[7] In the winter of 2020–2021, after the election of President Joe Biden but prior to his inauguration in January, the Trump administration carried out several eleventh-hour appointments, including filling the NBES board where vacancies had existed for several years.
[8][9][10][11] In May 2021, two of the new NBES appointees, Steve Hanke and John Yoo, both professors, published a commentary in The Wall Street Journal, arguing that their Board commission documents and those of others had been duly signed and certified during the Trump administration and sent to the office of the Secretary of Education.
Yet, the new Secretary, Miguel Cardona, refused to acknowledge the appointments, deliver the credentials, or facilitate statutorily required Board meetings.
[12] In their Wall Street Journal commentary, the professors asserted that the circumstances mirrored those of the landmark 1803 U.S. Supreme Court case of Marbury v. Madison.
[15][16] On February 10 2025, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a unit within the Trump administration run by Elon Musk, announced plans to cancel most of IES' contracts, amounting to almost $900 million in cuts.