This week, President Trump addressed a joint session of Congress to outline his vision for the future. Meanwhile, Congress has formally confirmed new leadership for the U.S. Department of Education (ED) as the Department considers significant cuts amid the Trump Administration’s efforts to downsize the federal workforce. Elsewhere, congressional Republicans have continued to procedurally advance a budget reconciliation package while leaders struggle to find consensus on federal funding for the remainder of the current 2025 federal fiscal year (FY25).
Reconciliation Negotiations Continue Amid FY25 Budget Negotiations
Congressional leaders have, so far, been unable to reach an agreement on a path forward for FY25 funding with a March 14 deadline, less than two weeks away, fast approaching. Given this lack of progress, Congressional Republicans have reportedly been working to introduce a full-year continuing resolution (CR), which would extend funding levels for most federal programs through the end of the current fiscal year ending on September 30, 2025.
However, finding the requisite support for a full-year CR may prove difficult. Recently, top Congressional appropriations leaders have now indicated they are still working to find agreement on topline figures for a full-year appropriations legislation– a critical first step in the Congressional budget process. In a post last week, President Trump endorsed the idea of a CR that would serve as a stopgap funding bill until September. House Speaker Mike Johnson has indicated his support for this approach and appears poised to move in this direction.
Separate from FY25, congressional Republicans have continued to advance separate budget resolutions to unlock the congressional budget reconciliation process – an effort that allows lawmakers to pass certain legislation via simple majorities in both chambers. During last night’s joint session address to Congress, President Trump urged lawmakers to enact his wider tax cut agenda via this effort, arguing that it will help to spur economic growth. As Advance CTE has previously shared, many of these proposals would require significant funding cuts from existing domestic investments, such as education, to offset the potential costs of this reconciliation effort.
Advance CTE is continuing to monitor both of these processes in the coming days and weeks ahead and to advocate for strengthened investments in Career Technical Education (CTE).
House Holds WIOA Reauthorization Hearing
Today, the House Education and Workforce Committee Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development discussed the reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) in a hearing titled “Strengthening WIOA: Improving Outcomes for America’s Workforce.” Much of the discussion focused on A Stronger Workforce for America Act (ASWA), bipartisan and bicameral WIOA reauthorization legislation nearly enacted by Congress last year.
Lawmakers and witnesses discussed the importance of alignment between employer and local workforce systems, the need to make data quality and transparency improvements in future legislation, and other potential changes to the law currently under consideration. House Career and Technical Education (CTE) Caucus co-chair, Rep. Glenn “G.T.” Thompson (R-PA), emphasized the need for intentional alignment between WIOA and the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act (Perkins V) and asked witnesses about how future workforce development legislation could facilitate these efforts – a key priority for Advance CTE and wider CTE community.
Witness Nick Moore, Director of Alabama’s Office of Education and Workforce Transformation, noted the alignment of performance indicators across the workforce and CTE for work-based learning, attainment of value credentials at the post-secondary CTE level, and dual enrollment, as well as the state’s use of the National Career Clusters® Framework to inform industry-sector partnerships helps learners move along the continuum of earning a credential and beginning a career. Ms. Molly Dodge, a witness and the Senior Vice President of Workforce and Careers at Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana, further discussed how the legislation could be aligned to start career exploration even earlier during middle grades to learn about CTE pathways.
Click here to watch the full hearing.
McMahon Confirmed as Secretary of Education
The Senate confirmed Linda McMahon to lead the U.S. Department of Education (ED) on Monday. Following her swearing-in, Secretary McMahon released a statement regarding her plans for the future and the Department’s “Final Mission” under her leadership. This vision includes prioritizing state leadership for education, focusing on core academic subjects, empowering parents to make decisions regarding their child’s education, and focusing education pathways with wider workforce needs. As previously shared, aligning workforce and education has been a long-time priority for McMahon.
The Senate confirmation vote fell along party lines, as Democrats expressed concerns over funding for ED and potential future plans to “dismantle” the Department via a forthcoming Executive Order. McMahon underscored the need to work with Congress on these and other issues throughout her confirmation process. Elsewhere, Advance CTE expects President Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Labor, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, to be voted on by the Senate later this week.
ED Releases OCR Letter FAQ and Launches Portal
In recent days, ED released a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document that follows up on the February 14th Dear Colleague Letter to states and institutions indicating that they must halt using race and ethnicity in a wide range of educational activities, as Advance CTE previously reported. The FAQ appears to narrow the scope of the guidance from ED in certain ways and provides a clearer process to determine how to implement the new guidance.
Separately, ED has launched an “End DEI” Portal, a public portal for parents, students, teachers, and broader community members to submit reports of discrimination based on race or sex in public K-12 schools. ED intends to use submissions as a guide for “potential investigations into potential divisive ideologies and indoctrination.”
Advance CTE will continue to analyze this guidance and related FAQs and provide relevant information to the CTE community.
House ED & Workforce Committee Meeting on American Workforce
Last week, the House Committee on Education & the Workforce held a “Unleashing America’s Workforce and Strengthening Our Economy” hearing to discuss potential opportunities to support workforce development nationwide. House members and panelists alike addressed the importance of promoting pathways into the workforce at community colleges through apprenticeship and investing in CTE. Panelists highlighted the need for increased investment in workforce development and potential administrative challenges with the existing apprenticeship registration processes. The hearing emphasized lawmakers’ interest in reauthorizing WIOA and aligning CTE legislation with further workforce investments. Watch the whole hearing here.
Congressional Democrats Send Letter Regarding DOGE Cuts
Democratic leadership in the House and Senate sent a letter to ED, raising concerns over proposed cuts to key education research programs through the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). They argue that these reductions could harm students, educators, and policymakers by limiting access to crucial data on student achievement, education access, and workforce trends. The lawmakers urged the department to reverse the cuts, emphasizing the importance of evidence-based policymaking in improving education outcomes in compliance with the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018. Their concerns include the disruption to the evaluation of federal policy regarding CTE due to the cancellation of funding for the National Evaluation of Career Technical Education under Perkins V (NECTEP), a mandated evaluation under the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act.
