The US Department of Education will begin layoffs on Tuesday, with parts of the agency moving to offices in the Department of Labor and elsewhere, according to the Washington Post. It is an illegal departure, because the President cannot decide to terminate an agency created by Congress. But President Donald Trump picked the perfect day to do it.
The Washington Post reports that it is not clear which offices from the doe may be personally defeated, but they could include the Office of Educational Rights, the Office of Special Education and Higher Education Services, and the Indian Education System.
The Social Media Account of the Department of Education and Education Secretary, Linda McMahon, shared the video with the caption “The watch notes … “The video includes clips of presidents Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush talking about how they wanted to end the agency.
Just because previous presidents wanted to eliminate the agency doesn’t mean Trump is allowed to do it without approval from Congress. The fact that other Presidents have not been able to do it should give an idea of how far from the law Trump is working.
Why is Trump making his moves at the Department of Education today? As it happens, the House of Representatives is expected to vote on Tuesday on releasing files called Enstein in 2019.
“As I said on Friday night inside the air force one on fake news, the Republicans of the house should vote to release the Epsterin files, because you have nothing to hide,” wrote the social truth, moving forward.
It is not true that Trump said the files should be released on Friday while he was in the Air box. In fact, when Trump was asked about the files by a Bloomberg reporter, he snapped, “Hush! Hush, Piggy.”
Trump also said about the Air Force One that Democrats are the ones who should be investigated. The president once revealed that he ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to look into communications between Epsterin and Bill Clinton, as well as other Democrats.
The White House reportedly believes they have found a workaround when it comes to illegal travel to eliminate the Department of Education. The Federal Lat requires that all these programs be kept in the Department of Education. But the Washington Post reports that they will try to get other government agencies to run the Department of Education’s programs “under an agreement with the Department of Education.”
No one knows if this will be allowed to stand, but USAID had already proposed it in late January and February, shortly after Trump began his second term. Many lawsuits were filed, but the judicial system was not able to handle the President breaking things and dealing with Fallout, as the New York Times recently noted. President Trump’s decision to destroy the East Wing of the White House by surprise is a perfect example of that.
The House is currently debating votes on the Epsterin files, but even if they vote to release the files, it still needs to be done by the Senate. After that, it also needs to be signed by the President. And even after that, there is the question of whether Trump will allow the extradition. Also, the President does not see himself bound by the law. Congress can pass all the laws it wants to end the emissions, but that doesn’t mean it will happen.
It seems like a given that eliminating the Department of Education will attract a lot of lawsuits. Whether those charges actually accomplished anything is another question. Experts pointed out that even if the courts found the distribution of USAID to be illegal and it is ordered to be renewed, it is not something you can do. Most of the people who used to work at USAID found new jobs and moved on with their lives.
It is much easier to destroy something than to rebuild it. And that’s not just true of USAID, the Department of Education, and the East Wing. It is true of all layoffs in the US right now. And if you zoom in on the broader historical view it is possible, it may take generations to rebuild things that are currently broken.
