STATEMENT: PDE Action Opposes Sen. Tim Kaine’s Bill to Block IAA’s Within the Department of Education

Parents Defending Education Action opposes S. 5046, sponsored by Senator Tim Kaine and
cosponsored by Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins.

Over the last two years, the Trump administration has prudently used interagency agreements to transfer U.S. Department of Education offices and functions to other federal agencies. These transfers have had two positive effects. First, they have reduced the bureaucratic bloat at the U.S. Department of Education, fulfilling President Trump’s promise to reduce the footprint of our nation’s most historically unproductive cabinet department. Second, these interagency agreements transfer essential functions to federal agencies whose mission and resources are better aligned to fulfilling the responsibilities required by law.

The U.S. Department of Education does not educate a single child. It is an administrative agency designed to carry out limited functions prescribed by Congress and the president. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon should remain free to collaborate with her fellow cabinet appointees and institute new and better ways to serve the American people. S. 5046 would stifle innovation and maintain the bureaucratic status quo at the U.S. Department of Education.

Read the full text of the bill here.

Terry Stoops
Director of Government Affairs
Parents Defending Education Action