Warren, Sanders, Murray, Baldwin Call for Watchdog Investigation of Trump’s Efforts to Dismantle Education Department

Senators warn moving critical programs to agencies with no education policy experience could delay funding, increase administrative burden, raise program costs
Text of Letter (PDF)
Washington, D.C. —U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.); Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions; Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Vice Chair of the Senate Committee on Appropriations; and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies pushed the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) to open an investigation into the Department of Education’s (ED) transfer of grant programs to agencies with no expertise in education policy, such as the Department of Labor (DOL)—a key step in the Trump administration’s efforts to illegally dismantle and eventually abolish ED.
“We are deeply concerned that the administration’s decisions to [transfer] grant programs in this manner delayed crucial funding that millions of students and schools rely on, created administrative inefficiencies, increased the cost of program administration, and compromised the quality of technical assistance provided to states and grantees,”wrote the senators.
In May 2025, the Trump administration formalized an interagency agreement (IAA) through which it moved the day-to-day management of career and technical education and adult education grant programs, including Perkins V and AEFLA, from ED to DOL. Perkins V grants annually provide over $1.4 billion in funding for career and technical education programs forabout 11 million studentsaround the country. AEFLA provides over $700 million in annual funding for adult education opportunities, most often for people without a high school degree or who are English language learners. In 2024, AEFLAservedabout 1.3 million adult students.
“[T]hese programs are a critical pathway to the middle class and can play a key role in reducing poverty and enabling employment,”wrote the lawmakers.
ED is reportedly paying DOL around $1 million to cover the cost of administering these programs during FY25 and FY26.Public reportingsuggests that the transfer of these programs has been deeply flawed, leading to weeks-long delays in grant disbursements and harming students and schools.
“[T]he reports raise questions about whether the transfer has actually reduced alleged ‘duplication of effort,’ or just created inefficiency,”said the senators.
In November 2025, ED announced six additional IAAs, pointing to the May IAA as a template for their work to dismantle the Department. These IAAs transferred significant responsibilities for grant administration for dozens of programs for early childhood, elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education out of ED.
The lawmakers asked GAO to investigate these IAAs — and any future IAAs — and the agreements’ impacts on program costs, timely access to funding, access to services, and quality of technical assistance for grantees.
Senator Warren has led the fight to make our higher education system more affordable, cancel student loan debt, and hold student loan servicers accountable for incompetence and malfeasance. She launched theSave Our Schoolscampaign in a coordinated effort to fight back against President Trump’s attempts to abolish the Department of Education.
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