Former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) CEO Linda McMahon, tapped by President Donald Trump to head the Department of Education, is facing questions Thursday morning about her views on the agency’s future amid Trump’s quest to shutter it “immediately.”
During the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee’s confirmation hearing, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., first asked McMahon about whether she agrees the DOE would need Congressional approval to close it entirely.
“Certainly, President Trump understands that we’ll be working with Congress,” McMahon responded. “We’d like to do this right. We’d like to make sure that we are presenting a plan that I think our senators could get on board with, and our Congress could get on board with, that would have a better functioning Department of Education, but it certainly does require congressional action.”
INTO THE RING: TRUMP EDUCATION CHIEF PICK MCMAHON TO TESTIFY ON CUTTING ‘RED TAPE’ AMID DOGE SWEEPS
Trump hopes Linda McMahon will ‘put herself out of a job’ if confirmed to lead the Department of Education. (Getty Images)
Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., asked McMahon a similar question after a line of questioning about her support for Pell Grants.
“Let me just once again, get your feelings on this, that if there is a movement to abolish the Department of Education, it has to go through the United States Congress?” Sanders asked.
TRUMP EDUCATION DEPT LAUNCHES PROBE INTO ‘EXPLOSION OF ANTISEMITISM’ AT 5 UNIVERSITIES
President Donald Trump is seen in this March 2019 photo with McMahon, who worked in his first administration on the Small Business Administration. ( REUTERS/Joshua Roberts)
McMahon responded, “Yes, it is set up by the United States Congress, and we work with Congress. It clearly cannot be shut down without it.”
Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, asked McMahon about Maine’s TRIO programs that help first-generation college students from families without higher education experience. Collins questioned how these programs could be maintained if the Department of Education were “abolish[ed]” or “substantially reorganized.”
FORMER TRUMP EDUCATION SECRETARY LAYS OUT ‘UNFINISHED BUSINESS’ FOR NEW ADMIN ON SCHOOL REFORMS
“These various things, especially the trio program, which we both agreed was just hit with a terrible blow just by regulatory action when some of the students who were applying, their applications were rejected simply because of spacing on a form. And that kind of regulatory control just cannot stand. That is just impossible.”
“If I am confirmed to be able to get in and assess programs, how they can have the best oversight possible, how we can really take the bureaucracy out of education,” she said.
McMahon, nominated to head the Education Department, is stepping into a role that Trump has suggested he is seeking to eliminate. Trump recently indicated that if McMahon is confirmed, he wants her to “put herself out of a job.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
President Trump vowed on the campaign trail to eliminate the Dept of Education and bring the power back to the states (Getty Images)
Ahead of McMahon’s confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Trump reiterated his intention to close the department, calling for it to be shut down “immediately.”
“It’s a big con job,” Trump said. “They ranked the top countries in the world. We’re ranked No. 40, but we’re ranked No. 1 in one department: cost per pupil. So, we spend more per pupil than any other country in the world, but we’re ranked No. 40.”