The Committee on Education and the Workforce is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. There are 45 members of this committee. Since 2023, the chair of the Education and the Workforce committee is Virginia Foxx of North Carolina.
Standing committee | |
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![]() United States House of Representatives 118th Congress | |
![]() Committee logo | |
History | |
Formed | March 21, 1867 |
Formerly known as |
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Leadership | |
Chair | Virginia Foxx (R) Since January 3, 2023 |
Ranking member | Bobby Scott (D) Since January 3, 2023 |
Structure | |
Seats | 45 members |
Political parties | Majority (25)
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Website | |
https://edworkforce.house.gov/ | |
History of the committee
editAttempts were made to create a congressional committee on education and labor starting with the early congresses but issues over Congress's constitutional ability to oversee such issues delayed the committee's formation. Finally, on March 21, 1867, the Committee on Education and Labor was founded following the end of the Civil War and during the rapid industrialization of America. On December 19, 1883, the committee was divided into two, the Committee on Education and the Committee on Labor. The committees again merged on January 2, 1947, after the passage of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946, becoming the Committee on Education and Labor again.
Name changes
editOn January 4, 1995, when the Republicans took over the House, the committee was renamed the Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities. It was renamed again as the Committee on Education and the Workforce two years later on January 7, 1997. On January 4, 2007, with the Democrats once again in the majority, the committee's name was changed back to Committee on Education and Labor.[1] After Republicans recaptured the House majority in the 2010 elections, they returned to the name, Committee on Education and the Workforce, effective with the opening of the 112th Congress in 2011.[2] After Democrats recaptured the House majority in the 2018 elections, they similarly returned to the previous name, Committee on Education and Labor, effective with the opening of the 116th Congress in 2019.[citation needed] With the passing of the new House Rules associated to the Speaker negotiations in January of 2023, the 118th Congress renamed the committee as the Committee on Education and the Workforce again.[3]
Jurisdiction
editFrom the Official Committee Webpage:
The Education and Labor Committee's purpose is to ensure that Americans' needs are addressed so that students and workers may move forward in a changing school system and a competitive global economy.
The committee and its five subcommittees oversee education and workforce programs that affect all Americans, from early learning through secondary education, from job training through retirement.
The Education and Labor Committee Democrats' goal is to keep America strong by increasing education opportunities for students, by making it easier to send young adults to college, and by helping workers find job training and retirement security for a better future. The following education issues are under the jurisdiction of the Education and Labor Committee:
Education. The Committee on Education and Labor oversees federal programs and initiatives dealing with education at all levels—from preschool through high school to higher education and continuing education. These include:
- Elementary and secondary education initiatives, including the No Child Left Behind Act, school choice for low-income families, special education (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), teacher quality & teacher training, scientifically based reading instruction, and vocational and technical education;
- Higher education programs (the Higher Education Act), to support college access for low and middle-income students and help families pay for college;
- Early childhood & preschool education programs including Head Start;
- School lunch and child nutrition programs;
- Financial oversight of the U.S. Department of Education;
- Programs and services for the care and treatment of at-risk youth, child abuse prevention, and child adoption;
- Educational research and improvement;
- Adult education; and
- Anti-poverty programs, including the Community Services Block Grant Act and the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).
Labor. The Committee on Labor also holds jurisdiction over workforce initiatives aimed at strengthening health care, job training, and retirement security for workers. Workforce issues in the jurisdiction of the Education and the Labor Committee include:
- Pension and retirement security for U.S. workers;
- Access to quality health care for working families and other employee benefits;
- Job training, adult education, and workforce development initiatives, including those under the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), to help local communities train and retrain workers;
- Continuing the successful welfare reforms of 1996;
- Protecting the democratic rights of individual union members;
- Worker health and safety, including occupational safety and health;
- Providing greater choices and flexibility (including "comp time" or family time options) to working women and men;
- Equal employment opportunity and civil rights in employment;
- Wages and hours of labor, including the Fair Labor Standards Act;
- Workers' compensation, and family and medical leave;
- All matters dealing with relationships between employers and employees.
Activity
editIn December 2023, the Committee held a hearing on antisemitism at which three university presidents were invited to speak about their handling of antisemitism on their campuses, and later pressured to resign.[4][5] Ultimately, within weeks the president of the University of Pennsylvania, M. Elizabeth Magill, resigned as direct consequence of the hearing, and Claudine Gay, president of Harvard University was forced out because of plagiarism accusations amplified in part due to the hearing.
An April 2024 hearing with Columbia University president Minouche Shafik was held later in the morning of the first day of the 2024 Columbia University pro-Palestinian campus occupation. Shafik resigned as President on August 14th of that same year.
