Senate Democrats Step Up Challenge to Trump’s Education Program Transfers

Overview

• At a Senate Democrats’ forum, lawmakers and union leaders condemned agreements moving Education Department responsibilities to Labor, Interior, HHS and State, calling the effort unlawful and harmful to students.
• An Education Department spokesperson defended the plan as a needed overhaul of federal education bureaucracy and criticized resistance as protecting poor results.
• One agreement gives the Labor Department a greater role in administering elementary and secondary education programs, which worker representatives warned would cause confusion and loss of expertise.
• Sen. Elizabeth Warren labeled the transfers illegal, citing statutes assigning programs to the Education Department, and urged Congress to block the changes through appropriations.
• Rhode Island’s education commissioner said agency guidance lacks detail and has prompted legal fights and constitutional questions, while earlier Supreme Court‑permitted layoffs have already thinned in‑house expertise.