Senate Considers Labor Secretary Nominee as ED Issues New Guidance

Public Policy
• February 21, 2025

This week, Congressional Republicans’ plans for budget reconciliation continued to take shape as the Senate considered President Trump’s nominee to lead the U.S. Department of Labor and procedurally advanced Linda McMahon’s nomination to lead the U.S. Department of Education (ED). Elsewhere, ED issued wide-ranging new guidance related to recent Presidential Executive Orders and announced new contract and grant cancellations.

Budget Reconciliation Continues to Come into Focus

This week, the Senate advanced its Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) budget resolution, a more narrow package targeting defense and border enforcement, despite President Trump’s recent signaling of support for the House’s approach, which would package all of the President’s legislative priorities, including taxes, energy, and more, into a single legislative vehicle. Last night, the Senate began a ‘vote-a-rama,’ a feature of the Congressional budget reconciliation process that allows Senators to add unlimited amendments to the budget resolution and force votes on these proposals. In all, 25 amendments were introduced throughout the process, and the Senate officially adopted a budget framework this morning.

House Republicans remain divided over the size, scope, and content of their forthcoming reconciliation proposal, while Senate leaders have positioned their resolution as a potential fallback if agreement on the House’s reconciliation approach cannot be reached. Regardless of the approach, both chambers must agree on an identical resolution to move forward with the wider reconciliation process which empowers lawmakers to pass certain legislation by simple majorities in both chambers. Cuts to mandatory spending, including education funding like federal student aid, are potential options for lawmakers as the reconciliation process continues. Advance CTE will be monitoring these developments closely and will share back relevant information with the wider CTE community.

ED OCR Issues Expansive New Guidance

Last Friday, the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) issued a wide-ranging Dear Colleague letter to states and postsecondary leaders indicating that they must halt using race and ethnicity in a wide range of educational activities. The memo comes partially in response to recent Presidential Executive Orders and takes an expansive view of a recent 2023 Supreme Court Decision, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which focused on the use of race and ethnicity in the context of admissions practices within higher education. However, the new guidance attempts to apply this legal precedent to a much wider array of activities, including Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives and other efforts that purport to make use of racial preferences. The letter provides two weeks for schools and institutions to comply with this new guidance (February 28) or face the potential for investigation and loss of federal funding “. . . consistent with applicable law.” Advance CTE continues to analyze this memo and its potential impact on the CTE community.

President Trump’s Cabinet Continues to Take Shape

This week, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee approved Linda McMahon’s nomination as Secretary of Education. The vote fell along party lines, 12-11. A date for full Senate consideration of McMahon’s nomination remains forthcoming. Advance CTE’s coverage of McMahon’s confirmation hearing can be found here.

Also this week, the HELP Committee considered Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination to lead the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The hearing focused considerably on the nominee’s previous support for the PRO Act and featured some discussion on workforce development, including the potential future direction of federal apprenticeship policy. In her answers, Chavez-Deremer pledged to support registered apprenticeship programs and voiced support for the reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. Watch the nomination hearing here.

Advance CTE will continue to track the confirmation process for these and other critical nominations for the CTE community.

ED Reverts to First Term Title IX Rule

Recently, ED announced that it would officially enforce the Title IX rule from 2020 in accordance with President Trump’s recent executive orders related to “gender extremism.” The reinstatement of the rule comes after Title IX regulations updated by former President Biden were struck down in court, which found these new rules wrongfully expanded the protections on the “basis of sex” to incorporate gender identity protections. The regulations also limit Title IX’s jurisdiction to on-campus events and more narrowly define harassment. Click here to read more.