The U.S. Department of Education asked the public for feedback on rewriting the accreditation handbook while shifting program administration to other federal agencies. Officials seek to reduce what they call “bureaucratic” accreditation burdens and invited 45 days of public comment on standards, transparency, and incentives for intellectual diversity. Assistant Secretary David Barker framed the effort as trimming red tape and spurring innovation. Separately, CHEA’s new Policy Watch details USDE partnerships that would transfer responsibilities to the Departments of Labor, Interior and Health and Human Services. The planned reallocations would make DOL a larger administrator of several postsecondary grant programs and fold select Indian education and foreign medical accreditation functions into agencies with subject-matter expertise. Colleges and accreditors told administrators these are consequential changes: they affect how institutions document quality, secure federal recognition and interact with workforce and tribal programs. Accreditors, institutional leaders, and regional agencies will have to assess both compliance work and operational impacts if the proposals become rulemaking or informal administrative practice. Regulatory drafts and stakeholder responses will determine how quickly these changes reshape institutional oversight.