House Committee Advances 10-Bill Package to Dismantle and Reallocate Department of Education

The U.S. House Education and Workforce Committee has advanced a sweeping 10-bill legislative package designed to permanently transfer the core responsibilities of the Department of Education to other federal agencies. Dubbed the "Less Bureaucracy, Better Education" package, the legislation seeks to codify a series of interagency agreements initiated by the Trump administration to dismantle the 46-year-old department.[1][5]

The proposed restructuring would fundamentally alter how the federal government manages its $3 trillion education portfolio. Under the bills, the Department of Labor would absorb the Offices of Elementary and Secondary Education as well as Postsecondary Education, effectively merging classroom policy with workforce development.[3][5]

The financial mechanics of higher education would see an equally dramatic shift. The Department of the Treasury is slated to take over the $1.7 trillion Federal Student Aid portfolio. Only the defaulted loan segment has been relocated so far, but the legislation aims to move the entire apparatus, terminating the authority that previously exempted student loans from standard federal debt collection practices.[4][5]

Specialized programs would be dispersed to agencies matching their specific domains. The Department of Health and Human Services would manage foreign medical accreditation and child care access for student parents. Meanwhile, tribal education programs would shift to the Department of the Interior, and international education oversight would move to the State Department.[1][5]

The committee advanced the measures nearly along party lines following a six-hour markup session. Proponents framed the dispersal of duties as a necessary correction to decades of centralized administrative failure, arguing that the current structure has overseen declining test scores and ballooning student debt without delivering commensurate workforce readiness.[1][6]

The legislative push mirrors 14 interagency agreements already signed by the administration to begin the operational wind-down of the department. By codifying these agreements, the House bills attempt to ensure the transfers become permanent statutory law rather than temporary executive actions that could be easily reversed by future administrations.[1][2]

However, the transition has already encountered operational friction. Early efforts to shift defaulted student loan collections to the Treasury Department under an April 2026 agreement have faced staffing shortages, resulting in rescinded work previously assigned to debt collection companies. Critics point to these logistical hurdles as evidence that dispersing specialized education functions across multiple agencies could degrade service delivery.[6]

The legislation now faces a divided Congress. While the bills provide a statutory framework for the administration's deregulatory agenda in the House, the Senate has emerged as a source of bipartisan pushback. The upper chamber is currently considering a counter-measure, S. 5046, that would explicitly prohibit the transfer of Education Department offices to other agencies, setting up a high-stakes legislative clash over the future of federal education policy.[2]