Democratic lawmakers trying to take a stand to protect the U.S. Department of Education held a press conference outside the DOE on Friday after they were not permitted to enter the building.
The Democratic congressional members expressed that they oppose President Donald Trump‘s plans to abolish the department.
They were denied access by security, according to a video from The Associated Press, although they had a meeting scheduled inside the building.
“They want to close the Department of Education. They want to cut back on funding for low-income areas through Title I. They want to eliminate Head Start. They want to cut back on school lunches, cut back on access to college,” U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia, who is a member of the Committee on Education and Workforce, said during the press conference. “And we’re going to make sure they recognize that that has to go through Congress and through our committee.”
Scott said that if three Republicans on the committee join him and his Democratic colleagues, they can stop Trump’s elimination of the U.S. DOE. Also, if three Republicans in U.S. Congress join him and his colleagues, they can stop the attempt.
“[Trump] believes that he can do this through executive order and we’re here to remind him that he cannot,” said U.S. Rep. Mark Takano of California.
Takano said that Trump and Elon Musk have placed U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staff inside the building who currently have access to the private data of millions of students and families.
“Already they have placed dozens of employees who perform vital services on which our schools, teachers and students depend on leave, so we’re here today to follow up on a letter that 95 of my colleagues and I sent this week,” Takano said.
Takano said they had asked to meet with the Acting Secretary of the U.S. DOE Denise Carter and that they had not received a response yet.
“We’re here to ask her: ‘Will you comply with an illegal executive order to shut down the Department of Education?'” Takano said.
He added that the Democratic members of Congress will not relinquish the future of American students “to one man, his theology and his unelected lieutenants.”
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Rebecca Barnabi
