--- title: Betsy DeVos: Senators Slam Education Civil Rights Cuts description: Senate Democrats slammed Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Tuesday, raising concerns about her enforcement of civil rights policies canonical: https://time.com/4835920/betsy-devos-education-senate-democrats-civil-rights/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-27T22:17:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:20:50.866Z article:section: Politics og:title: Senate Democrats Attack Betsy DeVos on Civil Rights Enforcement og:description: "We are extraordinarily disappointed and alarmed by recent actions" og:url: https://time.com/4835920/betsy-devos-education-senate-democrats-civil-rights/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt892dbc7ccc21929c/6988d39ccf40a86a1bc4852f/betsy-devos-civil-rights-senate-democrats.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos Testifies To Senate Hearing On Budget Of Department og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Senate Democrats Attack Betsy DeVos on Civil Rights Enforcement twitter:description: "We are extraordinarily disappointed and alarmed by recent actions" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt892dbc7ccc21929c/6988d39ccf40a86a1bc4852f/betsy-devos-civil-rights-senate-democrats.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'Extraordinarily Disappointed and Alarmed:' Senate Democrats Attack Betsy DeVos on Civil Rights Enforcement > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=d0451be5-3ad2-4089-8f63-41c5942cb3b1&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1)  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jun 27, 2017 10:17 PM UTC  Education Secretary Betsy DeVos testifies before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Capitol Hill on June 6, 2017 in Washington, D.C. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos testifies before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Capitol Hill on June 6, 2017 in Washington, D.C. Win McNamee/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jun 27, 2017 10:17 PM UTC Senate Democrats said they were “alarmed” about [Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’](http://time.com/4832923/betsy-devos-trump-administration-school-choice-vouchers/) enforcement of civil rights laws aimed at protecting students in a [letter](https://www.help.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/062717%20-%20Betsy%20DeVos%20ED%20Office%20of%20Civil%20Rights%20%28OCR%29.pdf) on Tuesday. “We are extraordinarily disappointed and alarmed by recent actions you and your staff have taken that have diminished the U.S. Department of Education’s…enforcement of federal civil rights laws,” Senators wrote in the letter, adding that recent actions by the department had “reemphasized longstanding concerns about your dedication to the idea that all students, no matter their race, religion, disability, country of origin, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity, have a right to receive an education free from discrimination.” The letter was signed by 34 Democratic Senators, led by Washington Sen. Patty Murray, ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee. The Senators cited [proposed cuts](https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/06/06/advocates-warn-cuts-office-civil-rights-would-further-slow-resolution-title-ix-cases) to the budget of the Office for Civil Rights, as well as DeVos’ [testimony](http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/06/07/531783226/asked-about-discrimination-betsy-devos-said-this-14-times) about the federal government’s role in prohibiting discrimination and her [defense](http://time.com/4680861/betsy-devos-transgender-students-overreach/) of the [Trump Administration’s decision](http://time.com/4679063/donald-trump-transgender-bathroom/?xid=homepage) to rescind guidelines that allowed transgender students to use bathrooms aligned with their gender identities. “You claim to support civil rights and oppose discrimination, but your actions belie your assurances,” Senators wrote in the letter. They gave DeVos a deadline of July 11 to provide a list of all open Office for Civil Rights cases involving a transgender student, open cases involving sexual assault or sexual harassment, and cases that have been closed or dismissed since Jan. 1. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4835920/betsy-devos-education-senate-democrats-civil-rights/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4835920/betsy-devos-education-senate-democrats-civil-rights/"},"headline":"'Extraordinarily Disappointed and Alarmed:' Senate Democrats Attack Betsy DeVos on Civil Rights Enforcement","datePublished":"2017-06-27T22:17:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:20:50.866Z","description":"\"You claim to support civil rights and oppose discrimination, but your actions belie your assurances\"","url":"https://time.com/4835920/betsy-devos-education-senate-democrats-civil-rights/","keywords":["Education","Congress","College","onetime","Betsy DeVos"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt892dbc7ccc21929c/6988d39ccf40a86a1bc4852f/betsy-devos-civil-rights-senate-democrats.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt892dbc7ccc21929c/6988d39ccf40a86a1bc4852f/betsy-devos-civil-rights-senate-democrats.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Education Secretary Betsy DeVos Testifies To Senate Hearing On Budget Of Department","caption":"Education Secretary Betsy DeVos Testifies To Senate Hearing On Budget Of Department","creditText":"Win McNamee/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/education/","name":"Education"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4835920/betsy-devos-education-senate-democrats-civil-rights/","name":"'Extraordinarily Disappointed and Alarmed:' Senate Democrats Attack Betsy DeVos on Civil Rights Enforcement"}}]}] ```