The real bottleneck does not lie in the House, but in the 60 Senate votes that Republicans do not have.
From Executive Order to Law: The Distance Remains Vast
A package of 10 bills that just passed committee has proceeded almost entirely along party lines - that is the most notable detail. Committee Chair Tim Walberg calls this the first step in a process to end the Department of Education's role, while Secretary Linda McMahon sees it as a way to "cement" the reforms that the Trump administration has implemented. But even if the bills pass the full House, they still need 60 votes in the Senate to overcome the filibuster procedure - while Republicans hold only 53 seats. This is the real bottleneck: without the backing of some Democratic senators, the package is almost certainly doomed in the Senate, just as previous proposals to dissolve the department have been.
The 1.7 Trillion Dollar Question and Who Will Manage Student Loans
The most significant financial aspect concerns student loans. The U.S. Department of the Treasury is expected to assume the entire federal student loan portfolio valued at approximately 1.7 trillion dollars through a multi-stage process, after the two departments signed an agreement starting in March 2026 for the Treasury to collect overdue loans. Meanwhile, the Department of Labor will take over post-secondary education programs including vocational training - an arrangement that Education Department officials explain is because education fundamentally prepares people for the labor market according to Chalkbeat. The State Department receives the international education portfolio, while the Department of Health and Human Services takes on recognition of foreign medical schools and some student support programs.
What Was Left Out - and Why It's Controversial
This legislative package does not touch special education or civil rights enforcement - the two most sensitive areas. But that is not because the administration has not acted: as of June 2026, the Trump administration announced it was transferring civil rights enforcement to the Department of Justice and assigning the special education program to the Department of Health and Human Services through administrative channels, without needing Congress. Representative Bobby Scott, the senior Democratic member of the committee, warned that these proposals would create "miles of administrative barriers" and waste taxpayer money. At the same time, President Trump's budget proposal for fiscal year 2026 seeks to cut approximately 12 billion dollars, equivalent to 15.3% of the Education Department's budget, completely eliminating the TRIO and Gear Up programs that help disadvantaged students access college.
Reactions and Public Opinion
Governors such as Tim Walz of Minnesota and Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico warn of financial damage to students and their states' university systems, while Republican Representative Brian Fitzpatrick has also expressed concern about a lack of transparency in the transfer process. On the public side, a survey by New America shows that only 26% of adults support closing the Department of Education, and even within the Republican Party, fewer than half of voters agree. Notably, even as the department's fate hangs in the balance, routine activities such as a civics education survey commemorating 250 years since the nation's founding continue to take place in schools across many states, showing that the administrative machinery continues to function while Congress deliberates on the department's fate.
What to Watch
The most realistic near-term scenario is not that the Department of Education disappears through a vote, but that the administration continues to use inter-agency agreements and administrative orders to quietly transfer functions - a path that does not require 60 Senate votes but is also vulnerable to legal challenge, since the law establishing the department remains in effect.