Committee on Education and Workforce

NEWPORT NEWS, VA – Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (VA-03), Ranking Member of the Committee on Education and Workforce, issued the following statement on the passing of former Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman: “I am deeply saddened to learn of the passing of my friend Alexis Herman. In 1977, President Carter appointed her director of the Women’s Bureau at the age of 29 – the youngest director in the history of the Department of Labor.

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Committee Democrats are forcing Committee Republicans to take a stand and hold the Administration accountable after it proposed eliminating the Administration for Community Living (ACL). The Trump Administration has already taken action to eliminate more than 40 percent of the ACL staff, directly affecting federal programs that support aging and disabled populations.  The elimination of these positions leaves critical services, such as Meals on Wheels, elder abuse prevention, and independent living services vulnerable to further disruption.  Now, the administration is proposing to go even further by eliminating ACL altogether.

Washington, D.C. — The Litigation and Rapid Response Task Force led 192 House Democrats in filing an amicus brief challenging the Trump Administration’s efforts to close the Department of Education in the matter of the State of New York v. Linda McMahon. A case in which 20 states moved to sue the administration for its plans to place fifty percent of the Department’s workforce on administrative leave, effectively shuttering a congressionally authorized agency by way of executive fiat.

WASHINGTON – Today, Ranking Member Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-VA-03), House Committee on Education and Workforce, and Ranking Member Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, introduced the Raise the Wage Act of 2025.  According to the Economic Policy Institute, the Raise the Wage Act would gradually raise the minimum wage to $17 by 2030 and give roughly 22 million Americans a long-overdue raise.

WASHINGTON – House Education and Workforce Committee Ranking Member Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (VA-03) and Higher Education and Workforce Development Subcommittee Ranking Member Alma S. Adams (NC-12) are demanding answers from Institute of Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS) Acting Chair Keith Sonderling following President Trump’s executive order to unilaterally eliminate the agency.

WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-VA-03), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Education and Workforce, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), and Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, led a letter to Secretary Linda McMahon demanding a reversal of a new policy the Department of Education announced recently that suddenly upended departmental policy and imposed new red tape on states, which will prevent them from accessing pandemic relief funds they are counting on to support students’ learning.

WASHINGTON – Ranking Member Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-VA-03), House Committee on Education and Workforce, and Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) will introduce the Robert C. Byrd Mine Safety Protection Act of 2025. This bill coincides with the 15th anniversary of the Upper Big Branch (UBB) Mine Disaster, reflecting lessons learned from the deadly explosion on April 5, 2010, that killed 29 miners.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Bobby Scott (VA-03), the Ranking Member of the Committee on Education and Workforce, and Congressman Gerald E. Connolly (VA-11), the Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, issued the following statement on President Trump’s union busting Executive Order: “This executive order is another example of the Trump-Musk Administration’s war on working people. These two billionaires busted unions in their day jobs and now they’re bringing these same attacks to our government in the biggest presidential attack on unions in history.