Category: Federal Government Actions

Congress Opposes Dismantling the USDE via Bipartisan K-12 FY26 Budget Proposal (January 21, 2026)

A bipartisan and bicameral proposed agreement released on January 19, 2026 would fund the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) at $79 billion for fiscal year 2026 (FY26), which is $217 million above FY 2025 levels. The agreement would derail the Trump administration’s efforts to downsize and eventually eliminate the USDE.

The proposed budget deal, coming months after the fiscal year began October 1, 2025, would include slight increases for special education programming, rural education and Impact Aid, which provides additional financial support to communities with tax-exempt federal properties.

The new budget proposal would also explicitly prevent the USDE from transferring statutorily required program responsibilities to other federal agencies. The House and Senate FY 26 bill would also require USDE to make formula grants available to states and school districts on time and to issue funds at levels dictated by Congress in the funding bill. It also would add a new requirement to maintain the USDE staff at levels necessary to fulfill its statutory responsibilities, including carrying out programs and activities funded in the bill.

Republican and House appropriations leaders praised the funding proposal, which is expected to be voted on before January 30, 2026.

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Bipartisan Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025 Signed into Law (January 18, 2026)

On January 14, 2026, the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025 was signed into law. The bipartisan legislation permits schools to provide whole milk and nondairy beverage options in federally subsidized school meals.

School districts are currently permitted to only serve fat-free and low-fat milks in school meals due to concerns that milk consumption contributes to high cholesterol and obesity in young people.

In addition, schools are already required to offer a milk substitute to students with doctor’s notes saying they have a disability limiting their ability to consume fluid milk. The newly passed Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025 would now allow parents and legal guardians to submit similar requests to schools to serve their children nondairy substitutes.

Source: K-12 Dive

Will Schools Be Able to Handle Federal Demand for Ultra-processed Food Cuts?

To limit reliance on ultra-processed foods in school meals, a majority of school nutrition directors report needing additional resources that include funding, menu development, culinary training, staffing, and equipment and infrastructure, according to survey data released on January 6, 2026 by the School Nutrition Association (SNA). The survey was conducted in October 2025 and had 1,240 school district respondents.

In September 2025, the Trump administration’s “Make Our Children Healthy Again” strategy report stressed a need to reduce ultra-processed foods in school meals as a way to address childhood chronic disease. To do that, schools will need to cook more scratch-prepared meals, SNA said in its survey report. The association also found that 71% of school nutrition directors said they already offer scratch-prepared entrees on a daily or weekly basis. 95% of directors also reported that during the 2025-26 school year they are seriously or moderately concerned about the financial sustainability of their school nutrition programs three years from now.

In addition, a position paper by SNA said that cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid — as passed by Congress in the July 2025 “One Big, Beautiful” budget law — will reduce the number of children who are automatically certified for free and reduced-price meals. Consequently, fewer schools will be eligible for a federal program known as the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), which helps high-poverty schools and districts serve free meals to all students.

There is currently no uniform definition of ultra-processed foods.

The pervasive feeling is that schools are being told to provide meals at greater cost with fewer resources and a lack of uniform guidance.

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Due to Gov’s Executive Order Federal Changes Don’t Impact Vaccine Access, Recommendations for PA’s Children (January 8, 2026)

As a result of Governor Shapiro’s Executive Order, there are no changes to vaccine access and recommendations for Pennsylvania children. The Executive Order is in keeping with medical experts, trusting science, and supporting evidence-based vaccine guidance. In fact, the Shapiro Administration is continuing to recommend following the vaccine schedule for children developed by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to protect children from vaccine-prevented diseases.

The PA Department of Health (PDH) is working with physicians across the Commonwealth to create a series of short social media videos on Facebook, X, Instagram, and YouTube to provide health care providers’ perspectives on the value of vaccines that are available to prevent diseases that previously caused many more patients to experience severe illness and death.

In October 2025, Governor Shapiro signed Executive Order 2025-02, which protects access to life-saving, evidence-based vaccinations in Pennsylvania, protecting families’ freedoms to make their own informed health care decision. The Executive Order:
-Requires state agencies to align vaccine guidance with trusted medical experts;
-Ensures coverage of recommended vaccines through private insurance to the fullest extent of the Pennsylvania Insurance Department’s authority;
-Directs the Department of Human Services to take necessary steps, in accordance with law, to ensure coverage of recommended vaccines through Medicaid;
-Establishes a Vaccine Education Workgroup to strengthen communication and combat misinformation;
-Directs the Departments of Aging and Education to ensure older adults and schools have access to evidence-based guidance on vaccines; and,
-Launches www.pa.gov/vaccines as a centralized vaccine resource for Pennsylvania residents.

For more information on vaccinations in Pennsylvania, visit www.pa.gov/vaccines.

CDC Weakens U.S. Guidance on Childhood Vaccinations in Line with White House Directive (January 7, 2026)

In a drastic and unprecedented decision that was made in response to a directive from President Donald Trump, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will now universally recommend 11 vaccines instead of the previous 17, a move that the Department for Health and Human Services said would better align the U.S. schedule with those of certain other wealthy nations. The decision is effective immediately.

The agency will continue endorsing immunizations against “diseases for which there is international consensus,” among them polio and measles. However, shots for other infections, such as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), meningitis, and hepatitis A and B, will only be recommended for “high-risk groups,” while vaccines for flu, COVID and rotavirus would be given through “shared clinical decision-making.”

Although the  new recommendations are not a mandate, as individual states craft their own vaccine requirements, CDC’s guidance is expected to influence statewide decisions.

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