Senate Committee Advances Bill To Block Education Department Transfers

A bipartisan group of senators is moving to block at least some of the Trump administration's effort to dismantle the Department of Education. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved S. 5046 on Thursday by a 13-9 vote, sending it to the full Senate. The bill, introduced July 21 by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) with Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), would bar the Education Secretary from offloading four of the department's offices onto other agencies. This comes a little more than two weeks after House Republicans sought to make the dismantling permanent with a series of 10 bills completely removing nearly all functions of the Department of Education.