A Senate committee approved Linda McMahon’s nomination to become secretary of the U.S. Department of Education on Thursday, moving her one step closer to confirmation as the Trump administration seeks to dismantle the federal agency.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee met briefly and voted for her appointment along party lines in a 12-11 vote. U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who sits on the HELP Committee, voted no along with all Democrats.
Now that she advanced out of committee, the full Senate will take up her nomination and vote on whether to confirm her as secretary of Education. She will take the helm of the agency at a time when the Trump administration is quickly moving to dramatically downsize the federal government and its workforce.
At the hearing, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an Independent who caucuses with Democrats, noted that he likes McMahon personally but argued that President Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees will ultimately fall in line with what the president wants. He said he believes it is the federal government’s responsibility to ensure that low-income and students with disabilities get a quality education.
“It really doesn’t matter who the secretary of Education is, the secretary of Labor is, because those people will not be calling the shots,” Sanders, who serves as ranking member on the HELP Committee, said at Thursday’s hearing.
“Is it a perfect entity? No. Is it bureaucratic? Yes. Can we reform it? Yes. Should we abolish it? No,” Sanders said of the education department.
Republicans, meanwhile, all rallied behind McMahon and defended the Trump administration’s plans to significantly overhaul the agency that was created during Jimmy Carter’s administration.
U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., pointed to low test scores that have not improved in years.
“God forbid that President Trump comes in and actually wants to make changes,” Mullin said. “If we really say that we’re for the kids, then let’s try something drastic, let’s actually make a change, because we’re doing nothing but going backwards.”
At her confirmation hearing last week, McMahon faced a flurry of questions about what would happen to Title I funding for schools with higher concentrations of low-income students, Pell Grants that provide student aid to attend college and special education programs that fall under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
Lawmakers wanted to know how such programs may change under Trump’s plans to overhaul the Education Department, which has been spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk and his team with the new Department of Government Efficiency. Those efforts have been met with swift backlash and lawsuits, some from Connecticut’s attorney general, arguing that they are unconstitutional.
McMahon, 76, repeatedly acknowledged that the Trump administration does not have the authority to unilaterally shutter a department created under federal statute and that doing so would require congressional approval. She also said defunding certain programs that give a boost to low-income students and families “is not the goal.”
Trump’s imminent executive order to dismantle the Education Department was the primary focus of the hearing as he seeks to make good on a long-running campaign promise. But Congress would need to pass legislation to make that happen. Congress approved a law in 1979 that created the department.
But McMahon testified she will work alongside Congress “to reorient the department” and suggested that certain programs, including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, could instead be housed in other agencies that do not oversee education matters, like the U.S. Health and Human Services department, which will be led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Meanwhile, teachers and schools are scrambling to figure out what recent executive orders will mean for them and if their federal funding could be in jeopardy if they are not in compliance.
While fielding questions about Trump’s latest attempts to gut the agency, McMahon, the World Wrestling Entertainment co-founder who lives in Greenwich, also vowed to focus on more post-secondary pathways like apprenticeships, advocate for school choice, and prevent transgender student athletes from competing in women’s sports. She also said in an exchange with a Republican senator that colleges and universities would “face defunding” if they do not address antisemitism on campuses.
“In many cases, our wounds are caused by the excessive consolidation of power in our federal education establishment. So what’s the remedy? Fund education freedom, not a government-run system. Listen to parents, not politicians. Empower states, not special interests,” McMahon said in her opening statement at last week’s hearing.
“If confirmed as secretary, I will work with Congress to reorient the department to helping educators, not controlling them,” she continued.
During the confirmation hearing, Murphy used his time to press McMahon on Trump’s executive order to end diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and programs. He said the order does not define DEI, noting that schools with federal funding are struggling to determine whether they are in violation with that order.
McMahon said DEI was “put in place ostensibly for more diversity, equity and inclusion” but argued “it’s having an opposite effect.”
Murphy gave her a few examples as to whether schools would be in violation of the DEI executive order and therefore could be subject to losing their funding.
What if a school has programming to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day? “Not in my view that’s not the case,” McMahon said.
Murphy then said his son takes a class in school studying African American history. Would that violate the DEI order? “I’m not quite certain, and I’d like to look into it further,” she said.
“That’s pretty chilling,” Murphy responded.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Murphy voted for McMahon’s confirmation to lead the U.S. Small Business Administration during the first Trump administration in 2017. But ahead of Thursday’s hearing, Murphy confirmed he would be “voting hell no.”
Both Blumenthal and Murphy met separately with McMahon last month before Trump took office. During his Jan. 8 meeting with her, Blumenthal said McMahon’s “apparent adherence” to Trump’s plan to gut the agency “raises serious questions.”
“I’m going to do everything I can as this nomination moves through the committee and speeds to the Senate floor to expose what the real agenda is here,” Murphy said last week.
The story was originally published by the Connecticut Mirror.
The Connecticut Mirror/Connecticut Public Radio federal policy reporter position is made possible, in part, by funding from the Robert and Margaret Patricelli Family Foundation.
