Letter: PDE Action Supports Inter-Agency Agreements to Return Education to the States

Chairman Bill Cassidy, M.D.
Ranking Member Bernie Sanders
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
428 Senate Dirksen Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

July 29, 2026

Dear Chairman Cassidy and Ranking Member Sanders, Parents Defending Education Action supports the efforts of the Department of Education under the honorable Secretary Linda MacMahon to issue Inter-Agency Agreements to support the President’s efforts to abolish the Department and return education to the states. 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. 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 that 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. By supporting the Inter Agency Agreements, we support America’s future students and states’ right to choose.

Sincerely,

Terry Stoops

Director of Government Affairs

Parents Defending Education Action