EMPOWER Act

[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6458 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 6458

 To terminate the Office for Elementary and Secondary Education of the 
      Department of Education and provide block grants to States.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           November 21, 2023

 Mr. Bergman introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                Committee on Education and the Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To terminate the Office for Elementary and Secondary Education of the 
      Department of Education and provide block grants to States.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Effective Money for Pupils: 
Overcoming Washington's Educational Regulation Act'' or the ``EMPOWER 
Act''.

SEC. 2. TERMINATION OF THE OFFICE FOR ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY 
              EDUCATION.

    The Department of Education Organization Act (20 U.S.C. 3401 et 
seq.) is amended--
            (1) in section 202(b)(1)--
                    (A) by striking subparagraph (A); and
                    (B) by redesignating subparagraphs (B) through (F) 
                as subparagraphs (A) through (E), respectively; and
            (2) by repealing section 204.

SEC. 3. REPEAL AND BLOCK GRANTS.

    (a) Repeal of Applicable Statutes and Programs.--Each applicable 
program and each provision in an applicable statute with respect to an 
applicable program is repealed.
    (b) Block Grants to States.--Beginning with fiscal year 2024 and 
each succeeding fiscal year, the Secretary of Education shall award 
block grants to each State to make allocations to local educational 
agencies based on the relative number of children aged 5 to 17, 
inclusive, in the school district of each local educational agency.

SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Applicable program.--The term ``applicable program'' 
        any program with respect to elementary or secondary education 
        which the Secretary or the Department of Education has 
        administrative responsibility as provided by law or by 
        delegation of authority pursuant to law.
            (2) Applicable statute.--The term ``applicable statute 
        means''--
                    (A) the Act or the title, part, section, or any 
                other subdivision of an Act, as the case may be, that 
                authorizes the appropriation for an applicable program; 
                and
                    (B) any other statute that by its terms expressly 
                controls the administration of an applicable program.
            (3) State.--The term ``State'' means each of the 50 States, 
        the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, 
        American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana 
        Islands, Guam, and the United States Virgin Islands.

SEC. 5. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    This Act, and the amendments made by this Act, shall take effect 
beginning on October 1, 2023.
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