{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/news-sanders-34-senators-demand-mcmahon-reverse-failed-policies-protect-students-from-discrimination-and-harassment/", "NEWS: Sanders, 34 Senators Demand McMahon Reverse Failed Policies, Protect Students from Discrimination and Harassment", "2026-05-27", "2026", "2026-05", "Independent", "Senate", "VT", "Bernard Sanders", "S000033", "www.sanders.senate.gov", "sanders", "https://www.sanders.senate.gov/media/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, May 27 \u2014 After the Trump administration tried to fire more than half of the investigators tasked with protecting the civil rights of students and left students nationwide without protection from alleged civil rights violations, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Ct.), Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and 30 senators called on Education Secretary Linda McMahon to take immediate actions to reverse its failed policies and finally protect students from discrimination, mistreatment and harassment. In their letter, the senators call on the Trump administration to provide a full accounting of the nearly 12,000 pending cases before the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) left without protection under the administration\u2019s watch and to inform students nationwide about the status of their complaints.\n\n\u201cMake no mistake: OCR\u2019s disastrous recent track record in providing enforceable relief for students is a direct consequence of choices made by the Trump administration,\u201d Sanders and the senators wrote.\n\nSince taking office, the administration has undertaken unprecedented efforts to gut OCR, the agency responsible for protecting students from discrimination based on race, sex, disability, color, national origin and age. In March 2025, the administration attempted to lay off nearly half of OCR\u2019s workforce \u2014 costing taxpayers up to $38 million while investigators were barred from doing their jobs. The administration proposed a second round of layoffs during the 2025 shutdown before reversing course and reinstating staff.\n\n\u201cThe Department formally rescinded those layoffs in January 2026, but only after nine months of paid inaction, sustained court orders, and congressional pressure,\u201d the senators continued. \u201cThe students and families with pending cases cannot get that time back. Thousands of students who reached out to OCR for protection were denied any enforceable relief and that is unacceptable.\u201d\n\nLast month, Sanders released a new report finding that Trump\u2019s Education Department has been the least productive in over a decade \u2014 reaching in 2025 the lowest number of resolution agreements in 12 years and, shockingly, reaching zero resolution agreements for students facing serious traumatic incidents including sexual harassment, sexual violence, seclusion, restraint, racial harassment and discriminatory school discipline. Despite receiving the same funding as the prior year, the report found OCR provided relief through resolution agreements in just 1% of pending cases in 2025.\n\nThe senators note that OCR has left 72.5% of complaints pending for over 180 days, and that the Government Accountability Office previously found 90% of complaints resolved between March and September 2025 were dismissed without substantive investigation. The senators demand that McMahon take the following specific and immediate actions to fulfill OCR\u2019s legal obligations:\n\nReopen closed OCR regional offices\n\nHire more OCR investigators\n\nReach out to all students with pending cases and provide a status update on their case\n\nBegin reaching resolution agreements in every category OCR reached zero\n\nCease the mass dismissal of complaints without proper review\n\nCease efforts to rescind existing resolution agreements\n\nRestore OCR\u2019s public transparency, including by regularly updating public data and providing detailed accounting on the status of cases, staffing levels and caseloads\n\nJoining Sanders, Murray, Baldwin, Murphy and Durbin as cosigners on the letter are Sens. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Angus King (I-Maine), Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n (D-N.M.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).", 1, "2026-05-28T06:29:45Z", "2026-05-28T06:31:18Z"]], "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.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/news-sanders-34-senators-demand-mcmahon-reverse-failed-policies-protect-students-from-discrimination-and-harassment/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.6776598747819662, "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"}