Linda McMahon, President Trump’s pick for Education secretary, passed the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee on Thursday morning, sending her confirmation to the full Senate.
The HELP panel voted 12-11 along party lines to approve McMahon and send her nomination to its final hurdle.
She is almost certain to be confirmed, as no Republicans have made any public objections to her nomination, and more controversial Trump picks who originally drew pushback have gone on to clear the upper chamber.
In a largely civil confirmation hearing a week ago, McMahon did not shy away from her belief that the Education Department should be shut down but pledged the Trump administration is not looking to cut funding from schools appropriated by Congress. She and other Republicans have said the department’s critical functions should be moved to other federal agencies.
“Why do you think that a department that is focused and that really is dealing with children, whether it’s civil rights, disabilities … why do you think that it is better to stick the functions of dealing with children with disabilities in a huge department that will not have the same priority?” Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) asked shortly after McMahon said she could see programs for students with disabilities going back to the Department of Health and Human Services.
“The bottom line is, because it’s not working,” McMahon responded. “The Department of Education was set up in 1980, and since that time we have spent almost a trillion dollars and we have watched our performance scores continue to go down.”
If confirmed, McMahon will be leading an agency that has already cut more than a billion dollars of funding and has put dozens of employees on administrative leave since Trump took office.
