Washington Update

2. Special Education Was Left Out, and the Senate Noticed

So there were ten bills with five destination agencies, and not one of them codifies the proposed move of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services to HHS; the OCR enforcement agreement did not get a bill either. The committee willing to relocate nearly everything else declined to put special education’s future in writing.

The Senate may have given a signal as to why that is the case. At the confirmation hearing for Labor nominee Keith Sonderling, Senator Tim Kaine asked whether he knew the core pillars of IDEA. His answer: “I do not. That is a Department of Education program.” Senator Tammy Baldwin pressed the coordination point; Sonderling offered the administration’s legal theory in a sentence: the programs are not moving, think of Labor as a consulting firm helping run them while they formally remain at ED. And HELP Chairman Bill Cassidy has said he prefers Labor over HHS as the destination.

Senate HELP has scheduled a markup for Wednesday, July 29 at 10 a.m., although its looking like this will get pushed to Thursday to allow Members the opportunity to attend Senator Graham’s funeral and the agenda leads with the Special Education Administration Protection Act (number pending), expected to address the OSERS transfer directly, and S. 5046, which would prohibit moving certain ED offices and functions at all. The docket also includes the College Transparency Act (S. 2511), the 21st Century Dyslexia Act (S. 3010), the RISE Act (S. 3589), and the READ Act (S. 4689).

3. Funding: The House Moves, the Senate Writes Its Own

On Tuesday, the House passed a continuing resolution funding the government through December 4. The timing of this isn’t an accident; it takes the majority through the midterms during a time where the leverage is so thin it could get lost in a couch cushion. The Senate will not just nod and agree to this though so its one step. Bipartisan talks are underway on a Senate-built stopgap, anomalies included, and Majority Leader John Thune plans to bring it to the floor in August before members head home.

Also this week,  the House Appropriations Committee held a full committee hearing, “Funding Lapses: Analyzing Shutdown Reform,” exploring automatic continuing resolutions, apportionment reform, and budget process changes. The conversation was notably bipartisan (remarks from Chairman Cole and Ranking Member DeLauro are worth your time), and Pell was flagged as a program automatic funding mechanisms might not handle well; the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities argues automatic CRs create as many problems as they solve.

4. A Court Draws a Line on Grant Terminations

On July 17, a U.S. District Court ruled that the Office of Management and Budget cannot terminate grants because the administration’s priorities have changed. A coalition of states brought the suit last year after terminations invoked exactly that rationale. Early reporting describes the decision as forward-looking: it prevents future cuts on that basis rather than reinstating awards already lost. Expect an appeal.

What this means for our field: Our field knows these termination letters firsthand. A ruling that “priorities changed” is not a lawful basis for termination is the strongest judicial statement yet on the question, and it matters to every current OSEP and IES grantee reading this.

5. Workforce Pell Is Live

The Workforce Pell Grant launched July 1. Pell dollars can now follow low-income students into training programs as short as eight weeks, provided programs clear a 70 percent completion rate and 70 percent job placement within 180 days, with states doing the vetting. Under Secretary Nicholas Kent says first submissions have arrived and approvals could come by summer’s end. Readiness varies wildly, from North Carolina’s 116-program submission to California sitting out until 2027, and Congress provided no implementation funding, so year one will be a pilot in all but name.

What this means for our field: Most short-term credentials sit outside educator preparation, but this architecture is one states may eventually point at paraprofessional pipelines and related-services shortages, and every new Pell draw arrives against a projected shortfall. Worth watching with both interest and a calculator.

6. The White House Publishes Its Blueprint for Science

Eighty-one years after Vannevar Bush’s Science: The Endless Frontier, the White House released its self-conscious sequel: Science: A New Golden Age, a 123-page report from OSTP Director Michael Kratsios. The headlines belong to research funding reform and AI, but the chapter our field should read is the one on education. It argues federal policy “tilted the scales” toward college and away from technical training, and it wants hands-on training embedded in STEM curricula, apprenticeship hours counted toward accredited degrees, accreditation and tenure reformed to reward real-world technical work, and community colleges built into regional training hubs. Workforce Pell is cited as the funding rail, and an annex carries the FY 2028 R&D budget priorities memo, previewing where research dollars go next

What this means for our field: This is the intellectual scaffolding for the workforce-first higher education agenda. Watch for its fingerprints on accreditation policy and on the research competitions education researchers depend on. When accreditation and tenure reform become science policy, teacher preparation is in the conversation whether we asked to be or not.