Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-LA) gaveled in last Thursday’s Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee markup with laser-focused determination: to advance his 21st Century Dyslexia Act and honor his pledge to Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) by bringing to a vote a measure prohibiting the transfer of key U.S. Department of Education (ED) offices to other federal agencies. The Committee accomplished both goals. In a 13–9 vote, lawmakers advanced S. 5046, a bipartisan bill preventing the transfer of four critical divisions—the Office of Indian Education, the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE), and the Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE)— to other Federal agencies. Republican Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) joined a unified Democratic bloc to secure the bill's passage out of committee. “This bill is straightforward,” Collins said. “It keeps important landmark education programs at the Department of Education, where Congress specifically put them and where they belong.” Under the leadership of Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), the bill was successfully amended to require the Secretary of Education to provide Congress with a cost analysis of each interagency agreement (IAA) and to submit quarterly reports to the Senate HELP and Appropriations Committees. In noting why this was necessary, Murray said, “Secretary McMahon is duplicating the work her Department was already [doing] by asking other agencies to do it instead and claiming somehow this makes government ‘more efficient.’ Fine. Prove it.” Murray also offered an amendment to prohibit the transfer of any ED office and one to prohibit the move of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to the Department of Justice; however, both were shot down by Republicans, including Collins, who spoke in favor of OCR’s planned move. While HELP Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-LA) did not vote in favor of the bipartisan bill, he did discuss his alternative bill, the Special Education Administration Protection Act (S. 5038), which would prevent ED from moving OSERS to the Health and Human Services agency but would have allowed OSERS to be moved to another agency. Given the evident support for the bipartisan bill, Cassidy did not call S. 5038 forward. Following the vote on S. 5046, Denise Marshall, COPAA CEO, issued a short statement to congratulate the HELP Committee and urge COPAA members — whose Senator voted in favor — to thank them: 

“Thank you to every COPAA member who urged Congress to stop illegal transfers of education programs outside the Department of Education. Thanks to your efforts, the Senate HELP Committee passed S. 5046. The bill protects offices overseeing elementary, secondary, special, vocational rehabilitation, Indian, and postsecondary education from transfer to other federal agencies. Specifically, it prevents the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) from moving to Health and Human Services (HHS) or any other agency. We especially thank the Senators who led the bill negotiations that led to agreement: Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). If you live in the listed states your Senator voted for the bill. Please take a moment to thank your Senator for supporting every child with a disability and their family. AK(Murkowski), CO (Hickenlooper), CT (Murphy), DE (Blunt-Rochester), MA (Markey), MD (Alsobrooks), ME (Collins), NH (Hassan), NJ (Kim), VA (Kaine), VT (Sanders), WA (Murray), WI (Baldwin)"