Experts predict there will be significant opposition from Congress on any proposal to merge agencies. House Committee on Education and the Workforce Chair Virginia Foxx (R-NC) has been marginally supportive of the idea, while her Democratic counterpart, Bobby Scott (D-VA), is vehemently opposed. On the Senate side, former U.S. education secretary and chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Lamar Alexander (R-TN), is withholding judgment at this time. An effort by President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s to eliminate the Ed Department failed.
