A group of House Democrats demanding to meet with Department of Education Acting Secretary Denise Carter were denied entry into the DOE building on Friday, and spent more than ten minutes arguing with someone blocking the doors who said they had “a security responsibility.”
The group of lawmakers — which included Reps. Mark Takano (D-CA), Greg Casar (D-TX), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Maxine Waters (D-CA), and Maxwell Frost (D-FL), among others — went over to the front doors of the DOE after they conducted a press conference about the Trump administration’s desire to dismantle the department. The lawmakers said they wanted to ask the acting secretary in person if she would “comply with an illegal executive order” by President Donald Trump “to shut down the department.”
Trump does not have the authority to eliminate a department. Congress created the Department of Education and only Congress can eliminate a government agency — which would be unlikely as a Senate supermajority of 60, filibuster-proof votes would be needed to do so.
Trump can, however, take power away from the DOE by cutting programs within the department that Congress did not create or by moving DOE programs to different agencies.
The lawmakers banged on Department of Education’s “all access entry” doors, which were seemingly locked, before a plain-clothes person who claimed to have “a security responsibility” emerged to further block their entry and to “make sure” that the lawmakers “understand” they would not be allowed inside.
The infuriated members of Congress peppered the security person with questions, and further demanded they be allowed entry into the building.
“This is an outrage,” many of them complained.
