HELP Committee Votes to Block Key Parts of Trump’s Education Department Breakup

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee advanced a bipartisan bill on July 30, 2026, in a 13-9 vote that would prohibit the Education Department from transferring four offices overseeing special education, postsecondary education, elementary and secondary education, and Native American education to other federal agencies. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia with Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, would block the interagency agreements the Department has signed as part of the administration’s push to eliminate the 46-year-old agency. Notably, HELP Committee Chairman Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana voted against the bill despite having previously voiced opposition to moving special education oversight to the Department of Health and Human Services, explaining that he supports allowing the administration to pilot whether the interagency agreements can produce efficiencies, even if he opposes specific transfers. Politico reports that the Education Department has called the committee’s action “entirely premature,” with a spokesperson saying Secretary McMahon’s proof-of-concept effort was “delivering results” and should not be “sabotaged” before it has a chance to work. The bill now awaits a full Senate vote.