Senate confirms Linda McMahon as Education secretary amid Trump vow to close department – CNN
Linda McMahon, a major Republican donor and a former pro-wrestling executive, was confirmed Monday to serve as President Donald Trump’s secretary of the Department of Education.
Trump has made eliminating the department a top goal of his administration and has said he hopes McMahon will “put herself out of a job” by spearheading the department’s reduction or elimination.
The Senate voted 51-45 to confirm her to the role – the president’s 22nd nominee to be confirmed by the chamber since his inauguration.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune praised McMahon shortly before the vote, saying, “I look forward to working with Linda McMahon to limit bureaucracy, empower state and local governments and let good teachers do what they’re best at and what they love to do, and that’s to help students succeed.”
McMahon – board chair of the America First Policy Institute, a pro-Trump think tank that was formed in 2021 by McMahon, Larry Kudlow and other advisers from the first Trump administration – served as the administrator of the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term. She was appointed in 2017 and resigned in 2019 to become the chair of America First Action, a pro-Trump super PAC.
While McMahon could be tasked with overseeing the department’s demise following Trump’s repeated calls for abolishing the agency, it would be difficult to get rid of the entire department, as shutting it down would require an act of Congress. The department delivers federal funding to nearly every public K-12 school in the country and manages the $1.6 trillion federal student loan portfolio.
The department has been a target of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, as CNN has reported, but previous moves to scuttle the department have failed to gain support on Capitol Hill.
The Department of Education offered buyouts of up to $25,000 to certain employees, giving them until 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday to accept the offer, according to an email sent to the agency’s workers on Friday that was obtained by CNN.
The email from the department’s chief human capital officer said the offer, first reported on by Politico, was being made “in advance of a very significant” reduction in the department’s headcount. Eligible employees must have been employed by the government for a continuous period of at least three years.
It is not clear what target reduction in headcount the Education Department is seeking with this offer. A spokesperson for the department confirmed the email’s authenticity but did not answer further questions.
CNN’s Sunlen Serfaty, Michael Williams, Kristen Holmes and Kaitlan Collins contributed to this report.
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