I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 369
To provide for the elimination of the Department of Education, and for
other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY13, 2025
Mr. R
OUZERintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Education and Workforce
A BILL
To provide for the elimination of the Department of
Education, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘States’ Education Rec-4
lamation Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6
Congress finds the following: 7
(1) Principles of federalism embodied in the 8
Constitution of the United States entrust authority 9
over issues of educational policy to the States and 10
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the people and a Federal Department of Education 1
is inconsistent with such principles. 2
(2) Tradition and experience dictate that the 3
governance and management of schools in the 4
United States are best performed by parents, teach-5
ers, and communities. 6
(3) The education of the Nation’s students is 7
suffering under a managerial government. 8
(4) The Department of Education has weak-9
ened the ability of parents to make essential deci-10
sions about their children’s education and has un-11
dermined the capacity of communities to govern 12
their schools. 13
(5) In the 41 years of its existence, the Depart-14
ment of Education has grown from a budget of $14 15
billion to almost $73.5 billion in annual discre-16
tionary appropriations administering around 100 17
programs. Meanwhile, education performance for 17- 18
year-olds has stagnated since 1971. 19
(6) The Department of Education has fostered 20
overregulation, standardization, bureaucratization, 21
and litigation in United States education. 22
(7) The Department of Education expends 23
large amounts of money on its own maintenance and 24
overhead. While the average national salary for pub-25
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lic school teachers is $61,730 the average salary for 1
a Department of Education employee is $112,724. 2
(8) In certain States, the average State salary 3
for a public school teacher is less than the national 4
average. In North Carolina, the average salary for a 5
public school teacher is $53,975. 6
(9) Recent tests reflect poor results in mathe-7
matics, science, and reading for American students 8
compared with students from other nations. 9
(10) Only through initiatives led by parents and 10
local communities with the power to act can the 11
United States elevate educational performance to-12
ward an acceptable level. 13
(11) The current system of top-down education 14
uniformity is detrimental to local businesses and 15
communities, the economic needs of the States, and 16
the Nation’s ability to compete globally for jobs. 17
(12) The Department of Education has been 18
hostile to many promising reforms, including re-19
forms that would empower parents, teachers, and 20
local communities. The United States, once a labora-21
tory of innovation through the experiments of the 22
States, is moving toward education standardization 23
that does not consider the individual educational 24
needs of our diverse population of students. 25
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SEC. 3. ABOLITION OF DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. 1
The Department of Education is abolished, and, with 2
the exception of the programs transferred under section 3
7, any program for which the Secretary of Education or 4
the Department of Education has administrative responsi-5
bility as provided by law or by delegation of authority pur-6
suant to law is repealed, including each program under 7
the following: 8
(1) The Department of Education Organization 9
Act (20 U.S.C. 3401 et seq.). 10
(2) The General Education Provisions Act (20 11
U.S.C. 1221 et seq.). 12
SEC. 4. GRANTS TO STATES FOR ELEMENTARY AND SEC-13
ONDARY AND FOR POSTSECONDARY EDU-14
CATION PROGRAMS. 15
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subject to the requirements of 16
this Act, each State is entitled to receive from the Sec-17
retary of the Treasury, by not later than July 1 of the 18
preceding fiscal year— 19
(1) a grant for fiscal year 2025 and each suc-20
ceeding fiscal year through fiscal year 2033, that is 21
equal to the amount of funds appropriated for the 22
State for Federal elementary school and secondary 23
school programs for fiscal year 2025 (except for the 24
funds appropriated for fiscal year 2025 for such pro-25
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grams for such State that are being transferred 1
under section 7); and 2
