Murphy Calls Out Ed. Secretary Linda McMahon for Gutting Office of Civil Rights, Failing to Protect Kids

WASHINGTON-U.S. Senator Chris Murphy on Tuesday questioned Secretary of Education Linda McMahon about the Trump administration's efforts to dismantle the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) within the department during a hearing of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies. Murphy grilled McMahon on OCR's abysmal record under her leadership and what the Trump administration's proposed budget cuts for the office will mean for vulnerable students.

Emphasizing the importance of the OCR, Murphy highlighted the story of a disabled child whose case was dropped when Trump assumed office: "Amy Cupp is a parent in Indiana. She was very alarmed when her daughter came home one day with severe bruising on her hands and arms. Her daughter has severe autism, a group of different disabilities. What she came to find out is that the school that her daughter was at had been restraining and secluding her daughter. In fact, her daughter spent 23 hours over 29 different times in what the school referred to as the Blue Room, a padded room in which this girl was thrown in by herself, spent 23 hours in the first just few months of her sixth grade year. This family got no resolution from the school district, and so they went to the Office of Civil Rights. Their case was proceeding until you were sworn in, and when you were sworn in, their case ended. They were given a notice that the Chicago field office was shut down and that there would be no further processing of their case."

Murphy pressed McMahon on the mass firing of OCR attorneys responsible for protecting students' rights and safety: "Why did you decide to shut down these field offices, to illegally fire half the attorneys?...In Connecticut, in your home state, when you came into office, there were 127 pending claims at OCR, half of them were kids with disabilities who were relying on you to help them. Do you know how many cases got resolved positively for families in Connecticut in 2025? Zero. Not a single child got a positive resolution, got help from the Department of Education having filed a disability claim in 2025. That is unacceptable."

In a mystifying exchange, Murphy set the record straight after McMahon contradicted the Trump administration's FY27 budget proposal, inaccurately insisting the proposed budget includes more money for OCR attorneys:

McMahon: We brought people on board to handle these cases, because I believe that they should be handled. We should be dismissing these cases. We should be finding resolutions to them, and so those attorneys are being brought back. They were-

Murphy: How many of them were brought back?

McMahon: All the ones that were fired who didn't take early retirement, they came back. And we are, in this budget, have more money to hire more lawyers.

Murphy: No, this budget proposes a 35% reduction to the Office of Civil Rights. So that's my final question.

McMahon: No, but it, but it is a budget of increasing dollars for civil rights.

Murphy: No it's not…this budget has a 35% proposed reduction for the Office of Civil Rights.

McMahon: Well, we are moving forward to make sure that rapid resolution-

Murphy: Wait, let's just, that's true right? Let's just agree to the facts, right? You will agree that this budget reduces, you're proposing to reduce funding for the Department by 35%?

McMahon: No, I'm not agreeing to that. Here's what I'm saying. We are bringing back lawyers. We are hiring new lawyers to address this back load, with the person who had been so successful before in getting this done. When she left office, there was a 4,500 backlog, and now, from the Biden administration, there's 19,000 more. And so we're addressing them for rapid mediation, expanded resolution, and multi-regional teams that we've now put back in place, so addressing the issues that happened in the past.

Murphy: I mean, it's like black is white. It's a 35% cut you're proposing.

A full transcript of Murphy's questioning is below:

Murphy: Thank you very much, Madam Chair, good to see you, Secretary McMahon. I want to just tell you a quick story so you can understand why Senator Murray and many of us on this committee care deeply about what you have been doing to try to destroy the Office of Civil Rights.

Amy Cupp is a parent in Indiana. She was very alarmed when her daughter came home one day with severe bruising on her hands and arms. Her daughter has severe autism, a group of different disabilities. What she came to find out is that the school that her daughter was at had been restraining and secluding her daughter. In fact, her daughter spent 23 hours over 29 different times in what the school referred to as the Blue Room, a padded room in which this girl was thrown in by herself, spent 23 hours in the first just few months of her sixth grade year.

