Senate confirms Linda McMahon as Trump education secretary – Washington Examiner
The Senate has confirmed Linda McMahon, President Donald Trump’s nominee, as the new Secretary of Education, with a party-line vote of 51-45. McMahon,a former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment,expressed her strong support for Trump’s agenda too abolish the Education Department,viewing it as bureaucratic overreach. She stated that she intends to carry out the president’s vision of returning education responsibilities to the states. During her confirmation hearing, she refrained from committing to funding specific programs and was noncommittal about the implications for federal funding based on certain cultural or identity issues. Despite acknowledging that closing the department would require Congressional approval, her testimony reflected a commitment to implementing Trump’s educational policies. The confirmation comes amidst ongoing changes within the department, including critically important budget cuts to educational research contracts.
Senate confirms Linda McMahon as Trump education secretary
Linda McMahon, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Education Department, was confirmed by the Senate in a vote that fell along party lines.
The upper chamber voted 51-45, with several absences, to confirm McMahon to run the department tasked with overseeing the country’s education system. Her nomination advanced out of the Senate HELP committee with a vote of 12-11
During her hearing, McMahon said she “wholeheartedly” agrees with Trump’s plans to abolish the federal agency.
“I’d like it to be closed immediately,” Trump said the day before McMahon’s confirmation hearing. “The Department of Education’s a big con job.”
“President Trump believes that the bureaucracy in Washington should be abolished so that we can return education to the states, where it belongs,” McMahon wrote to senators after the hearing. “I wholeheartedly support and agree with this mission.”
LINDA MCMAHON FIGHTS TO LEAD DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AS TRUMP VOWS TO DISMANTLE AGENCY
McMahon also refused to go into specifics or commit to funding a variety of programs at the agency in her written responses. During her hearing, she refused to answer questions about whether schools would lose federal funding if they hosted events that focused on certain identities or cultural affiliations that went against Trump’s executive orders.
While conceding that closing the agency would require congressional approval, McMahon, a former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO, made it clear during her testimony that she intends to carry out the president’s vision if confirmed by the Senate.
“I would also like to thank President Trump for his confidence in me to lead a department whose mission and authority were a special purpose of his campaign. He pledged to make American education the best in the world, return education to the states where it belongs,” McMahon said during her testimony. “November proved that Americans overwhelmingly support the president’s vision, and I am ready to enact it.”
During her confirmation hearing, McMahon said Congress would continue to appropriate funds for education programs. However, she stopped short of committing that it would be the Education Department that would administer the federal funds according to her written responses.
Even without an order to close the department, the Trump administration has been overhauling many aspects of its work. The Department of Government Efficiency moved to eliminate nearly $1 billion in research contracts that have provided data sources on American schooling.
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