(2) a grant for fiscal year 2025 and each suc-3
ceeding fiscal year through fiscal year 2033, that is 4
equal to the amount of funds appropriated for the 5
State for Federal postsecondary education programs 6
for fiscal year 2025 (except for the funds appro-7
priated for fiscal year 2025 for such programs for 8
such State that are being transferred under section 9
7). 10
(b) A
PPROPRIATION.—Out of any money in the 11
Treasury of the United States not otherwise appropriated, 12
there are appropriated for fiscal years 2025 through 2033, 13
such sums as are necessary for grants under subsection 14
(a). 15
(c) R
EQUIREMENTS RELATING TOINTERGOVERN-16
MENTALFINANCING.—The Secretary of the Treasury 17
shall make the transfer of funds under grants under sub-18
section (a) directly to each State in accordance with the 19
requirements of section 6503 of title 31, United States 20
Code. 21
(d) E
XPENDITURE OFFUNDS.—Amounts received by 22
a State under this section for any fiscal year shall be ex-23
pended by the State in such fiscal year or in the suc-24
ceeding fiscal year. 25
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(e) USE OFFUNDS.—Funds made available to a 1
State— 2
(1) under subsection (a)(1), shall be used by 3
the State for any elementary or secondary education 4
purpose permitted by State law, including increases 5
in teacher salaries; and 6
(2) under subsection (a)(2), shall be used by 7
the State for any postsecondary education purpose 8
permitted by State law. 9
(f) S
UPPLEMENT, NOTSUPPLANT.—A grant received 10
under subsection (a) shall only be used to supplement the 11
amount of funds that would, in the absence of such grant, 12
be made available from non-Federal sources for elemen-13
tary school and secondary school programs or postsec-14
ondary education programs, and not to supplant those 15
funds. 16
SEC. 5. ADMINISTRATIVE AND FISCAL ACCOUNTABILITY. 17
(a) A
UDITS.— 18
(1) C
ONTRACT WITH APPROVED AUDITING EN -19
TITY.—Not later than October 1, 2025, and annu-20
ally thereafter, a State shall contract with an ap-21
proved auditing entity (as defined under paragraph 22
(3)(B)) for purposes of conducting an audit under 23
paragraph (2) (with respect to the fiscal year ending 24
September 30 of such year). 25
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(2) AUDIT REQUIREMENT .—Under a contract 1
under paragraph (1), an approved auditing entity 2
shall conduct an audit of the expenditures or trans-3
fers made by a State from amounts received under 4
a grant under section 4, with respect to the fiscal 5
year which such audit covers, to determine the ex-6
tent to which such expenditures and transfers were 7
expended in accordance with section 4. 8
(3) E
NTITY CONDUCTING AUDIT .— 9
(A) I
N GENERAL.—With respect to a 10
State, the audit under paragraph (2) shall be 11
conducted by an approved auditing entity in ac-12
cordance with generally accepted auditing prin-13
ciples. 14
(B) A
PPROVED AUDITING ENTITY .—For 15
purposes of this section, the term ‘‘approved 16
auditing entity’’ means, with respect to a State, 17
an entity that is— 18
(i) approved by the Secretary of the 19
Treasury; 20
(ii) approved by the chief executive of-21
ficer of the State; and 22
(iii) independent of any Federal, 23
State, or local agency. 24
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(4) SUBMISSION OF AUDIT .—Not later than 1
April 30, 2026, and annually thereafter, a State 2
shall submit the results of the audit under para-3
graph (2) (with respect to the fiscal year ending on 4
September 30 of such year) to the State legislature 5
and to the Secretary of the Treasury. 6
(b) R
EIMBURSEMENT AND PENALTY.—If, through an 7
audit conducted under subsection (a), an approved audit-8
ing entity finds that a State violated the requirements of 9
subsection (d) or (e) of section 4, the State shall pay to 10
the Treasury of the United States 100 percent of the 11
amount of State funds that were used in violation of sec-12
tion 4 as a penalty. Insofar as a State fails to pay any 13
such penalty, the Secretary of the Treasury shall offset 14
the amount not so paid against the amount of any grant 15
otherwise payable to the State under this Act. 16
(c) A
NNUALREPORTINGREQUIREMENTS.— 17
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than January 31, 18
2026, and annually thereafter, each State shall sub-19
mit to the Secretary of the Treasury and the State 20
legislature a report on the activities carried out by 21
the State during the most recently completed fiscal 22
year with funds received by the State under a grant 23
under section 4 for such fiscal year. 24
