Ten Republican senators on Wednesday joined a growing chorus of Democrats calling for the Trump administration to unfreeze $6.8 billion of money Congress allocated for education in March.
Declining to give out money Congress allocated for schools runs counter to the Trump administration’s stated goal of “returning education to the states,” a group of senators led by Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., wrote in a July 16 letter to Russell Vought, director of the federal Office of Management and Budget.
The letter is the highest-profile example yet of congressional Republicans challenging the Trump administration’s withholding of the funds that, by law, were supposed to flow to states on July 1.
“This funding goes directly to states and local school districts, where local leaders decide how this funding is spent, because as we know, local communities know how to best serve students and families,” the senators wrote. “Withholding this funding denies states and communities the opportunity to pursue localized initiatives to support students and their families.”
The letter also highlights the importance of adult education programs for helping people gain credentials they need to enter the workforce.
“We should be making educational opportunities easier for these students, not harder,” the letter says.
Republican senators wrote to Vought that they’re willing to partner with the administration on ensuring that education funding goes to programs that effectively support students and schools and said they don’t believe the frozen funds are paying for “radical left-wing programs.”
The Office of Management and Budget has said the money is under “ongoing programmatic review” to root out spending related to a “radical left-wing agenda.”
“We want to see students in our states and across the country thrive, whether they are adult learners, students who speak English as a second language, or students who need after-school care so that their parents can work,” the senators wrote.
In addition to Capito, the letter was also signed by:
- John Boozman, R-Ark.
- Katie Britt, R-Ala.
- Susan Collins, R-Maine
- Deb Fischer, R-Neb.
- John Hoeven, R-N.D.
- Jim Justice, R-W.Va.
- Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
- Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska
- Mike Rounds, R-S.D.
Republicans are gradually ramping up pushback to the Trump administration
Participants include Republican senators widely seen as the party’s more moderate representatives on Capitol Hill, including Collins, who chairs the Senate’s budget-writing Appropriations Committee and has previously told Education Week she thinks the education funding should be immediately released.
But the letter also includes some senators who have been more closely aligned with President Donald Trump’s priorities. Rounds, from South Dakota, last November introduced a bill that would formalize the closure of the Department of Education, presaging the Trump administration’s efforts to close the agency. Britt delivered her party’s response to former President Joe Biden’s last State of the Union address last year.
In the U.S. House of Representatives, two Republicans so far have said they think the Trump administration should release at least some of the funds it’s holding back.
Rep. Tim Walberg, a Michigan Republican and chair of the House education committee, said in a statement to Education Week on July 7 that he wants “all funds Congress appropriated [to] be promptly distributed.”
Last week, Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., sent Trump a letter urging him to unfreeze Title IV-B funding for after-school programs. The July 9 letter appears to be the only one related to the funding freeze so far from a Republican House member. Lawler didn’t mention the other six frozen grant programs.
Democrats have been much more vocal, with 32 Democratic senators and 150 House Democrats sending letters decrying the funding freeze as unconstitutional and urging the administration to release the money.
Earlier this week, two dozen Democratic state attorneys general also sued the Trump administration aiming to restore the frozen funds for schools in their states. Rob Bonta, California’s attorney general, challenged Republican state leaders to more vigorously advocate for the students within their borders.
Republican state leaders during the second Trump administration “have sat on their hands, done nothing, have not had the courage to stand up for the rights of their constituents,” Bonta said during a July 14 press conference.
If they want to share in any court relief Democratic states get in the coming weeks, Bonta said, they “have to step up now, and fight for the funding they feel they deserve, or do some explaining to their children.”
The seven grant programs for which Trump has withheld congressionally allocated funds are:
- Title I-C for migrant education ($375 million)
- Title II-A for professional development ($2.2 billion)
- Title III-A for English-learner services ($890 million)
- Title IV-A for academic enrichment ($1.3 billion)
- Title IV-B for before- and after-school programs ($1.4 billion)
- Adult basic education and literacy and civics grants ($715 million)