This family got no resolution from the school district, and so they went to the Office of Civil Rights. Their case was proceeding until you were sworn in, and when you were sworn in, their case ended. They were given a notice that the Chicago field office was shut down and that there would be no further processing of their case. They went to court along with many other families, and I heard you say to Senator Murray that things are getting better at OCR and that you are now processing cases again. But my understanding is you're doing that not out of your own volition, but because the parents sued you, and the court found that you were in gross violation of the law, having fired half the attorneys at the office, having closed down all these field offices that parents rely on.

So what was going on in 2025? Why did you decide to shut down these field offices, to illegally fire half the attorneys? I hear you and want to believe you that things are going to get better, but obviously you spent an entire year trying to eliminate the functions of this office. And I'll give you a numerical example, in Connecticut, in your home state, when you came into office, there were 127 pending claims at OCR, half of them were kids with disabilities who were relying on you to help them. Do you know how many cases got resolved positively for families in Connecticut in 2025? Zero. Not a single child got a positive resolution, got help from the Department of Education having filed a disability claim in 2025. That is unacceptable. So I guess, tell me why you did that. And am I wrong that the only reason that you're restarting anything at OCR is because the court is telling you you have to do it?

McMahon: Oh, you're clearly wrong about that Senator. We definitely did not shut down the Department of Civil Rights at the Department of Education. Before I got there, and then the RIF happened, I think, a week after I was sworn in, but the process had been in place to reduce greatly the Department of Education - the number of people there under very stringent budgetary requirements that we were given. And so this was part of a RIF that happened, but we were in the process of looking at how to make sure that our Office of Civil Rights was, in fact, going to be able to handle cases, trying to make sure that we could get as many of them handled as possible. And so that is why Kim Richey was brought back, part of the reason that she was brought back, I hired her, I found her, because she had been the most effective person in the prior Trump administration and in the Bush but it's important that-

Murphy: But you did the opposite. I mean you are trying to figure out how to better resolve cases. You resolved not a single case in Connecticut in 2025. I mean, how do you defend that? Not a single child in Connecticut got a positive resolution from the Department of Education for their discrimination claims. 70 of them have disability claims. How do you defend that?

McMahon: Well, it is very difficult when I'm trying to address those particular issues, except to know that those things were happening, and we are looking forward to make sure that they stop happening.

Murphy: But you fired half the department.

McMahon: But that is hindsight. What we are doing now-

Murphy: What does that mean?

McMahon: You know perfectly well what it is. We brought people on board to handle these cases, because I believe that they should be handled. We should be dismissing these cases. We should be finding resolutions to them, and so those attorneys are being brought back. They were-

Murphy: How many of them were brought back?

McMahon: All the ones that were fired who didn't take early retirement, they came back. And we are, in this budget, have more money to hire more lawyers.

Murphy: No, this budget proposes a 35% reduction to the Office of Civil Rights. So that's my final question.

McMahon: No, but it, but it is a budget of increasing dollars for civil rights.

Murphy: No it's not. This office this, this budget has a 35% proposed reduction for the Office of Civil Rights.

McMahon: Well, we are moving forward to make sure that rapid resolution-

Murphy: Wait, let's just, that's true right? Let's just agree to the facts right. You will agree that this budget reduces, you're proposing to reduce funding for the Department by 35%?

McMahon: No, I'm not agreeing to that. Here's what I'm saying. We are bringing back lawyers. We are hiring new lawyers to address this back load, with the person who had been so successful before in getting this done. When she left office, there was a 4500 backlog, and now, from the Biden administration, there's 19,000 more. And so we're addressing them for rapid mediation, expanded resolution, and multi regional teams that we've now put back in place, so addressing the issues that happened in the past.

Murphy: I mean, it's like black is white. It's a 35% cut you're proposing.