White House’s Focus On Tariffs Has Slowed Other Administrative Actions; However, Congress Is Busy Negotiating a Budget and Marking Up Relevant Legislation

Overview
CSPEN continues to monitor the White House’s “Presidential Actions” landing page, which provides information on the release of Executive Orders and other declarations from President Trump awaiting the release of an anticipated EO on his campaign pledge to revamp the roles and responsibilities of accrediting agencies. As CSPEN first shared with the higher education community last week, it is anticipated by many in Washington that the next major higher education announcement will in fact be related to accreditation and directives to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to reevaluate this leg of the TRIAD’s duties to oversee the academic quality and delivery of educational offerings by institutions of higher education.

As we shared previously, President Trump has made multiple overtures regarding the desire to reform accreditation. This desire on the part of the Administration was once again reiterated by Deputy Chief of Staff Jonathan Piblunzy at a Heritage Foundation forum yesterday in which Mr. Piblunzy stated,

“Our accountability systems are also badly broken. It’s almost impossible to start a new university today largely because of our accreditation system. And universities that underperform are allowed to go on underperforming with few consequences.”

Statements such as this, combined with outlines to reform accreditation included in The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 documentation provide insights into various proposals, but until we see the EO and the Administration unveils its plan much remains purely speculative.

Meanwhile, Congress continues to work towards both broad fiscal policy decisions and while also working on the passage of more targeted education decisions – some of which may well meld into singular legislation down the road.

Today for example, the House Committee on Education & Workforce completed mark up on a series of four bills and one resolution, including:

The first two bills focus specifically on elementary and secondary education revisions, while the other two bills focus upon revisions to the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the Resolution speaks to President Trump and Secretary McMahon’s actions related to the consolidation of the employees at the U.S. Department of Education.

Quick Fact: Did you know that there are already close to 175 bills and resolutions introduced in the U.S. House and Senate that are important to the higher education community? CSPEN knows, and we will be sharing some new details on how you can once again stay informed about the issues – broken down by topic – on tomorrow’s webinar.

What’s Next
CSPEN remains focused on gaining access to the latest updates and actions on these and many, many other activities taking place in Washington (e.g. details of 2025-2026 Federal Negotiated Rulemaking goals, NCSARA community comments, new FAFSA Updates, and the list goes on and on and on.)