(WASHINGTON) — A total of 10 Republican senators are urging the Trump administration to reverse its decision to withhold more than $6 billion in federal funds for education programs already appropriated by Congress.
“The decision to withhold this funding is contrary to President Trump’s goal of returning K-12 education to the states,” the GOP senators wrote in a letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought obtained by ABC News.
“This funding goes directly to states and local school districts, where local leaders decide how this funding is spent, because as we know, local communities know how to best serve students and families,” the letter stated.
Federal aid for schools is typically allocated each year on July 1, but aid was paused on June 30 in an ongoing review of education funding, according to an Education Department memo sent to Congress obtained by ABC News.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W. Va., led the group of senators signing onto the letter — a rare rebuke by Republicans of the president’s education policies.
Capito, who chairs the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS), is a staunch supporter of Education Secretary Linda McMahon and her mission to overhaul the Education Department.
The letter encourages Vought to release the funding to states, noting it was already approved by Congress in a short-term spending bill this past spring.
The funding that has been paused includes grants for after-school care, student support, English language and adult education, among other programs.
The senators’ letter comes just days after about two dozen state attorneys general and Democratic governors sued the Trump administration over the funding review that’s left many education leaders scrambling as the school year approaches.
“We want to see students in our states and across the country thrive, whether they are adult learners, students who speak English as a second language, or students who need after-school care so that their parents can work. We believe you share the same goal,” the senators’ letter stated.
In Alabama, where Trump won overwhelmingly in 2024, Superintendent of Education Eric Mackey told ABC News that he’s frustrated the administration decided to halt congressionally appropriated funding in the middle of the summer.
“We’re talking about transparency and consistency and making good on a promise,” Mackey told ABC News. “We’re talking about programs that Congress has already authorized and just three weeks before school starts, you just find that the check is not coming.”
The Education Department referred questions about the funding pause to OMB, which told ABC News many of the programs “grossly misused” government funds to promote a “radical leftwing agenda.”
The Impoundment Control Act — a law that states Congress must consider and review executive branch withholdings of budget authorities – requires OMB to specify the duration of proposed partial-year deferrals.
In a statement to ABC News, an OMB spokesman said no decisions have yet been made.
“We share your concern about taxpayer money going to fund radical left-wing programs,” the senators wrote in the letter. “However, we do not believe that is happening with these funds.”
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court’s decision on Monday to lift an injunction blocking the administration’s efforts to gut the Education Department allowed the administration to take a step toward fulfilling Trump‘s goal of dismantling the agency completely.
Such a move would require congressional approval.
South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, one of the senators who signed the letter, introduced legislation, called “Returning Education to Our States,” that would block grant funds to states and redistribute statutory functions of the department to other agencies.
The proposed legislation hasn’t been taken up in the Senate this year and would likely fail without 60 Senate ‘yes’ votes.
The other Republican senators who signed the letter were: Susan Collins, of Maine; John Boozman, of Arkansas; Katie Britt, of Alabama; Deb Fischer, of Nebraska; John Hoeven, of North Dakota; Jim Justice, of West Virginia; Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky; and Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska.
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