Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, whose adult son has cerebral palsy, has built her political career around advocating for students with disabilities. More layoffs by the federal government are worrying her.
Latest on government shutdown due to another failed vote at Capitol Hill
USA TODAY Congressional Reporter Zach Schermel is at the Capitol after another failed vote to end the government shutdown.
WASHINGTON – For New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan, watching more than 120 jobs related to special education disappear during the U.S. government shutdown was personal.
President Donald Trump has ordered mass layoffs across the federal workforce as part of an effort to pressure Democrats like her to vote to end the ongoing budget crisis, now in its third week. The layoffs included about one-fifth of the U.S. Department of Education and nearly everyone in the special education department, according to court documents and the education agency’s union.
This is especially painful for Hassan, a two-term lawmaker and former governor who has an adult son named Ben who was born nearly 40 years ago with cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder that affects movement and posture. The senator’s son needed some of those very programs when he was in school, but now with no one to administer them, his fate is uncertain.
“This is a huge blow to children and families across the country,” Hassan said in an interview with USA TODAY. “No voter is asking me to close the door to children with disabilities.”
Her concerns echo those of many families across the country and highlight the real-world risks and complex politics of the federal government shutdown. Special education cuts were temporarily suspended by a federal judge on Oct. 15, but the past week has triggered a wave of anxiety among parents and teachers. Special education support groups say they have been flooded with questions.
Lawmakers were also caught off guard by the Trump administration’s move.
“It’s outrageous,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) told USA TODAY. “I was surprised in a way that they did it in such a high-profile way.”
Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Trump’s Cabinet secretary, who cut the department’s leadership in half in March, has remained largely silent on the matter since the firings were announced. Her office did not formally confirm the move until an Oct. 17 court filing. Two days earlier, McMahon insisted in his first public statement on the issue that special education funding would not be affected by the staffing changes.
Weeks into the shutdown, “millions of American students are still attending school, teachers are being paid, and schools are operating as usual,” she said. “The Department has taken additional steps to improve contact with America’s students and families and to root out the education bureaucracy that has placed unnecessary oversight burdens on states and educators.”
During his confirmation hearing in February, Mr. McMahon agreed with several senators, including Mr. Hassan, about the need for special education services. She suggested they could be better supervised by an agency other than her own, namely the Department of Health and Human Services, but stressed that she still “wanted to make sure students with special education needs had those needs met,” Hassan recalled.
The Secretary of Education continues to insist that special education is her priority. Still, Hassan said she felt cheated. “For them to act the way they did shows me that her testimony was not true,” she said. “Or she didn’t understand the full scope of special education services.”
Staff in a legally ambiguous position. IDEA funding threatened
According to government data, between 7 million and 8 million students receive special education services in public schools. They are eligible for these programs through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the primary federal law that protects the rights of students with disabilities.
IDEA, passed 50 years ago, gives billions of dollars each year to states, which then give them to school districts, which use those funds to pay for special education services.
In Hassan’s son’s case, that funding and its requirements allowed the school to connect him with appropriate resources, specifically an occupational therapist and alternative communication devices. In fifth grade, thanks to these tools, his teacher noticed that he could answer multiple-choice questions by raising his hand. Although he was unable to speak, they finally began to better assess his learning progress.
“These things have allowed him to be a more engaged student and really give him a quality of life that he wouldn’t have had otherwise,” she said.
Most of IDEA’s funding has already been disbursed this year, but nearly everyone responsible for its oversight and management has been laid off, USA TODAY reported. More than 120 employees have been fired from the Department of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services, the Department of Education said in recently filed court documents. If states and schools have trouble defunding needed funds in the coming weeks and months, they will likely turn to officials currently in legal limbo.
The same goes for schools that have questions about the technical aspects of IDEA. This is also often the case for parents who are attempting to file a civil rights lawsuit. Nearly 140 employees of the Office of Civil Rights were also laid off. (Most investigations in that office concern disability-related discrimination.)
“The idea that we’re disrespecting these people is unacceptable,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, R-Vermont, told USA TODAY. Mr. Sanders is the senior member of the Senate Education Committee, on which Mr. Hassan and Mr. Kaine also serve.
Already, most of the laid-off staff are not doing their regular jobs to support schools, as required by the Department of Education’s closure contingency plan. Because of the crisis, they, along with most agency employees, have been furloughed indefinitely until the government reopens.
republican view
Hassan is not the only senator with strong personal ties to special education.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, Republican of Oklahoma, serves with her on the Senate Education Committee. He comes from a generational family of special education teachers, including his mother, sister, and grandmother.
He told USA TODAY he supports the latest Department of Education cuts.
“Special editing isn’t working the way it’s supposed to,” he said. “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.”
Other Republicans have made similar points in recent days. Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Education Committee, emphasized that Republicans want to eliminate bureaucracy from the education system.
“While the Department of Education is shrinking, schools remain unaffected. This is proof that the return of power to the states is working,” he said in a statement. (Schools have reported a variety of issues related to Department of Education staff cuts.)
Wahlberg and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) both placed the blame for the cuts on Democrats, not the White House.
“The answer to everything is to reopen the government as soon as possible,” Hawley told USA TODAY.
But unlike furloughs, which typically release employees from work without pay during a shutdown, layoffs are permanent. The latest firings have come under legal scrutiny and are likely to remain suspended for some time, but the U.S. Supreme Court has so far given Trump broad deference on federal hiring for a second term.
Neither the White House nor the Department of Education has specifically said that reopening the government will prompt a change in thinking about layoffs, even at the Office of Special Education.
“Long-term trends”
The complex political dynamics of the government shutdown have put senators like Hassan, who voted with Republicans in March to keep the government funded, in a difficult position.
The president has vowed to use the shutdown as an opportunity to eliminate programs he doesn’t like, regardless of the pain of Americans who rely on the programs. He promised to “cancel” a long-planned multibillion-dollar commuter rail project in New York’s Lower Hudson River. New York is home to the top two Democratic members of Congress. He has also targeted infrastructure projects in other blue states and cities, including recently San Francisco and Massachusetts.
And while he ordered the Department of Education to implement layoffs, the impact extends beyond special education. They hit programs for homeless students, gifted students, historically black colleges and universities, tribal colleges, and college access services for low-income students.
Despite this pressure campaign, Hassan and other Senate Democrats remain steadfast. They refuse to pass funding legislation unless Republicans take steps to improve health care for Americans. Their main concern is that health insurance subsidies from the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) will increase for millions of people when they expire at the end of this year.
Seemingly out-of-control circumstances led to one of the longest shutdowns in American history. If it continues for three more weeks, it will surpass the record set during President Trump’s first term. So far, there has been no movement on either side, with senators voting against reopening the government by nearly a dozen votes. Bipartisan behind-the-scenes work continues between moderates in both parties, but it’s unclear how far the talks are or whether they will result in a deal with enough support to turn the lights back on.
The week after the special education layoffs were revealed, Hassan stood his ground. She vetoed Republican funding bills three more times.
“No one should accept the government’s excuse that they are somehow doing this because the government is shut down,” she said. “This is part of a long-term trend.”
Zachary Schermele is a Congressional reporter for USA TODAY. You can email us at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and on Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social..
