Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) will chair the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, where he is currently the ranking member. Chair Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) will likely serve as the committee’s ranking member.
“It is an honor to lead my fellow Republicans as chair of the HELP Committee,” Cassidy said in a release. “I am excited to work closely with President Trump and my Republican colleagues to implement a Pro-America agenda and deliver real solutions for Louisiana and American families.”
Cassidy, a physician who taught at the Louisiana State University Medical School, has supported the work of community colleges. At a HELP Committee hearing last year on healthcare worker shortages, he noted that two-year college programs are less expensive and have a shorter pipeline to help fill desperately needed nurses. Community college graduates also typically stay in their communities, he added.
Support of Jobs Act and more
Cassidy has supported several legislative priorities of the American Association of Community Colleges, (AACC), including the JOBS Act to expand Pell Grant eligibility to short-term workforce programs and the reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. He has also led Senate Republicans’ opposition to the U.S. Department of Labor’s final overtime rule. They have argued the rule would dramatically increase costs for many businesses and organizations, including colleges and universities, who have said they may have to raise tuition and reduce programs to comply with the rule. AACC is among the organizations that opposed the rule. On Friday, a federal judge in Texas permanently blocked the rule.
This summer, Cassidy introduced companion legislation to House bill H.R. 8932, the FAFSA Deadline Act, which would require the U.S. Education Department to make the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form available to students each year on October 1, following the department’s recent troubled rollout of the new FAFSA form and process. The House overwhelmingly passed its bill on Friday on a bipartisan vote, 381 to 1.
Cassidy is also the lead Senate sponsor for the College Transparency Act, which would reform the federal higher education data infrastructure to reduce burden and improve the quality of information on postsecondary outcomes. In 2023, Cassidy co-introduced the Lowering Education Costs and Debt Act, a legislative package that included five bills aimed at lowering college costs through transparency, reducing rates of borrowing and simplifying repayment.
Critical of DEI
Cassidy has been critical of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts at postsecondary institutions. In August, he urged the Education Department’s Office of Inspector General to investigate the use of federal funds by colleges and universities to promote DEI ideology on campus. He is also an original co-sponsor of the Dismantle DEI Act, which would eliminate all federal DEI programs and funding for federal agencies, contractors, organizations and educational accreditation agencies that receive federal funding and maintain DEI programs.
“As recipients of federal grant funding and the beneficiaries of trillions of dollars in federal student loans, colleges and universities should prioritize the academic success of their students over advancing ideological activism,” Cassidy said.
Other committee chairs
Other committee chair decisions are expected in early December. In the House, Rep. Burgess Owens (R-Utah) and Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Michigan) are vying for the chair of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, with Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Virginia) likely to be the ranking member.
Rep. Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma) is expected to continue as chair of the Appropriations Committee, and Rep. Robert Aderholdt (R-Alabama) will likely remain chair of the Labor-HHS Subcommittee. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut) is expected to continue as ranking member of the Appropriations Committee and of the Labor-HHS Subcommittee.
Leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee are also expected to remain the same: Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine), Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-Washington), Senate Labor-HHS Subcommitee Chair Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia) and Senate Labor-HHS Subcommitee Ranking Member Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin).
