Dem Lawmaker Sounds Alarm On DOGE ‘Actively Dismantling’ Education Department

WASHINGTON — Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) on Tuesday sounded the alarm that Elon Musk and his surrogates are “actively dismantling” the U.S. Department of Education, as staffers together with his Department of Authorities Effectivity are on-site on the company’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., poring over federal contracts and packages.

“It’s our understanding that at the moment, they’re contained in the constructing, they’re on the sixth ground, they’re canceling grants and contracts,” the New Mexico congresswoman advised HuffPost. “They’re actually dismantling and shutting down packages as we converse.”

“We anticipate that the Department of Education goes to doubtlessly be dissolved within the coming days,” warned Stansbury, who’s the highest Democrat on a Home oversight subcommittee centered on DOGE and Musk’s actions.

A spokesperson for the Department of Education didn’t reply to a request for touch upon what DOGE is doing on the division’s headquarters or if leaders anticipate their division to be eradicated. A White Home spokesperson didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Some recipients of federal training grants advised HuffPost on Tuesday their contracts had been abruptly terminated within the final 24 hours.

One one that works at a analysis firm that contracts with the Institute of Education Sciences, the nonpartisan analysis arm of the Education Department, mentioned their contracts have been all canceled Monday night time, “efficient instantly.” One other grant recipient mentioned their group’s Supporting Efficient Educator Improvement grant, or SEED grant, was canceled Monday night time. SEED grants are used to assist educators develop and increase greatest practices that may function fashions for others.

“All the things you might be posting concerning the Dept of Ed being dismantled seems true from my vantage level,” this grant recipient mentioned in an e mail.

This individual mentioned their group has additionally been barred from drawing down federal cash due for already-incurred bills.

If true, that may be unlawful beneath the Impoundment Management Act, which prevents the president and different authorities officers from unilaterally substituting their very own funding selections instead of what Congress has directed them to do.

“Sure, this violates the Impoundment Management Act. However how are we purported to struggle it? How do you retain employees on with no funding?” fumed this grant recipient, who was granted anonymity to talk freely. “It’s infuriating!

President Donald Trump tapped Musk, the richest man on this planet and a Trump loyalist, to guide DOGE, an entity with the acknowledged purpose of reducing prices throughout the federal authorities and rooting out fraud. However to date, DOGE, which Trump designated as a substitute for the U.S. Digital Service, has been continuing recklessly, politically and, to many observers, illegally.

Musk’s staff of tech staff has operated in secrecy, doubtlessly gained entry to hundreds of thousands of federal staff’ delicate information and triggered quite a few lawsuits. It seems intent on gutting total federal companies, beginning with the U.S. Company for Worldwide Improvement, which gives tens of billions of {dollars} in overseas support for international well being and catastrophe reduction. DOGE basically declared all of USAID’s heywork to be wasteful spending — with out enter from Congress, which controls federal funding.

With Trump’s endorsement, DOGE now seems centered on eliminating the Department of Education. Musk mentioned final week that the division “now not exists.” In a televised interview on Sunday, simply forward of the Tremendous Bowl, Trump prompt it’s wonderful with him if Musk needs to do this.

“It’s not authorized. They understand it’s not authorized. However they’re doing it anyway,” Stansbury mentioned. “The one recourse we have now proper now could be to go to the courts. I can let you know, we’ll completely be within the courts instantly as they’re dismantling the Department of Education.”

Stansbury has been significantly nervous about what is going to occur to tribal education schemes in Native American communities if Trump and Musk proceed with attempting to eradicate the Department of Education.

She mentioned she’s heard that the Trump administration has been “operating drills” for weeks in preparation of transferring tribal packages funded by the Education Department on an “emergency foundation” to the Department of Inside’s Bureau of Indian Education, or to easily ending these packages fully.

That might be unlawful on a number of ranges, mentioned Stansbury, noting it will violate statutory legal guidelines and appropriations legal guidelines and doubtlessly breach federal belief and treaty obligations. Past that, she pointed to a clause in Trump’s govt order on training that “rang all of the alarm bells” for anybody centered on tribal training, because it echoed the so-called termination period of the Fifties, when the U.S. authorities enacted insurance policies aimed toward terminating its obligations to tribes.

Throughout this period, as Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.) led his notorious investigations to show supposed communist infiltrators of the U.S. authorities, Republican officers tried to dismantle all federal recognition of tribal sovereignty — or recognition of the tribes themselves — and finish federal packages for Native American communities.

Stansbury mentioned Trump’s govt order mainly says the Bureau of Indian Education, which oversees federal education schemes for roughly 46,000 Native American college students at 183 colleges throughout the nation, ought to take a look at college alternative ― a euphemism for insurance policies that redirect college students and funding in direction of personal colleges. Besides there isn’t a “college alternative” for colleges funded as a part of tribal and treaty tasks, as a result of distinctive means wherein they’re funded and operated, she mentioned. All this raises considerations about plans to dismantle the Bureau of Indian Education itself.

“It smacked of tribal termination and McCarthyism,” Stansbury mentioned of Trump’s govt order on training. “That’s a part of why we’re attempting to lift consciousness about this. We wish to guarantee that will not be the path that the Trump admin is headed.”

She wrote to Inside Secretary Doug Burgum on Tuesday to share her considerations.

“We’re gravely involved that the January twenty ninth Government Order is an element of a bigger set of actions in current days which might be meant to unilaterally delay, cancel, or dismantle packages very important to Tribal communities and college students and dismantle the BIE and Department of Education,” Stansbury mentioned in her letter to Burgum. “Any unilateral makes an attempt to disrupt current providers administered or funded by the BIE would immediately violate the belief and treaty obligations of the USA and the elemental separation of powers.

An Inside Department spokesperson didn’t reply to a request for touch upon whether or not Burgum is dedicated to preserving the Bureau of Indian Education in its present kind or in any respect.

Linda McMahon, Trump’s nominee to be the subsequent training secretary, is about for her affirmation listening to on Thursday earlier than the Senate Well being, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee. Some Democratic senators have already despatched her questions concerning the destiny of the division she hopes to guide.

“Do you assist President Trump’s requires [the Department of Education] to be abolished?” Sens Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Andy Kim (D-N.J.) requested McMahon in a Tuesday letter. “If that’s the case, why?