Cassidy unveils bill to boost literacy and science of reading instruction

Bill Cassidy moved to make literacy policy more prescriptive, unveiling S. 4689, a bill that would steer federal reading grants toward accountability, research, stronger teacher preparation and evidence-based instruction. The proposal is a test of whether Congress is willing to turn years of rhetoric about reading into requirements that change what happens in classrooms.

The measure, formally titled A bill to strengthen literacy outcomes for all students, would amend the Comprehensive Literacy State Development Grant program. Cassidy has spent more than two years building toward this moment, from a February 2024 report on child literacy released while he was the Senate HELP Committee’s ranking member to an August 2025 K-12 reform vision centered on literacy. In September 2025, he and Jack Reed also introduced a resolution designating September 2025 as National Literacy Month.

The timing is deliberate. The National Center for Education Statistics said 2024 NAEP reading scores fell 2 points from 2022 and 5 points from pre-pandemic 2019 levels for both fourth- and eighth-graders. NCES also said the 2024 grade 12 reading assessment produced the lowest twelfth-grade reading scores ever recorded. Cassidy’s HELP committee report had already warned that the share of students performing below basic in reading had reached its highest point ever in eighth grade and its highest level since 2000 in fourth grade.

If the bill passes, it would push federal policy closer to the science-of-reading reforms that many states have already adopted. For teachers, that would mean more pressure on preparation programs and professional development to show that they are built around evidence-based reading instruction rather than older, mixed approaches. For curriculum decisions, the federal grant program would no longer be neutral toward any instructional model; states and districts would have stronger reason to align materials and classroom practice with methods backed by reading research. For struggling students, the promise is straightforward: federal dollars would be tied more tightly to approaches meant to catch weak readers earlier and keep them from falling further behind.

Cassidy has also tried to tie the federal debate to Louisiana, where he has praised literacy gains as a model. He recently joined Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Louisiana State Superintendent Cade Brumley in Baton Rouge for a roundtable on strengthening literacy efforts. In March 2026, the National Parents Union and the George W. Bush Institute held a Capitol Hill briefing on reading reform with Cassidy’s office, bringing parent advocates and literacy experts into the same orbit as the bill.

Public legislative trackers show the measure was introduced on June 4, 2026, in the 119th Congress. The next question is whether Congress uses that momentum to demand measurable results, or lets another literacy push fade into familiar language and little change.