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U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) on Thursday introduced a resolution to impeach Secretary of Education Linda McMahon over the secretary’s commitment to shuttering the U.S. Department of Education.
Bonamici, currently Oregon’s longest-serving federal representative, delivered her remarks standing next to a large poster board on the House floor. It featured blown up portraits of President Donald Trump and McMahon with the text, “Dismantling the Dept. of Education without Congress is illegal.” Trump has been clear he hopes to return education to the states, and made collapsing the federal agency a central part of his campaign.
“Secretary McMahon has betrayed students, families and educators,” she said. “She violated federal law and her oath of office, lied to congress, and created chaos and disruption in education funding for the students who need it the most.”
Bonamici said McMahon’s leadership had gutted the department of core staff, and transferred key programs and services elsewhere. Just last week, NPR reported that the Trump administration was moving two of its biggest ones to other executive agencies. The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services moved to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, while the Office of Civil Rights moved to the U.S. Department of Justice.
(OSERS oversees compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which gives students with disabilities the right to access free and appropriate public education. OCR has long enforced federal laws that prevent discrimination and harassment in schools, notably facilitating a civil rights complaint system.)
Spokespeople for McMahon directed WW to the secretary’s post on X, where she wrote that while Washington had spent billions of taxpayer dollars annually, only one-third of children could read proficiently. (Those figures come from the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress.)
“It speaks volumes that House Democrats think an impeachable offense is working to improve student outcomes and reduce the federal bureaucracy,” McMahon wrote. “They must not be bothered by chronic failures of our education system that result in historic low test scores, a failed Free Application for Federal Student Aid form rollout, classrooms shuttered during COVID, designating parents as terrorists, and males in female locker rooms.”
At a WW endorsement interview in April, Bonamici had termed protesting outside of the Department of Education amid Trump’s efforts to demolish the agency one of her greatest accomplishments in her seventh term. She was one of about 20 Democratic lawmakers locked out of the building in February 2025.
“Educators and parents, especially parents of students with disabilities, they’re distraught. And they’re asking us to take action to stop these illegal transfers. To them I say we hear you.”
