About the bill
Among all the Cabinet-level agencies, perhaps none inspires more Republican ire than the Department of Education. President Trump as a candidate expressed openness to eliminating the department, writing in his campaign book, “A lot of people believe the Department of Education should just be eliminated. Get rid of it. If we don’t eliminate it completely, we certainly need to cut its power and reach.”
A new bill in Congress would do just that.
What the bill does
Some bills can be hundreds of pages long. H.R. 899, introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY4), is a single sentence: “The Department of Education shall terminate on December 31, 2018.”
What would it mean if the Education Department ended? The move would save taxpayers about $68.3 billion, the appropriated budget …
Sponsor and status
115th Congress (2017–2019)
This bill was introduced on February 7, 2017, in a previous session of Congress, but it did not receive a vote.
Although this bill was not enacted, its provisions could have become law by being included in another bill. It is common for legislative text to be introduced concurrently in multiple bills (called companion bills), re-introduced in subsequent sessions of Congress in new bills, or added to larger bills (sometimes called omnibus bills).
12 Cosponsors (12 Republicans)
Position statements
What legislators are saying
“Rep. Massie Introduces Bill to Abolish Federal Department of Education”
—
Rep. Thomas Massie [R-KY4]
(Sponsor)
on Feb 7, 2017
“Congressman Andy Biggs Named FreedomWorks Member of the Month”
—
Rep. Andy Biggs [R-AZ5]
(Co-sponsor)
on Mar 2, 2017
History
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Feb 7, 2017
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Introduced
Bills and resolutions are referred to committees which debate the bill before possibly sending it on to the whole chamber. |
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Jan 30, 2019
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Reintroduced Bill —
Introduced
This activity took place on a related bill, H.R. 899 (116th). |
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Feb 5, 2021
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Reintroduced Bill —
Introduced
This activity took place on a related bill, H.R. 899 (117th). |
H.R. 899 (115th) was a bill in the United States Congress.
A bill must be passed by both the House and Senate in identical form and then be signed by the President to become law.
Bills numbers restart every two years. That means there are other bills with the number H.R. 899. This is the one from the 115th Congress.
This bill was introduced in the 115th Congress, which met from Jan 3, 2017 to Jan 3, 2019. Legislation not passed by the end of a Congress is cleared from the books.
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Where is this information from?
GovTrack automatically collects legislative information from a variety of governmental and non-governmental sources. This page is sourced primarily from Congress.gov, the official portal of the United States Congress. Congress.gov is generally updated one day after events occur, and so legislative activity shown here may be one day behind. Data via the congress project.
