Education Secretary Linda McMahon says she has spoken with several members of Congress about codifying the dismantling of the Department of Education.
Following the Education Department’s announcement on Tuesday that it would be transferring six grant programs to other federal agencies in an effort to downsize severely, McMahon joined White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt for Thursday’s briefing.
McMahon told a Daily Signal reporter that she has been talking to “dozens” of members of Congress about making the changes last beyond the Trump administration.
“I’ve talked to dozens of members of Congress to explain to them exactly what we’re doing, to bring them up to speed and to say to them, look, when we have completed some of these transfers, that are working incredibly well, then we will be looking to Congress to codify those, make them permanent,” McMahon said.
Since the start of her tenure in President Donald Trump’s second term, McMahon has campaigned on being the last secretary of education, taking steps to downsize the department throughout her first year.
As the October government shutdown affected people’s SNAP benefits and air travel, McMahon argued that the furlough of nearly the entire Education Department had no tangible effect on the nation’s public schools. After the government reopened, her first big move was to slash more of the agency.
The six interagency agreements involved the Department of Labor, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the State Department. The agreements offloaded programs involving on-campus child care, international education, and K-12 education from the Education Department to these various agencies.
McMahon emphasized Thursday that her department would work with Congress to codify the reforms.
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT ANNOUNCES SIGNIFICANT DOWNSIZING WITH SIX INTERAGENCY AGREEMENTS
“There have been some reports that Congress is in the dark on this. It’s clearly not true,” McMahon said.
These moves are an effort to drastically scale back the department, as the administration would need congressional approval to dismantle the Education Department fully.
