{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.murray.senate.gov/senator-murray-statement-on-trumps-latest-steps-to-keep-illegally-dismantling-the-department-of-education-abandoning-students-nationwide/", "Senator Murray Statement on Trump\u2019s Latest Steps to Keep Illegally Dismantling the Department of Education\u2014Abandoning Students Nationwide", "2025-11-18", "2025", "2025-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "WA", "Patty Murray", "M001111", "www.murray.senate.gov", "murray", "https://www.murray.senate.gov/category/press-releases/", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. \u2014 Today, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior member and former chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), issued the following statement on plans announced today to further dismantle the Department of Education\u2014the only federal agency solely focused ensuring children can get a quality education\u2014by transferring the administration of key Department functions administered by the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Office of Postsecondary Education, the Office of Indian Education, and various other programs to federal agencies with little to no expertise in education. Under the new agreements, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Interior, and State will now be responsible for administering core functions of critical education programs.\n\n\u201cDonald Trump and Linda McMahon are lawlessly trying to fulfill Project 2025\u2019s goal to abolish the Department of Education and pull the rug out from students in every part of the country.\n\n\u201cBut instead of seeking congressional approval of their reckless actions to weaken our education system\u2014which McMahon has acknowledged is necessary\u2014Trump and McMahon are now pretending that our laws and the constitutional separation of powers are a mere suggestion.\n\n\u201cThis is an outright illegal effort to continue dismantling the Department of Education, and it is students and families who will suffer the consequences as key programs that help students learn to read or that strengthen ties between schools and families are spun off to agencies with little to no relevant expertise and are gravely weakened\u2014or even completely broken\u2014in the process.\n\n\u201cI have spent my career working to improve educational outcomes for students. I am always ready and willing to talk about reforms to our education laws to improve educational outcomes for students\u2014but this isn\u2019t a plan to improve outcomes; it\u2019s a plan to abandon students and families, rip away resources and support, and leave kids who are simply looking to get a good education to fend for themselves. The fact that Trump and McMahon are choosing to break the law to do this on their own\u2014despite having unified Republican control of Washington\u2014tells us they know just how unpopular their plans are and can\u2019t win the approval of members of their own party.\n\n\u201cRepublicans should join Democrats in insisting that the laws we have worked together to pass are followed\u2014and to stand up for students and families nationwide in the face of this administration\u2019s nonstop attacks on our public education system.\u201d\n\nA former preschool teacher and local school board member herself, Senator Murray has been a longtime champion for education and believes that every student deserves a high-quality public education and access to an affordable higher education. Senator Murray has been leading the fight in Congress to push back against President Trump\u2019s reckless efforts to abolish the Department of Education and hurt students and families nationwide. Over the last few months, Senator Murray has:\n\nStrongly opposed Linda McMahon\u2019s nomination to be Secretary of Education right at the outset\u2014and encouraged her colleagues to do the same, arguing: \u201cWe Cannot Have a Secretary of Education Who Doesn\u2019t Believe in Having a Secretary of Education.\u201d\n\nForcefully warned of President Trump\u2019s plans to illegally abolish the Department of Education\u2014and raised alarm bells about the steps he\u2019s taken to do just that, including by hosting a forum on Trump\u2019s decimation of the Department and demanding a halt to the administration\u2019s illegal plans to transfer key Department of Education responsibilities to other departments.\n\nSlamming President Trump and Secretary McMahon\u2019s mass firings that have hollowed out the Department and weakened support for students, teachers, and families across the country\u2014including at the Office for Civil Rights\u2014and holding Secretary McMahon\u2019s feet to the fire over the firings.\n\nDemanding the reversal of a policy that prevents funding from reaching schools nationwide.\n\nBlasting President Trump\u2019s budget request to slash education funding.\n\nHolding key Department of Education nominees to account.\n\nLeading the charge to push the Trump administration to release billions of dollars in funding for K-12 schools and adult education programs that it had been blocking for weeks.\n\nCalling out the Department of Education\u2019s abrupt, unilateral decision to slash or eliminate key funding for teacher training, magnet schools, minority-serving institutions of higher education, and international education programs to instead fund its own priorities.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.murray.senate.gov/senator-murray-statement-on-trumps-latest-steps-to-keep-illegally-dismantling-the-department-of-education-abandoning-students-nationwide/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6178609803318977, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}