House and Senate Democrats sent a letter to the acting Education secretary Thursday demanding answers around potential executive orders from the president to weaken the Department of Education.
“Over the course of two weeks, the Trump Administration issued sweeping executive orders and sought to broadly and illegally freeze federal financial assistance. Federal employees have been targeted, in some cases for simply following the law,” the Democrats wrote in the letter.
“Elon Musk is attempting to shut down the work of entire agencies while gaining access to some of the federal government’s most far reaching and sensitive data systems,” they added.
The lawmakers mentioned the administrative leave some department employees were placed on allegedly for attending a diversity training that was in fact hosted and encouraged by the Trump administration back in 2019.
The letter stresses the vital roles the department takes on such as overseeing FAFSA and programs that help many different types of students including students who are disabled, rural students and veteran students.
“We will not stand by and allow the impact that dismantling the Department of Education would have on the nation’s students, parents, borrowers, educators, and communities,” it says.
The letter was sent by Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), ranking member of the House Committee on Education and Workforce; Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee; Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee; Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee; and Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health, and Human Services.
The Democrats are giving the Education Department until Friday to provide information on who has been allowed to see sensitive information since Jan. 20, how the the department is protecting that information, a list of all who have been fired or placed on administrative leave, communications from the agency to those placed on leave and confirmation that no awards or obligations have been terminated or paused since President Trump came into office.
The letter comes as Trump recently said he would like to use executive action to eliminate the department and reports have indicated that he is looking to shrink or weaken the agency through executive orders soon.
