Where the Department of Education finds itself after the longest government shutdown

The House of Representatives voted 222 to 209 late Wednesday to pass a legislative package that brings Congress one step closer to ending the longest shutdown in federal government history.

President Donald Trump signed the bill, which first passed the Senate on Sunday and became law late Wednesday night.

One policy expert told Inside higher education He expects few changes to agency operations as the government reopens. But he and others will be watching closely to see whether the Trump administration follows through on one of the bill’s key compromises: reversing the latest round of federal layoffs.

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Part of the package will provide funding to the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Military Construction, Department of Agriculture, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Congress through the end of the current fiscal year. But it only funds the Education Department and most other agencies through Jan. 30, using what’s called a continuing resolution. For the most part, CR provides agencies with the same levels of federal funding as in the previous fiscal year.

Jon Fansmith, senior vice president for government relations at the American Council on Education, said colleges and universities won’t see much change as some Department of Education staff continue to work throughout October and November.

“Financial aid is being awarded, student loans are being paid off, all of these things are happening. So there may not be a big shift right away,” he said. “Of course, this is [grant] Projects that were unable to contact a project officer with concerns or questions will now not have staff available to them again. But that’s probably the most important thing. “

Van Smith also noted that some of the educational benefits provided to service members have been disrupted and backlogged in many cases due to staffing shortages and will take some time to return to normal.

“There are veterans who have housing benefits and education benefits and various aids that they use to fund their education that have not been forthcoming over the past six weeks,” he said. “Even if they get the government to reopen… the backlog is only going to grow in the meantime. So it’s not going to be an immediate fix.”

Senate Democrats are also negotiating with Republicans to reverse Trump’s latest round of stopgap measures. In theory, the legislation should restore more than 460 Department of Education employees to their jobs within five days of enactment.

It requires that any employee who was made redundant during the shutdown “shall have that notice withdrawn and be reinstated in employment status.” (Most of these employees are tasked with overseeing federal grant programs for K-12 and higher education.)

But Rachel Gittleman, president of the Department of Education union, believes the language in the bill does not go far enough to protect public servants. She worries that saying workers must be “reinstated to employment status” could lead Education Minister Linda McMahon to put union members on administrative leave instead of actually returning them to work.

“The Trump administration has shown us time and time again that they want to unlawfully dismantle the federal agencies our Congress created,” she said. Therefore, “we do not believe the U.S. Department of Education will comply with the terms of the continuing resolution or allow employees laid off in October to return or even keep their jobs beyond January.”

Van Smith also expressed doubts that department employees would return to work.

“[The administration hasn’t] Demonstrate a strong willingness to comply with legal requirements. So I definitely think we should expect to see further efforts to reduce staffing,” he said. “They’re not hiding the fact that they’re trying to do that, and they don’t have a lot of guilt about the methods they’re using. “

However, a department spokesman said Inside higher education All employees — whether furloughed or laid off during the shutdown — will return to work because they are still employees of the department.

The department also noted that a federal district court in Northern California blocked the layoffs in late October, saying all employees who received RIF notices during the shutdown remained federal employees under the order.

Inside higher education We reached out to multiple Republican and Democratic members of the House and Senate to ask about the concerns Gittleman and Van Smith raised. No one responded before posting.