U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici wants Education Secretary Linda McMahon impeached for moving federal special education oversight out of the Department of Education.
Bonamici, a Democrat representing Oregon's 1st Congressional District including Portland, introduced the impeachment resolution on the House floor June 25.
She stood next to a poster board featuring enlarged portraits of President Trump and McMahon with the text: "Dismantling the Dept. of Education without Congress is illegal."
"It's completely out of bounds," Bonamici told ABC News afterward. "You can't just unilaterally move a program that Congress put at the Department of Education and put it somewhere else."
On June 16, the Trump administration announced two transfers: the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) would move to the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) would move to the Department of Justice.
OSERS oversees compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the federal law guaranteeing students with disabilities access to a free and appropriate public education.
OCR handles discrimination complaints based on disability, gender, race, and national origin filed by families in districts including PPS, David Douglas, Parkrose, and Reynolds.
McMahon's office framed the OSERS transfer as strengthening outcomes for students with disabilities through partnership with HHS, and the OCR transfer as ensuring "stronger, more coordinated civil rights enforcement."
House Education Committee Chairman Tim Walberg, a Republican, dismissed the impeachment effort, saying McMahon "is doing exactly what voters elected President Trump to do: rein in a bloated bureaucracy."
Portland Public Schools runs a district-wide Inclusive School Communities initiative that provides special education services within students' home schools rather than segregated classrooms.
According to the district's website, the program operates under IDEA's framework requiring that children with disabilities be educated alongside their peers.
A former OSERS staffer told NPR the transfer would "separate out oversight of the implementation of IDEA and it would decimate civil rights protections that have been in place for more than 50 years." Without dedicated oversight, the staffer warned, districts could redirect special education dollars: "If nobody's looking, they could buy football jerseys rather than pay for a one-on-one aide for a child with autism."
The transfers add instability for districts already under financial strain. PPS is managing a $56 million deficit for 2026-27, with Superintendent Kimberlee Armstrong's budget recommending the elimination of 335 positions including 101 in specialized programs.
As early as October 2025, Parkrose School District had zeroed out about $300,000 in budgeted federal Title II, III, and IV-A funding — separate from IDEA — due to broader uncertainty about federal education spending, according to Education Week.
The resolution is the first Democratic effort to impeach McMahon. More than a dozen Democratic co-sponsors have signed on, according to ABC News. But Democrats are in the minority in both chambers, meaning a House vote is unlikely to be scheduled under Republican leadership.
A spokesperson for Bonamici's office, Natalie Crofts, told Education Week the resolution was still being finalized as of June 25 and should be ready the week of June 30.
More than 8 million students nationally are eligible for IDEA services. Congress maintained level funding for IDEA in the fiscal year 2026 budget passed in February, but that legislation does not prevent the administration from shifting programs between agencies.
