Trump Administration Begins to Send ED Employees to DOL
By Maria Carrasco, NASFAA Staff Reporter
The Trump administration on Thursday announced its next steps to dismantle the Department of Education (ED) by sending higher education agency staff over to the Department of Labor (DOL) beginning next week, a move that is also complicating congressional negotiations over ED’s annual funding.
Staff in the Higher Education Programs (HEP) Division of ED’s Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE) will begin working at DOL starting on January 20. With this transition, ED noted that HEP grantees will transition to DOL’s Grant Solutions and Payment Management System in an effort to align the grants management and payment systems across ED and DOL’s postsecondary and workforce programs.
Earlier in November, ED announced six new interagency agreements (IAAs) aimed at transferring several of the department’s responsibilities to other federal agencies, which include DOL. Under this agreement, DOL will “take on a greater role in administering postsecondary education grant programs authorized under the Higher Education Act (HEA),” ED stated in November.
This move is part of the Trump administration's broader effort to dismantle ED. Last year, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to initiate the dissolution of the department, after which McMahon announced a reduction-in-force (RIF).
The Trump administration’s continued efforts to dismantle ED have posed a problem for Congress and the appropriations process, as negotiators try to finalize spending levels for the current fiscal year. According to POLITICO, Democratic lawmakers are trying to include language in the education spending bill to stop ED from offloading some of its duties to other agencies. Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), chair of the subcommittee overseeing the education spending bill, told POLITICO that adding this language would be a “heavy lift” to get through the House.
Government funding for ED’s annual budget is currently set to expire after January 30, meaning Congress has two weeks to pass legislation to continue funding the government or risk a partial government shutdown due to a possible lapse in funding for several agencies.
Publication Date: 1/16/2026
Christopher F | 1/16/2026 4:32:10 PM
So ... why are we having an FSA conference again???
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