Bonamici moves to impeach McMahon over Education Department cuts

Oregon Rep. Suzanne Bonamici moved to turn Democratic anger over the Trump administration’s Education Department overhaul into an impeachment fight, saying Education Secretary Linda McMahon had “betrayed students” and planning to file a resolution to remove her from office.

The push lands against a broad dismantling effort inside the U.S. Department of Education. In a May 14 statement to the House Education and Workforce Committee, McMahon said the Trump administration had a mandate to “sunset a 46-year, $3 trillion failed federal education bureaucracy,” and said the department had already cut billions of dollars in program funding, reduced its bureaucracy, and lined up 10 partnerships with other federal agencies to handle some programs.

That reorganization has also targeted core federal functions. Reporting in June said the department planned to move special education and civil rights responsibilities out of the agency as part of the effort to close it by shifting work elsewhere, a move that has sharpened the clash over how much authority Washington should keep over public schools and student protections.

Bonamici, who won Oregon’s May 19 Democratic primary for her House seat with 86.6% of the vote and 99% of ballots counted, is using impeachment as a formal rebuke even though the odds of removal are remote. Under the Constitution, the House has the sole power to impeach, the Senate has the sole power to try impeachments, a simple House majority is enough to impeach, and conviction requires two-thirds of senators present. Federal civil officers can be impeached for “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

That makes Bonamici’s move more politically than procedurally dangerous for McMahon. The House is controlled by Republicans, and any conviction in the Senate would require broad bipartisan support that McMahon’s education agenda has not yet erased. Unless Bonamici’s resolution draws substantial Republican backing, it is likely to function as a message vote against the administration’s plan to hollow out or reassign the department’s powers.

McMahon told Congress in May that she had traveled to more than 30 states since taking office and was empowering local leaders. Bonamici and other critics say the administration is doing the opposite, weakening federal oversight at the same time it is shifting special education and civil rights duties away from the Education Department, where those protections have long been anchored.