Sam's Newsletter - March 24, 2025
Hello Friends,
As you know, President Trump issued an Executive Order last week focused on dismantling the Department of Education. This isn’t news to many of us; the Administration already terminated the positions of about half of the Department’s 4,133 employees several weeks ago.
If Trump seeks to save taxpayer money through this action, merely eliminating an agency won’t save much money by itself. Federal employee costs comprise less than 1% of the Department of Education’s budget. The Department’s spending overwhelmingly consists of basic support for schools and students, primarily through funding three large programs: schools and school districts serving children from low-income families (aka “Title I”), special education for more than 7 million of our students with disabilities (aka “IDEA Act”), and grants that help millions of deserving students achieve their dream of attending college (primarily Pell grants). The department also administers $1.6 trillion in student loans – a loan portfolio larger than Wells Fargo Bank, which has 217,000 employees.
While we should always be vigilant about eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse, firing all of the Department of Education's remaining employees leaves many programs without anyone to implement them and saves very little money.
Presumably, Trump and DOGE's Elon Musk will actually reduce spending on these and other education programs to save money. Indeed, the budget resolution passed by the House Republican majority last month would cut this essential educational funding by about $33 billion annually.
Assuming that some of these programs survive the budgetary axe, the question remains: what agency will assume the responsibility to implement them without an Education Department? It’s apparent that the Administration is still sorting that out. For example, only hours after a White House spokeswoman announced that “core functions”–such as managing the $1.6 trillion student debt portfolio – would be retained within the soon-to-be-defunct Education Department, President Trump announced that those would be re-assigned elsewhere. The Treasury Department reportedly indicated–wisely–that it didn’t want the responsibility, and so he suggested that the Small Business Administration would take on loan administration. There’s one challenge, however: Trump's policies recently slashed 43% of the SBA’s employees, firing 2,700 workers. This is emblematic of the shoot-first, aim-later approach we’ve seen from this Administration for the last 10 weeks.
My Rapid Response Taskforce & Litigation Working Group and I are actively seeking ways to challenge this latest “executive disorder” in partnership with national legal organizations. Recently, we launched a website to communicate how we’re legislating and litigating to counter Trump and Musk’s policies—visit the site here.
This latest chaos comes a week after a vote on a stopgap funding bill, which passed over my vocal opposition.
The bill that the Republican majority passed comprised merely what’s known as a “stopgap” because the Republican majority could not muster the votes in their caucus to pass a full budget. As we consider the more controversial cuts proposed in their full budget, you’ve undoubtedly read about numerous cuts planned for various federal programs.
Protecting Healthcare
Though we’ve passed a bill to keep the government running, Trump’s larger budget plan still needs to be set in motion through reconciliation. Put plainly: we can stop Trump’s plan to strip healthcare from more than 130,000 of our neighbors, but it will require pressure on the Congressional Republican majority, which faces a very unpopular decision to cut healthcare for 71 million Americans.
On Tuesday, I rallied my colleagues in Santa Clara County to share how these cuts could impact our community. I was joined by Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, County Executive James Williams, Board of Supervisors President Otto Lee, Riko Mendez from SEIU521, Dr. Patricia Salmon, and most importantly, Joann. Joann, the beautiful 11-month-old daughter of Hoang Trang, came to speak on behalf of his baby’s continued access to Medicare. You can watch our entire press conference here.
Even if you are not one of the 15 million Californians—about 1 in 3—who rely on healthcare programs like Medicaid and Medicare, these proposed cuts will not leave you unscathed. We will all see longer patient wait times, more strain on hospitals, and more lives at risk. We’ve got to keep the pressure on congressional Republicans and this administration—I will keep beating the drum for you.
Photo Finish
Peninsula Volunteers Inc. has served our community for over half a century. This week, I joined them to deliver meals to low-income seniors. I met the many wonderful people who keep the program thriving at the Meals on Wheels Community Breakfast in Menlo Park. Afterward, I delivered a meal to Paul, and in return, he gave me some advice.
Sam's Reading Corner
- Earlier this month, I discussed affordable housing and workforce development with San Jose Community College students. I appreciate The City College Times for highlighting our conversation this week.
- We’ve all read much about reports of vandalism at Tesla dealerships. Let me be clear: I condemn vandalism in any form. Vandals should be arrested and prosecuted. There has been an impressive level of outrage over these attacks from the Administration and media. Unfortunately, we’ve seen much less concern from the same corners about Elon Musk’s unprecedented attacks on our Constitution–as evidenced by the four dozen judges–both Republican and Democratic appointees–who have issued injunctions halting DOGE and Trump administration actions so far.
- Attention high school artists: the 2025 Congressional Art Competition is LIVE! Visit my website for more information.