Thirty-four Senate Democrats chastised President Trump's education secretary in a letter on Tuesday, accusing Betsy DeVos of diminishing enforcement of civil rights laws for students in publicly funded schools — underscoring their long-simmering concerns that DeVos would not protect people of color, LGBT people, and other minority students from unfair treatment.

"You claim to support civil rights and oppose discrimination, but your actions belie your assurances," said the 34 lawmakers, led by Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state. They said recent actions by DeVos had made them "extraordinarily disappointed and alarmed."

In a budget proposal last month, DeVos's department said it wants to cut the equivalent of 46 full-time positions at the Office for Civil Rights, which investigates sex, race, disability, and age-based civil rights complaints.

Furthermore, under DeVos's leadership the agency has rescinded protections for transgender students to use facilities that match their gender identity, lightened some civil rights investigations in the name of efficiency, reduced oversight of regional offices, and invited an anti-LGBT group, the Family Research Council, to participate in a department-sponsored event. Read more via Buzzfeed