A bipartisan Senate effort advanced a bill Thursday aimed at preventing the U.S. Department of Education from transferring its postsecondary office and blocking outsourcing tied to key education programs. The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions approved S. 5046 in a 13–9 vote, sending it to the full Senate. Backers argue the measure keeps “landmark education programs” in the Department of Education, where Congress placed them. The bill would also prohibit transfer of oversight for special education, elementary and secondary education, and Native American education programs; Democrats tried but failed to broaden the scope to include the Office for Civil Rights. The Department has signed 14 interagency agreements since May 2025 to move responsibilities across agencies, a plan tied to the administration’s broader effort to reshape the federal education bureaucracy. S. 5046 would narrow that pathway for the postsecondary functions at issue, with a decision pending before the full Senate vote.