion from gross income for AmeriCorps educational awards (Finance).
· S. 5540 (Kaine, D-VA), to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide for teacher and school leader quality enhancement and to enhance institutional aid (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions).
· S. 5549 (Reed, D-RI), to support educators (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions).
· S. 5559 (Padilla, D-CA), to provide for the basic needs of students at institutions of higher education (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions).
· S. 5566 (Booker, D-NJ), to direct the Secretary of Education to establish a Public Service Educational Assistance Program to provide educational assistance to the dependents of public service employees (Finance).
· On September 23, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary held a hearing to examine standing up for women in sports, focusing on ensuring opportunity, fairness and safety for female athletes.
· On September 24, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions held a business meeting to consider nominations and S. 4428, to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to require the use of an identity fraud detection system in reviewing Free Applications for Federal Student Aid.
· On September 24, the House Committee on Education and Workforce reported H.R. 4986, the Parents Opt-in Protection Act, to amend the General Education Provisions Act to ensure that a student is not required to submit to a survey, analysis, or evaluation that reveals personal information about such student or their family without prior written consent [H.Rep. 119-836]; and H.R. 5436, the End Transcript Withholding for Veterans Act, to amend title 38, United States Code, to prohibit an educational institution from withholding a transcript from an individual who pursued a course or program of education at such institution using Post-9/11 educational assistance [H.Rep. 119-835].
· On September 22 – 24, the Senate resumed consideration of S. 4668, the Protect College Sports Act, to protect the name, image, and likeness rights of, and provide protections for, student athletes and to promote fair competition among intercollegiate athletics, including amendments.