President Donald Trump’s desire to dismantle the Department of Education could be fully realized with legislation being put together by a top Republican senator.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) announced plans to introduce a bill shortly after Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to “facilitate” the closure of a federal agency the current administration feels has not adequately helped student achievement and “return education authority” to the states and local communities.
“I agree with President Trump that the Department of Education has failed its mission,” Cassidy said in a statement given to The Daily Wire. “Since the Department can only be shut down with Congressional approval, I will support the President’s goals by submitting legislation to accomplish this as soon as possible.”
Trump’s second-term administration has already taken steps toward paring back the Cabinet-level agency, however, because Congress passed a bill to create the Department of Education that was signed by then-President Jimmy Carter in 1979, another one is needed in order to fully take it apart.
Cassidy is the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, meaning whatever bill he puts forth will have positive momentum within the GOP-led Senate.
Still, Cassidy’s legislation faces the prospect of a filibuster. A three-fifths majority — or 60 votes — would be needed to overcome that threshold. As Republicans only have a slim majority in the Senate, they would need a handful of Democrats or independents to support moving forward with the bill — an unlikely outcome.
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, released a video earlier this month suggesting possible workarounds, such as using the budget reconciliation process that requires only a simple majority, moving to repeal the agency’s mandatory programs, or acting on recision requests from the president.
On the House side, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) has already introduced a bill for this session of Congress that simply declares the Department of Education “shall terminate on December 31, 2026.” That bill, which has 32 co-sponsors, has so far been referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce for consideration.
Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) announced on X that he was “drafting the Make Education Great Again Act to codify [Trump’s] historic executive action gutting the woke and wasteful Department of Education. It’s time for Congress to return education to the states and defend the rights of parents across our nation.”