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(2) CONTENT.—A report under paragraph (1) 1
shall, with respect to a fiscal year— 2
(A) contain the results of the audit con-3
ducted by an approved auditing entity for a 4
State for such fiscal year, in accordance with 5
the requirements of subsection (a) of this sec-6
tion; 7
(B) specify the amount of the grant made 8
to the State under section 4; and 9
(C) be in such form and contain such other 10
information as the State determines is nec-11
essary to provide— 12
(i) an accurate description of the ac-13
tivities conducted by the State for the pur-14
pose described under section 4; and 15
(ii) a complete record of the purposes 16
for which amounts were expended in ac-17
cordance with this section. 18
(3) P
UBLIC AVAILABILITY.—A State shall make 19
copies of the reports required under this section 20
available on a public website and shall make copies 21
available in other formats upon request. 22
(d) F
AILURETOCOMPLYWITHREQUIREMENTS.— 23
The Secretary of the Treasury shall not make any pay-24
ment to a State under a grant authorized by section 4— 25
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(1) if an audit for a State is not submitted as 1
required under subsection (a) during the period be-2
tween the date such audit is due and the date on 3
which such audit is submitted; 4
(2) if a State fails to submit a report as re-5
quired under subsection (c) during the period be-6
tween the date such report is due and the date on 7
which such report is submitted; or 8
(3) if a State violates a requirement of section 9
4 during the period beginning on the date the Sec-10
retary becomes aware of such violation and the date 11
on which such violation is corrected by the State. 12
(e) A
DMINISTRATIVE SUPERVISION AND OVER-13
SIGHT.— 14
(1) L
IMITED ROLE FOR SECRETARY OF THE 15
TREASURY.—The authority of the Secretary of the 16
Treasury under this Act is limited to— 17
(A) promulgating regulations, issuing 18
rules, or publishing guidance documents to the 19
extent necessary for purposes of implementing 20
subsection (a)(3)(B), subsection (b), and sub-21
section (d); 22
(B) making payments to the States under 23
grants under section 4; 24
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(C) approving entities under subsection 1
(a)(3)(B) for purposes of the audits required 2
under subsection (a); 3
(D) withholding payment to a State of a 4
grant under subsection (d) or offsetting a pay-5
ment of such a grant to a State under sub-6
section (b); and 7
(E) exercising the authority relating to 8
nondiscrimination that is specified in section 9
6(b). 10
(2) L
IMITED ROLE FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL .— 11
The authority of the Attorney General to supervise 12
the amounts received by a State under section 4 is 13
limited to the authority under section 6(b). 14
(f) R
ESERVATION OF STATEPOWERS.—Nothing in 15
this section shall be construed to limit the power of a 16
State, including the power of a State to pursue civil and 17
criminal penalties under State law against any individual 18
or entity that misuses, or engages in fraud or abuse re-19
lated to, the funds provided to a State under section 4. 20
SEC. 6. NONDISCRIMINATION PROVISIONS. 21
(a) N
ODISCRIMINATIONAGAINSTINDIVIDUALS.— 22
No individual shall be excluded from participation in, de-23
nied the benefits of, or subjected to discrimination under, 24
any program or activity funded in whole or in part with 25
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amounts paid to a State under section 4 on the basis of 1
such individual’s— 2
(1) disability under section 504 of the Rehabili-3
tation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794); 4
(2) sex under title IX of the Education Amend-5
ments of 1972 (20 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.); or 6
(3) race, color, or national origin under title VI 7
of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000d 8
et seq.). 9
(b) C
OMPLIANCE.— 10
(1) I
N GENERAL.—If the Attorney General de-11
termines that a State or an entity that has received 12
funds from amounts paid to a State under a grant 13
under section 4 has failed to comply with a provision 14
of law referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary of 15
the Treasury shall notify the chief executive officer 16
of the State of such failure to comply and shall re-17
quest that such chief executive officer secure such 18
compliance. 19
(2) E
NFORCEMENT.—If, not later than 60 days 20
after receiving notification under paragraph (1), the 21
chief executive officer of a State fails or refuses to 22