Members, 118th Congress
editMajority | Minority |
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Resolutions electing members: H.Res. 14 (Chair), H.Res. 15 (Ranking Member), H.Res. 80 (R), H.Res. 87 (D)
Subcommittees
editSubcommittee | Chair[6] | Ranking Member[7] |
---|---|---|
Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education | Aaron Bean (R-FL) | Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) |
Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions | Bob Good (R-VA) | Mark Desaulnier (D-CA) |
Higher Education and Workforce Investment | Burgess Owens (R-UT) | Frederica Wilson (D-FL) |
Workforce Protections | Kevin Kiley (R-CA) | Alma Adams (D-NC) |
Historical membership rosters
edit115th Congress
editMajority | Minority |
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Sources: H.Res. 6 (Chair), H.Res. 7 (Ranking Member), H.Res. 45 (D), H.Res. 51 (R), H.Res. 59 (D), H.Res. 131 (R)
116th Congress
editMajority | Minority |
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Sources: H.Res. 24 (Chair), H.Res. 25 (Ranking Member), H.Res. 42 (D), H.Res. 68 (R), H.Res. 73 (D), H.Res. 481 (R), H.Res. 596 (R), H.Res. 801 (R)
- Subcommittees
Subcommittee | Chair | Ranking Member |
---|---|---|
Civil Rights and Human Services | Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) | James Comer (R-KY) |
Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education | Gregorio Sablan (I-MP) | Rick W. Allen (R-GA) |
Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions | Frederica Wilson (D-FL) | Tim Walberg (R-MI) |
Higher Education and Workforce Investment | Susan Davis (D-CA) | Lloyd Smucker (R-PA) |
Workforce Protections | Alma Adams (D-NC) | Bradley Byrne (R-AL) |
117th Congress
editMajority | Minority |
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Resolutions electing members: H.Res. 9 (Chair), H.Res. 10 (Ranking Member), H.Res. 62 (D), H.Res. 63 (R), H.Res. 72 (removing Rep. Greene), H.Res. 92 (D), H.Res. 111 (D), H.Res. 311 (R), H.Res. 902 (D), H.Res. 1340 (R), H.Res. 1404 (D)
- Subcommittees
Subcommittee[11] | Chair | Ranking Member |
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Civil Rights and Human Services | Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) | Russ Fulcher (R-ID) |
Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education | Gregorio Sablan (I-MP) | Burgess Owens (R-UT) |
Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions | Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA) | Rick W. Allen (R-GA) |
Higher Education and Workforce Investment | Frederica Wilson (D-FL) | Greg Murphy (R-NC) |
Workforce Protections | Alma Adams (D-NC) | Fred Keller (R-PA) |
Chairs
edit- Committee on Education and Labor (1867–1883)
Chair | Party | State | Start of service | End of service |
---|---|---|---|---|
Jehu Baker | Republican | IL | 1867 | 1860 |
Samuel F. Cary | Republican | OH | 1869 | |
Samuel M. Arnell | Republican | TN | 1869 | 1871 |
Legrand W. Perce | Republican | MS | 1871 | 1873 |
James Monroe | Republican | OH | 1873 | 1875 |
Gilbert C. Walker | Democratic | VA | 1875 | 1877 |
John Goode | Democratic | VA | 1877 | 1881 |
Jonathan T. Updegraff | Republican | OH | 1881 | 1882 |
John C. Sherwin | Republican | IL | 1882 | 1883 |
- Committee on Education and Committee on Labor (1883–1947)
Committee on Education | Committee on Labor | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chair | Party | State | Start of service | End of service | Chair | Party | State | Start of service | End of service | |
D. Wyatt Aiken | Democratic | SC | 1883 | 1887 | James H. Hopkins | Democratic | PA | 1883 | 1885 | |
Allen D. Candler | Democratic | GA | 1887 | 1889 | John J. O'Neill | Democratic | MO | 1885 | 1889 | |
James O'Donnell | Republican | MI | 1889 | 1891 | William H. Wade | Republican | MO | 1889 | 1891 | |
Walter I. Hayes | Democratic | IA | 1891 | 1892 | John C. Tarsney | Democratic | MO | 1891 | 1893 | |
David B. Brunner | Democratic | PA | 1892 | Lawrence E. McGann | Democratic | IL | 1893 | 1895 | ||
Benjamin A. Enloe | Democratic | TN | 1892 | 1895 | Thomas W. Phillips | Republican | PA | 1895 | 1897 | |
Galusha A. Grow | Republican | PA | 1895 | 1903 | John J. Gardner | Republican | NJ | 1897 | 1911 | |
George N. Southwick | Republican | NY | 1903 | 1909 | William B. Wilson | Democratic | PA | 1911 | 1913 | |
James F. Burke | Republican | PA | 1909 | 1911 | David J. Lewis | Democratic | MD | 1913 | 1917 | |
Asbury F. Lever | Democratic | SC | 1911 | 1913 | James P. Maher | Democratic | NY | 1917 | 1919 | |
