Administration announces plans to transfer Education Department programs to HHS and DOJ

The Trump administration announced today plans to transfer some programs now housed at the U.S. Department of Education to other federal agencies, a reporter said. The report identified special education and rehabilitative services as slated to move to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and said the Office for Civil Rights would move to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Those changes, the report noted, do not by themselves dissolve the Department of Education. Fully closing or abolishing the department would require an act of Congress, the reporter said, and Republican lawmakers had not moved to pass such legislation; instead, the administration has relied on executive actions to effect changes, according to the report.

Advocates and policy analysts typically treat transfers of program authority as significant because they can change which agencies set rules, handle enforcement and oversee funding streams. The reporter did not provide further details on timelines, statutory mechanisms or whether funding authorities would follow the programs to their new agencies.

No congressional action or specific statutory language was reported in the transcript. The report did not name department officials making the decisions, and no votes or formal motions were recorded in the transcript.