Senate Democrats are ramping up calls to impeach Education Secretary Linda McMahon and for an inspector general’s investigation over her efforts to dismantle the agency she leads.
She is the second Cabinet secretary that has become the subject of potential impeachment in as many days. Republican Rep. Thomas Massie on Tuesday introduced articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“Secretary McMahon is unlawfully trying to eliminate the Department of Education, and in doing so, she’s costing taxpayers untold amounts of money and other resources,” Sen. Angela Alsobrooks said.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon testifies before the House Committee on Education and Workforce at the Rayburn House Office Building on May 14, 2026 in Washington, DC.
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President Donald Trump campaigned on closing the Department of Education and tapped McMahon, 77, with putting herself out of a job. Just weeks into his second term he signed an executive order charging McMahon with returning educational authority to the states.
McMahon is following through on what she calls her final mission: to abolish the agency completely.
In 18 months as secretary, McMahon has made a series of changes to gut the department, including firing over more than 40% of the agency’s staff, closing regional divisions of the agency and offloading core responsibilities to other federal departments through interagency agreements.
The secretary has said she believes she has broad authority to move the services, arguing that the interagency agreements are a tool that the agency has used more than 200 times under multiple administrations. McMahon and several members of the president’s Cabinet have been urging Congress to codify the changes that they stress will restore excellence in education.
During a rally on Capitol Hill with Alsobrooks, union leaders, House lawmakers and education advocates, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, noted that McMahon’s changes have harmed students, the federal employees that she oversees and have resulted in a direct attack on public education.
“Someone who’s in the process of doing that has no business being the secretary of Education,” Van Hollen told ABC News.
“So why is she secretary of Education?” Van Hollen asked. “She should be removed.”
Sen. Angela Alsobrooks speaks during a press conference on Capitol Hill on July 22, 2026 in Washington, DC.
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Alsobrooks, who has also called for Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to be impeached for his decisions she says have done “calculable harm” to Americans, told ABC News that Trump’s Cabinet members should be “sent packing” as quickly as possible.
“Simply put: not only is Linda McMahon historically bad at her job, but she’s interfering with the ability of other people to do their jobs and for all the students to be able to access a high-quality education, which is so important, she’s interrupting that as well,” Alsobrooks said.
Asked for a response, White House assistant press secretary Liz Huston said, “Secretary McMahon is successfully returning education back to the states where it belongs, restoring fairness, merit, and safety in our schools, and putting the academic needs of students first. Secretary McMahon’s tenacity, decades of world-class business experience, and proven outsider approach will ensure that we have the best education system in the world that develops American students into future leaders.”
In the lower chamber, multiple lawmakers have submitted articles of impeachment against Trump officials. The chorus of calls for Cabinet officials to exit office this week come after Suzanne Bonamici introduced articles of impeachment for McMahon this summer.
Democrats are hoping to reverse Trump administration changes if they can take back the House and Senate in the next Congress, as the Republican-controlled chambers refuse to entertain impeachment resolutions.
Bonamici said families deserve a secretary who will “advocate for” and “protect” them. “Linda McMahon is doing the opposite,” she said.
It would take an act of Congress and 60 Senate votes to overcome a Democratic filibuster to shutter the agency. But McMahon argues that the nation’s education system needs a hard reset and decisions should be made at the local level.
Conservatives laud her department for funding school-choice programs and enforcing parental rights across the country.
Senior House Education and Workforce Committee member Mark Takano, D-Calif., contends that students with disabilities and those from marginalized backgrounds are suffering due to mental health grant cuts and changes to civil rights services under McMahon.
“The best thing that Education Secretary Linda McMahon can do for our students is to resign,” Takano said. “She needs to leave, and if she won’t leave we need to impeach her,” he said.
Meanwhile, the lawmakers, three former Education secretaries and the largest federal employee union are calling for an inspector general investigation into the mass firings made at the department last year.
Former Education Secretary Arne Duncan speaks during a news conference with education advocates to discuss Trump’s plans to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on February 13, 2025 in Washington, DC.
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The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), and Arne Duncan, John B. King, Jr., and Miguel Cardona, the secretaries of Education under Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, respectively, oppose the agency restructuring under McMahon.
They’re requesting the department’s independent watchdog investigates the firing of hundreds of the agency’s staff, the cost of those cuts and costs of hiring new employees to do their jobs. McMahon has acknowledged the department had to hire more people to backfill or reinstate some of those who were fired.
McMahon’s moves have “sown chaos” on tens of millions of students and families, AFGE Local 252 President Rachel Gittleman said.
“We need a full picture of the fraud, waste and abuse carried out by this administration as they continue to play politics rather than doing their jobs to serve the American people,” Gittleman said.
Asked for reaction about the calls for impeachment and a possible IG investigation, a Department of Education spokesperson accused the previous secretaries of failed policies, arguing that the Trump administration is trying to reform “broken” bureaucracy in Washington.
“The Department of Education’s reduction in force (RIF) was implemented carefully and in compliance with all applicable regulations and laws,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement to ABC News.
“We will continue our work to return education to the states and improve outcomes for our nation’s students,” the spokesperson wrote.
McMahon did not comment, but in a post on X reacting to Bonamici’s impeachment effort, she said, “It speaks volumes that House Democrats think an impeachable offense is working to improve student outcomes and reduce the federal bureaucracy. They must not be bothered by chronic failures of our education system that result in historic low test scores, a failed FAFSA form rollout, classrooms shuttered during COVID, designating parents as terrorists, and males in female locker rooms.”