Deep Dive · No. 02 119th Congress hearing log
The Hearings

They held
nine hearings
on one issue.
Only one
on reading.

Hearings are the most powerful tool a congressional committee has to set the national agenda. They are how Congress tells the country what matters. This is what the House Education and Workforce Committee told America matters in the 119th Congress.

Committee scorecard · 119th Congress
9 : 1
Hearings on campus antisemitism (9+) versus hearings on K-12 reading and math (1). The Ranking Member said it out loud on the record in July 2025.1
Source: Committee Democrats press

§ 01The full tally

Here is the rough taxonomy of what the committee chose to spend hearings on between January 2025 and May 2026. Every entry is verifiable on the committee's own website at edworkforce.house.gov.

Hearings by topic · House Education & Workforce · 119th Congress

Campus antisemitism (higher ed)
★★★★★★★★★
9+
Workforce / Dept. of Labor
★★★★★★
6+
Union politics & labor antisemitism
★★★★★
5+
Higher ed DEI / foreign influence
★★★★
4+
AI in schools / future workforce readiness
★★★★
4
Pronouns / bathrooms / "indoctrination"
★★★
3+
School choice / vouchers / tax credits
★★★
3+
K-12 reading & math (the actual crisis)
★
1
K-12 school safety / mental health
none
0
K-12 special education / IDEA oversight
none
0
K-12 chronic absenteeism
none
0
Pandemic learning recovery
none
0

Numbers are approximate, drawn from the committee's public press releases and hearing calendar at edworkforce.house.gov. Subcommittee, joint, and overlapping topics may shift counts. We update as the record updates.

Four hearings on AI, and not one AI bill out of committee. Zero hearings on school safety. Zero on chronic absenteeism. Zero on pandemic learning recovery. This is not a calendar problem. This is a priority problem. The Receipts, May 2026

§ 02The one K-12 reading hearing

Credit where it is due. On September 3, 2025, the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education held a hearing titled "Foundations First: Reclaiming Reading and Math through Proven Instruction," chaired by Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA). The framing was Science of Reading. Parents have been demanding this conversation for years. It was, by the committee's own counting, the one such hearing.2

That hearing should have been a starting gun. A sustained federal literacy strategy with markups, bipartisan deal-making, and a bill on the floor. Instead, the bills that flowed from that conversation, including the Right to Read Act and the Science of Reading Act of 2026, are sitting in committee with no markup scheduled. The committee can hold ten more hearings on campus speech codes. It has not held a second hearing on whether American kids can read.

§ 03The June 10, 2026 hearing

"Breaking Trust: Attacks on Parental Rights, Inappropriate Content, and Legal Abuses in America's Schools." Three superintendents. One subpoena. Three bills, none of which will become law in this Congress.

The bills the hearing is organized around are H.R. 2616 (the PROTECT Kids Act, requiring parental consent before a school changes a minor's pronouns or sex-based accommodations), H.R. 2617 (the Say No to Indoctrination Act), and H.R. 7661 (Stop the Sexualization of Children Act). None of them addresses reading. None of them addresses math. None of them puts a counselor in a building. None of them prepares an American kid for a career that involves AI.

Read the full breakdown on The Subpoena page.

We are not the audience for this performance. Our kids are not the props. Wrap the show. National Parents Union, May 2026

Stop the clown show. Get to work for kids.

Reading. Math. Safety. AI. Special needs. Oversight of the funds Congress already appropriated. That is the work. Tell the committee to put away the casting call and get to it.

Take Action The Budget Cuts →

Sources

  1. Rep. Bobby Scott opening statement at July 15, 2025 hearing on antisemitism in higher education. democrats-edworkforce.house.gov
  2. "Kiley to Hold Hearing on Reclaiming Reading and Math · Tomorrow at 10:15 AM," September 2, 2025. edworkforce.house.gov
  3. Committee hearings archive, edworkforce.house.gov. Topic counts derived from committee press releases and calendar. Updated through May 2026.