secure compliance with the provision of law referred 23
to in such notification, the Attorney General may— 24
(A) institute an appropriate civil action; or 25
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(B) exercise the powers and functions pro-1
vided under section 505 of the Rehabilitation 2
Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794a), title IX of the 3
Education Amendments of 1972 (20 U.S.C. 4
1681 et seq.), or title VI of the Civil Rights Act 5
of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000d et seq.) (as applica-6
ble). 7
SEC. 7. TRANSFER OF CERTAIN DEPARTMENT OF EDU-8
CATION PROGRAMS. 9
(a) T
RANSFER OFCERTAINPROGRAMS.—Not later 10
than 24 months after the date of the enactment of this 11
Act— 12
(1) each job training program under the juris-13
diction of the Department of Education, including 14
the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education 15
Act of 2006 (20 U.S.C. 2301 et seq.), shall be trans-16
ferred to the Department of Labor; 17
(2) each special education grant program under 18
the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (20 19
U.S.C. 1460 et seq.) shall be transferred to the De-20
partment of Health and Human Services; 21
(3) each Indian education program under the 22
jurisdiction of the Department of Education shall be 23
transferred to the Department of the Interior; 24
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(4) each Impact Aid program under title VIII 1
of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 2
1965 (20 U.S.C. 7701 et seq.) shall be transferred 3
to the Department of Defense; 4
(5) the Federal Pell Grant program under title 5
IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6
1070a) shall be transferred to the Department of 7
the Treasury; 8
(6) each Federal student loan program under 9
the jurisdiction of the Department of Education 10
shall be transferred to the Department of the Treas-11
ury; 12
(7) each program under the jurisdiction of the 13
Institute of Education Sciences shall be transferred 14
to the Department of Health and Human Services; 15
and 16
(8) each program under the jurisdiction of the 17
D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program shall be 18
transferred to the Department of Health and 19
Human Services. 20
(b) L
IMITATION ONTRANSFER OFCERTAINPRO-21
GRAMS.—The transfer of programs pursuant to subsection 22
(a) is limited to only the transfer of administrative respon-23
sibility as provided by law or the delegation of authority 24
pursuant to law and does not extend to the transfer of 25
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personnel employed by the Department of Education to 1
carry out such programs. 2
SEC. 8. GAO REPORT. 3
Not later than 90 days after the date of the enact-4
ment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United 5
States shall submit to the Committee on Education and 6
the Workforce of the House of Representatives and the 7
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of 8
the Senate report, which shall include— 9
(1) a review and evaluation as to the feasibility 10
of enhancing the ability of States and local commu-11
nities to fund education by reducing the Federal tax 12
burden and commensurately eliminating Federal 13
Government involvement in providing grants for edu-14
cation programs; and 15
(2) an evaluation of the feasibility of the suc-16
cessor Federal agencies for maintaining the pro-17
grams to be transferred under section 7. 18
SEC. 9. PLAN FOR CLOSURE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF EDU-19
CATION. 20
Not later than 365 days after the date of the enact-21
ment of this Act, the President shall submit to the Con-22
gress a plan to implement closure of the Department of 23
Education in accordance with this Act. 24
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SEC. 10. DEFINITIONS. 1
In this Act: 2
(1) E
LEMENTARY SCHOOL ; SECONDARY 3
SCHOOL.—The terms ‘‘elementary school’’ and ‘‘sec-4
ondary school’’ have the meanings given the terms 5
in section 8101 of the Elementary and Secondary 6
Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801). 7
(2) I
NSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION .—The 8
term ‘‘institution of higher education’’ has the 9
meaning given the term in section 102 of the Ele-10
mentary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 11
U.S.C. 1002). 12
(3) S
TATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ has the mean-13
ing given the term in section 103 of the Higher 14
Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1003). 15
Æ
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