ICYMI: Senator Murray Urges Congress to Stand Up for Students with Disabilities, Slams Trump Decimation of Department of Education
***WATCH: Senator Murray’s remarks***
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former chair of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee, delivered the following remarks on amendments as the committee meets to consider nominations and legislation. Senator Murray put forward several amendments to block Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education (ED) by illegally transferring numerous offices and responsibilities to other agencies that have no expertise in education through Interagency Agreements (IAAs).
As Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Murray fought tooth and nail to prohibit these illegal arrangements in the fiscal year 2026 appropriations bill that funds the Department and that passed in January, but Senate Republicans refused to block use of IAAs in law.
Senator Murray offered three amendments: an amendment to prohibit all IAAs at ED, an amendment to prohibit the illegal transfer of the Office for Civil Rights, and an amendment to request a cost estimate for each IAA. Murray’s amendment requiring a cost estimate for each IAA was passed by voice vote. Those remarks are below.
Senator Murray’s remarks when offering her amendment, S. 5046 Murray #1, prohibiting the illegal transfer of all offices and functions from ED to other federal agencies (prohibiting all IAAs) – this amendment was blocked by Republicans in a 12-11 vote:
“Congress created the Department of Education by law—and only Congress can eliminate it. This administration is, frankly, spitting in the face of Congress and the law with illegal interagency agreements that are no more than an out-and-out attempt to abolish the Department of Education.
“Title I run out of the Labor Department. Civil rights shipped off to DOJ. It doesn’t make any sense, and we never voted to do that. Career and technical education funding got moved to Labor. Thanks to Trump our states now must waste limited time figuring out new bureaucracy.
“Nothing has been made more efficient for our students or their schools. And by the way, doing this costs taxpayers more.
“Americans do not support ‘abolishing’ the Department of Education.
“If Secretary McMahon wants to eliminate this Department, she can ask Congress. Until then—an ‘interagency agreement’ is not a magic wand. She cannot sign away her legal duty to America’s students.
“So, my amendment is simple: no office, no program, no function at the Department of Education can be torn away—it says no to abolishing the Department of Education. I urge my colleagues to vote aye.”
Senator Murray’s remarks when offering her amendment, S. 5046 Murray #2, prohibiting the illegal transfer of the Office for Civil Rights out of the Department of Education – this amendment was tabled by Republicans in a 12-11 vote:
“Last month, this administration announced it was shipping the Office for Civil Rights off to the Justice Department. But before that they actually fired half of its staff and shuttered seven of its twelve regional offices.
“They paid civil rights investigators as much as $38 million to sit at home—while the backlog exploded past 24,000 cases, and OCR dismissed 90 percent of the cases it purportedly investigated. Every single number is a kid—a student with a disability who is not getting the education they are owed by law or a student facing discrimination in their classroom.
“Last year, OCR reached nearly 80 percent fewer disability discrimination resolution agreements compared to 2024. That’s not by accident—it’s by design thanks to Trump’s staffing cuts and dismantling the Department of Education.
“And to send this off to the Department of Justice, that is already overwhelmed is not how we make sure our students have access to their civil rights.
“Moving OCR will not clear the backlog—it will bury it. Justice delayed is an education denied.
“My amendment simply keeps OCR at the Department of Education. And I urge a yes vote.”
Senator Murray’s remarks when offering her amendment, S. 5046 Murray #3, requesting a cost estimate for each IAA, and prohibiting the Secretary from using travel funds until such estimates are produced to Congress and the public – this amendment was PASSED by voice vote:
“Secretary McMahon is duplicating the work her Department was already [doing] by asking other agencies to do it instead and claiming somehow this makes government ‘more efficient.’ Fine. Prove it. Show us the receipts.
“Under a single one of these interagency agreements, the Department of Education is paying the Labor Department more than a million dollars to do its job! There are now 13 more of these agreements, and Congress has not received any information about what they cost.
“So, my amendment is very simple, it asks one thing: tell Congress and the public what these interagency agreements actually cost taxpayers. If you’re proud of this deal, show us the price tag. What do you have to hide?
“This amendment simply asks the Secretary of Education to report on the cost of these interagency agreements.”
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