Dudley M. Hughes | Democratic | GA | 1913 | 1917 | John M. C. Smith | Republican | MI | 1919 | 1921 | |
William J. Sears | Democratic | FL | 1917 | 1919 | John I. Nolan | Republican | CA | 1921 | 1922 | |
Simeon D. Fess | Republican | OH | 1919 | 1923 | Frederick N. Zihlman | Republican | MD | 1922 | 1925 | |
Frederick W. Dallinger | Republican | MA | 1923 | 1925 | William F. Kopp | Republican | IA | 1925 | 1930 | |
Daniel A. Reed | Republican | NY | 1925 | 1931 | Richard J. Welch | Republican | CA | 1930 | 1931 | |
John J. Douglass | Democratic | MA | 1931 | 1935 | William P. Connery Jr. | Democratic | MA | 1931 | 1937 | |
Vincent L. Palmisano | Democratic | MD | 1935 | 1937 | Mary Teresa Norton | Democratic | NJ | 1937 | 1947 | |
William H. Larrabee | Democratic | IN | 1937 | 1943 | ||||||
Graham A. Barden | Democratic | NC | 1943 | 1947 |
- Committee on Education and Labor (1947–1995)
Chair | Party | State | Start of service | End of service |
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Fred A. Hartley | Republican | NJ | 1947 | 1949 |
John Lesinski Sr. | Democratic | MI | 1949 | 1950 |
Graham A. Barden | Democratic | NC | 1950 | 1953 |
Samuel K. McConnell | Republican | PA | 1953 | 1955 |
Graham A. Barden | Democratic | NC | 1955 | 1961 |
Adam Clayton Powell | Democratic | NY | 1961 | 1967 |
Carl D. Perkins | Democratic | KY | 1967 | 1984 |
Augustus F. Hawkins | Democratic | CA | 1984 | 1991 |
William D. Ford | Democratic | MI | 1991 | 1995 |
- Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities (1995–1997)
Chair | Party | State | Start of service | End of service |
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William F. Goodling | Republican | PA | 1995 | 1997 |
- Committee on Education and the Workforce (1997–2007)
Chair | Party | State | Start of service | End of service |
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William F. Goodling | Republican | PA | 1997 | 2001 |
John Boehner | Republican | OH | 2001 | 2006 |
Buck McKeon | Republican | CA | 2006 | 2007 |
- Committee on Education and Labor (2007–2011)
Chair | Party | State | Start of service | End of service |
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George Miller | Democratic | CA | 2007 | 2011 |
- Committee on Education and the Workforce (2011–2019)
Chair | Party | State | Start of service | End of service |
---|---|---|---|---|
John Kline | Republican | MN | 2011 | 2017 |
Virginia Foxx | Republican | NC | 2017 | 2019 |
- Committee on Education and Labor (2019–2023)
Chair | Party | State | Start of service | End of service |
---|---|---|---|---|
Bobby Scott | Democratic | VA | 2019 | 2023 |
- Committee on Education and the Workforce (2023–present)
Chair | Party | State | Start of service | End of service |
---|---|---|---|---|
Virginia Foxx | Republican | NC | 2023 | present |
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Chapter 9. Records of the Committees on Education and Labor, Guide to the Records of the U.S. House of Representatives at the National Archives, 1789-1989 (Record Group 233), National Archives and Records Administration
- ^ Wall Street Journal: Republicans Labor to Avoid ‘Labor’
- ^ PBS: There are new House rules under GOP leadership. Here’s a short guide
- ^ Borter, Gabriella; Morgan, David (December 8, 2023). "U.S. lawmakers demand Harvard, MIT, Penn remove presidents after antisemitism hearing". Reuters.
- ^ "New York Post: Harvard President Claudine Gay's resignation 'just the beginning of reckoning' amid House antisemitism probe: Stefanik". Congresswoman Elise Stefanik. January 2, 2024. Retrieved January 11, 2024.
- ^ "Education And The Workforce Committee Adopts Rules And Oversight Plan For 118th Congress". Committee on Education & the Workforce. January 31, 2023. Retrieved February 1, 2023.
- ^ "NEW: 118th Congress Democratic Committee Assignments | Education & The Workforce Committee Democrats". democrats-edworkforce.house.gov. Retrieved February 1, 2023.
- ^ Sablan is an Independent, but caucuses with the Democrats.
- ^ Sablan is an Independent, but caucuses with the Democrats.
- ^ "Members, Subcommittees & Jurisdictions" (PDF). Committee on Education and Labor, U.S. House of Representatives. Retrieved January 30, 2019.
- ^ "Chairman Scott Statement Announces New Subcommittee and Vice Chairs". Committee on Education and Labor, U.S. House of Representatives. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
External links
edit- Official homepage (Archive)
- House Education and the Workforce Committee. Legislation activity and reports, Congress.gov.