More than a dozen House Democrats descended on the Education Department on Friday demanding to meet with acting Education Secretary Denise Carter amid President Donald Trump’s impending executive order to dismantle the agency.
“We are here to ask her, will you comply with an illegal executive order to shut down the Department of Education?” Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) said. “Although the president is determined to shut Congress out of the process, he will not. We will not allow it. We will not cede the responsibility for our future generations to one man, his ideology and his unelected lieutenants.”
He was surrounded by Democratic Reps. Suzanne Bonamici (Ore.), Jahana Hayes (Conn.), Maxwell Frost (Fla.), Maxine Waters (Calif.) and Greg Casar (Texas), among others. The lawmakers held a press conference about plans to shutter the department near the Eisenhower Memorial before attempting to enter the agency.
The president is expected to issue an order sometime this month that directs the Education Department to craft a plan to wind down its function using its existing authority. The order is also expected to call for the agency to take stock of the laws needed to delegate the department’s powers to other agencies before closure, likely acknowledging that some congressional approval is needed.
The House Democrats gathered outside the department’s building in southwest Washington, D.C., roughly a mile from Capitol Hill, to exert what members said was their congressional oversight duties.
Some of those lawmakers attempted to enter the building but were denied entry by a person who identified themselves as having “security responsibility.” Lawmakers were told they have to have an appointment or get an escort to enter the department, eliciting a flurry of shouts that they were members of Congress and noting that the door was labeled “all access.” At one point, members began flashing their congressional ID cards.
“I’ve sent the [acting] secretary a letter alerting her that we would be here today, and we’ve asked her for a meeting,” Takano said after being asked if he had business at the agency.
Several security officers and officers with Department of Homeland Security patches and gear stood inside just beyond the door.
“They have armed officers acting like we’re dangerous,” Frost said in a video he filmed standing outside the Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education building. “A year ago, I’d be able to walk into this building and not be locked out.”
“This is what they’re doing. Elon is allowed in but not you, not your elected representatives, not parents, not students. Elon can go in, his goons can go in, but not the representatives of the people,” the Florida Democrat added.
The Education Department did not respond to an immediate request for comment. The president addressed what happened at the Education Department Friday, suggesting the lawmakers who wanted to discuss the plans to dismantle the agency “don’t love our country.”
“Oh I see the same ones. I see Maxine Waters, a low-life. I see, you know, all these people. They don’t love our country, they don’t love our country. We want great education,” Trump told reporters Friday when asked for his take on Democrats’ attempt to meet with department officials.
“So what I want to see is … No. 1, I like choice, we all like choice. But beyond choice, long beyond choice, I want to see it go back to the states,” the president added.
Representatives from the so-called Department of Government Efficiency were working at the department’s headquarters Monday and seeking access to agency records. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and 14 other Senate Democrats sent the acting secretary a letter Thursday asking for a list of people who have access to the agency’s data. And Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the House education committee who attended Friday’s press conference, has asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate how secure the department’s IT systems are amid DOGE’s presence at the agency.
“This is a constitutional emergency,” Scott wrote in a letter to the government watchdog.
Takano and 95 other House Democrats sent Carter, the acting secretary, a letter Wednesday asking for an “urgent meeting this week with you regarding the Trump Administration’s reported effort to dismantle the Department of Education,” giving the department 24 hours to respond.
“As Members vested with oversight power, we demand a discussion of what such a reduction of the Department would entail, including which programs would be cut, which would be moved into the jurisdiction of other agencies, and the projected impact of those changes on Americans across the country,” the lawmakers wrote.
Before attempting to enter the agency, lawmakers professed the uncertainty of what would happen to programs housed in the Education Department if the agency were to be dismantled.
“If it shuts down, who’s going to take care of these 26 million kids who rely on Title I funding? Who will take care of the 7.5 million with disabilities? Who will take care of the millions of students applying for financial aid?” Rep. Alma Adams (D-N.C.) said.
The lawmakers’ visit to the Education Department comes a little less than a week before Education secretary nominee Linda McMahon is set to appear before the Senate HELP Committee for her confirmation hearing, where McMahon is likely to get a barrage of questions on Trump’s plan to shutter the agency.
Trump told reporters Tuesday “I think I’d work with Congress” on his plans for the Education Department. But when asked if he’d like to be able to shutter the agency by executive order, the president said he’d “like to be able to do it.”
