A bipartisan push is mounting for the U.S. Department of Education to release nearly $300 million in education research funds tied to the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). College and K-12 groups, along with 19 senators including Jeff Merkley, Thom Tillis, and Elizabeth Warren, sent letters to Education Secretary Linda McMahon urging allocation of remaining FY25 and FY26 balances that are at risk of lapsing. The letters allege that closeouts of hundreds of unreviewed IES FY25 grant proposals left “no new awards” over the past year, contributing to sharp declines in special education research and related data gathering. IES is the agency’s research arm that supports work including the Nation’s Report Card (NAEP) assessment data. For universities and education researchers, the immediate issue is continuity of competitive funding pipelines. For K-12 partners, it affects how quickly states receive evidence-based interventions scaled from prior IES-funded findings.