Federal law pushes science-based reading methods in all schools.
S. 4689 — READ Act · Filed by Bill Cassidy (R-LA) · 5 cosponsors · Introduced Jun 4, 2026 · Reported out
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What it does
The bill gives federal money to states for reading help. States must teach reading using phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. All students get checked for reading problems by third grade. Schools must spend at least 75 percent of grant money on tutoring, teacher training, and reading books. States must report reading results every year to the public.
Who it affects
Students get help with reading, especially those who struggle. Parents learn if their child has reading problems and get tips for home. Teachers get training in new reading methods.
One thing to notice
The bill requires states to use science-based reading methods. The federal government cannot control what states teach.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
5 cosponsors: 3 Democrats, 2 Republicans.
- Jun 4, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jun 4, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions”
- Jul 30, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
5 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 5 reports from Jun 2026 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $1,130,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 11 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 78% of bills with any report.
Bill Cassidy, who sponsored the bill, received $1,403,254 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- National Education Association — $670,000 in 1 report
- American Federation of Teachers — $410,000 in 1 report
- American Library Association — $30,000 in 1 report
- Teach Plus, Inc. — $20,000 in 1 report
- National Parents Union Action Fund Inc. — $0 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- phonics — Teaching how letters and sounds go together to make words.
- phonemic awareness — Knowing that words are made of small sounds that can be heard.
- fluency — Reading words fast and smooth without stopping much.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (22,167 characters) on Aug 20, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,206 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 22, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-17.
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