Democratic lawmakers are preparing a legislative and oversight strategy to counter the Trump administration's efforts to dismantle the Department of Education if they gain control of the House or Senate in the November midterms. The plan includes the potential use of appropriations language to block funding for department closures, oversight hearings to investigate interagency agreements, and the possible advancement of previously introduced articles of impeachment against Education Secretary Linda McMahon.
The current administration has taken several steps to reduce the department's independent functions following a March 2025 executive order from President Trump directing McMahon to facilitate its closure. These actions include laying off approximately half of the agency's workforce last year and establishing interagency agreements (IAAs) to transfer programs to other departments. Specifically, student loan portfolios were moved to the Treasury, special education to Health and Human Services, and civil rights enforcement to the Justice Department.
On July 15, 2026, the House Education and Workforce Committee advanced a 10-bill "Less Bureaucracy, Better Education" package intended to permanently codify these transfers. The legislation seeks to shift K-12, career, and technical programs to the Labor Department and tribal education to the Interior Department. While Committee Chair Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) argued the moves improve efficiency, Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) characterized the restructuring as creating "gratuitous confusion" for local education leaders.
The scale of the administration's overhaul is reflected in the thousands of employees already fired and the transfer of oversight for 2,700 pending civil rights cases, including those involving sexual violence and racial harassment, to the Justice Department. A report from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in April 2026 stated that none of these cases had been resolved following the staffing cuts. Education Department spokesperson Savannah Newhouse defended the administration's actions, stating that their priority is to put "parents back in the driver's seat" and addressing what she described as a failure in student reading and math performance.
The conflict sets a precedent for how much authority an administration has to restructure the federal bureaucracy without explicit congressional approval. Legal experts suggest that if Congress passes legislation contravening the interagency agreements, the matter could be decided in court. While Republicans have argued the restructuring rightsizes the federal role, a unified Democratic Congress would likely result in gridlock or vetoes from President Trump, who retains the final authority to sign or reject new legislation. The next phase of this dispute will be determined by the results of the November 3, 2026, midterm elections.