Trump Plan to Spin Off Federal Student Aid Office Draws Outrage Trump is reportedly planning to remove the Federal Student Aid office from the Education Department, raising concerns over $1.6 trillion in debt owed by over 40 million borrowers. President Donald Trump is reportedly planning to remove the Federal Student Aid office from the Department of Education and establish it as a new independent agency managing roughly $1.6 trillion in debt owed by more than 40 million borrowers, according to reporting by The Sun. The proposal has sparked outrage among lawmakers and advocacy groups, who say it threatens financial chaos for students and families across the country. Legal Hurdles and Congressional RequirementLegally spinning off the Federal Student Aid office, which is the largest segment of the Education Department, would require an act of Congress. Administration officials have acknowledged this requirement internally, according to The Sun.Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington and vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, expressed outrage over the reported plan. She noted that the Trump administration has already taken steps that she said amount to intentional sabotage of the federal financial aid system.Murray said in a statement that tens of millions of Americans are depending on government to actually work here. She described the reported move as sabotage that only threatens to create true financial chaos in people's lives.The senator added that every family filling out the FAFSA, every student counting on a Pell Grant, and every borrower trying to make a student loan payment will pay for what she called Trump's idiotic obsession with abolishing the Department of Education. She said Americans do not support abolishing the department and simply want a financial aid system that works, vowing to keep fighting to block the illegal move every way she can.Chaotic Planning and Internal ConcernsThe Sun's reporting marks the latest evidence that the Trump administration is working to follow through on the president's campaign promise to abolish the Department of Education, which is currently led by billionaire Linda McMahon.According to the Sun, Education Department officials are privately concerned that the Trump administration is rushing the Federal Student Aid spinoff without considering the consequences to families and colleges around the country.Senior leaders at the department have told staff that student financial aid can be managed more effectively as an independent agency. However, current and former officials said the department is taking a chaotic approach that is setting it up for failure.Details of the latest potential offloading remain scant, said one official involved in the planning. The unnamed official told the outlet that the office does not know how to be independent because it depends on the Education Department for many of its functions.Mike Pierce, executive director of the advocacy group Protect Borrowers, said in a statement Thursday that the secret plan to eject FSA from the Education Department shows, yet again, that McMahon and Trump care more about pandering to their anti-government base than keeping their promise to tens of millions of Americans who cannot keep up with their bills.Political Fallout and Advocacy PushbackRandi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, also criticized the reported plan. She said her union has fought McMahon to force her to follow the law and respect borrowers' rights to lower student loan payments.Weingarten said the reorganization will not solve the issue and will only make things worse. She added that as voters head to the polls, they should remember that Trump and McMahon pretending to shrink the Department of Education while in practice throttling its core functions in reams of red tape is not doing anything to shrink working families' bills.The reported plan comes amid broader concerns about rising costs, including what critics describe as out-of-control student loan payments that they attribute to President Trump's policies.The Department of Education has not publicly released details of the potential spinoff, and it remains unclear how the administration intends to proceed given the congressional requirement.Lawmakers and advocates have vowed to continue opposing the move, arguing that the federal student aid system should remain within the Education Department to ensure stability and accountability for the millions of borrowers who rely on it.