Key Points
- More than 80 House Democrats sent a letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon demanding the Department abandon plans to move the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to the Justice Department and the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) to Health and Human Services.
- The lawmakers argue the transfers, executed through interagency agreements (IAAs), are unlawful because Congress created both offices in the Department of Education Organization Act and only Congress can eliminate or relocate them.
- OCR handles roughly 20,000 complaints per year, and OSERS oversees special education services for more than 6.7 million students under IDEA.
House Democrats are escalating their fight against the Trump Administration's effort to wind down the Department of Education. In a letter (PDF File) led by Education and Workforce Committee Ranking Member Bobby Scott (D-VA) and joined by more than 80 colleagues, lawmakers called on Secretary Linda McMahon to reverse the interagency agreements announced in June 2026 that shift OCR's work to the Department of Justice and OSERS' work to HHS.
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Why It Matters
These two offices touch millions of families. OCR receives about 20,000 civil rights complaints annually from students facing discrimination, harassment, or disability-related barriers at school. OSERS administers special education programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, serving over 6.7 million students aged 5 to 21 in fiscal year 2024, plus more than 800,000 people in state vocational rehabilitation programs.
The letter's core argument is legal: Congress established both offices in the Department of Education Organization Act of 1979, and in 47 years has never voted to move them. "The law is clear: Congress created OCR and OSERS and Congress alone can eliminate them," the members wrote, calling the IAA strategy "counter to the will of Congress" and on "questionable legal ground."
They note even Congressional Republicans included appropriations language barring the Department from reallocating resources or reorganizing activities beyond what Congress provided.
Why This Is Happening
OCR's capacity was already under scrutiny before the transfer plan. OCR lost more staff than nearly any other office in the Department's reduction in force, and a February 2026 GAO report found the Department paid OCR employees as much as $38 million not to work as a result.
Those cuts have had ripple effects across the agency, including a growing backlog of student loan complaints. A Senate HELP Committee minority report in April found OCR reached zero resolution agreements in 2025 involving sexual harassment, sexual violence, seclusion or restraint, racial harassment, or discriminatory school discipline, despite more than 2,700 pending cases.
The letter also points to McMahon's own May testimony before the Education and Workforce Committee that OCR's reduced funding in the FY27 budget request was "a floor" and that she wanted to increase hiring at the office — testimony the members say is undermined by outsourcing OCR's work to DOJ.
Beyond legality, the lawmakers warn DOJ and HHS aren't built for this work. DOJ's civil rights arm has historically litigated a small subset of education cases rather than resolving complaints collaboratively, and moving special education to HHS treats disability as a health condition to be remedied, a framing disability advocates have rejected.
How This Connects
We covered the original announcement when the Department moved special education oversight to HHS and civil rights enforcement to DOJ in June, part of the Administration's broader push (alongside House Republicans' legislation to dismantle the Department of Education) to unwind the agency piece by piece. This letter is the clearest signal yet that Democrats plan to contest the moves on legal grounds, not just political ones.
The letter asks McMahon to change course on the IAAs and keep Congress informed of any next steps. With Republicans controlling Congress, a legislative block is unlikely, so legal challenges remain the most probable check on the transfers. The letter follows other Democratic pushback, including Rep. Suzanne Bonamici's resolution to impeach McMahon over the Department's dismantling, and Bonamici signed this letter as well.
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Editor: Colin Graves
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