Congressional Democrats are demanding that Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon cooperate with the agency’s Office of Inspector General review of the Trump administration’s efforts to overhaul the agency.
In a letter first obtained by ABC News, a group of Democrats on the Education, Oversight, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and Appropriations committees in the House and Senate sent the secretary a letter accusing her of stonewalling the agency’s inspectors general.
"The OIG must be allowed to do its job,” they wrote.
“We urge the Department to immediately meet its obligation under the law to fully comply with the OIG’s review,” the letter said. “Congress and the public need to understand the full extent and impact of the Administration’s actions on the Department and the students, families, and educational communities it may no longer be able to serve."
ABC News reached out for comment from the Department of Education on the allegations but did not receive an immediate reply.
McMahon will face these questions in person when she testifies before the House Education and Workforce Committee on Wednesday.
The letter stems from what McMahon calls her “final mission” as the 13th education secretary to shutter the department, and the administration’s first steps to diminish the agency through a reduction in force that slashed nearly half its staff in early March. The lawmakers are requesting a response no later than Friday. After several attempts to conduct its review over the last two months, an OIG letter said the prolonged had resulted in “unreasonable denials” and “repeated delays” to its work.
According to a recent OIG letter sent to the House and Senate committee members, the Education Department blocked it from “timely access to all records, reports, audits, reviews, documents, papers, recommendations, or other materials available to the department.” House Education and Workforce Committee ranking Democrat Bobby Scott told ABC News, “I think the fact that they have indicated that there is a lack of cooperation ought to be concerning to people when inspectors general can't do their jobs.”
The OIG contends its “statutory mission” to oversee the changes at the department under the Inspector General Act have been impeded.
“Our review has been delayed by the refusal of the Department to provide the OIG with a majority of the information and documents requested or direct access to staff for interviews,” acting Inspector General René L. Rocque wrote last month in a letter fulfilling her dual reporting requirement.
The department has canceled scheduled OIG interviews with its staff and insists that an Office of the General Counsel lawyer be present for any rescheduled interviews, according to the OIG. The OIG alleges those requests from the department are unprecedented and contrary to the OIG’s longstanding practice.
The OIG office is the statutory, independent entity within the department responsible for identifying fraud, waste, abuse and criminal activity involving department funds, programs, and operations, according to its website. By denying the federal watchdog access to the department's records, the lawmakers believe McMahon is failing to meet her obligation as an agency head. There is no basis to withhold department documents from the OIG regardless of the privileged nature of the information or if it’s subject to litigation, the OIG said.
The news comes as McMahon testifies before Congress on the agency’s priorities and policies, specifically calling for a $12 billion cut to education under President Donald Trump’s fiscal year 2026 budget outline. McMahon has stressed she will continue all statutory functions of the agency and work to abolish it in a “lawful fashion.”
Ahead of his committee's hearing with McMahon, Scott said, “We hear all these pronouncements about what's going to happen. What is the plan? They've acknowledged they can't get rid of the Department of Education without legislation. Are they supporting legislation?”
Democrats, including Scott, have decried the administration’s work force reductions, particularly the impact the layoffs could pose to the department’s critical responsibilities such as administering Federal Student Aid services and ensuring students’ civil rights. Their three-page letter to McMahon claims states have experienced delays in accessing relevant portals to receive federal funding, college financial aid advisors have experienced significant delays in getting answers from FSA personnel, parents with pending Office for Civil Rights OCR cases have been left in the dark.
“When they have all these cases of discrimination in the Office for Civil Rights enforcing Title VI, including anti semitism, how is the job going to get done if you fired most of the staff in the Office of Civil Rights?” Scott said.
“If the inspector general can't get an answer, then oversight is lost,” he added.