Trump wants to order the education department to close. Congress can get in the way

Washington (AP) – President Donald Trump is preparing to bow the US education department to the fullest extent of his power and instructs his administration to cut down on spending while pushing employees to stop. Anyway his promise Close the department Collects with another reality: Most of its expenses – and its existence – are ordered by Congress.

An executive order in preparation from the White House seems to recognize the boundaries of the president’s power. The scheduled order would impose on his head of education to begin to settle the agency, but calls on Congress to adopt a measure that abolishes it, according to sources familiar with the plan.

Trump has not yet signed such an order. But at a press conference in the White House on Tuesday, Trump asked the first task for Linda McMahonHis nominees to Education Secretary.

“I want Linda to get out of a job,” Trump said.

Trump fought for a promise to close the department and said it has been infiltrated by “radicals, zealots and Marxists.” In the almost five decades since the agency was established, Conservatives have occasionally made attempts to shut it down, with critics saying it is wasting taxpayers’ money and putting the federal government into local educational decisions.

Trump is expected to give his head of education a deadline to deliver a plan for the agency’s winddown. Still, some of his allies question how far he can go without congress. Some of the department’s most important programs are required by federal legislation, including money I-money for low-income and federal student loans.

It was a source of frustration during Trump’s first period of tenure when his Head of Education repeatedly sought budget cuts, but instead Congress increases the agency’s expenses every year.

In addition, Trump’s quest to close the department may be complicated by his own agenda. Already, he has set up new work for the department, including plans to promote “patriotic” education and efforts to go after schools teaching controversial lessons about race and gender. Agency has also opened new Studies of collegesAfter Trump ordered a crash on campus antisemitism.

What Trump can actually do to cut down on spending could be limited to small fractions of the budget, according to a source of knowledge of the plan. It would hardly dampen the department’s annual budget of $ 79 billion.

The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the plan in public.

Getting support from Congress would give another test of Trump’s turn. Some Republicans have raised doubts about the popularity of closing the department or cutting its programs that support both Republican and Democratic States.

Parliament was considering changing a bill to close the agency in 2023, but 60 Republicans joined Democrats to oppose it. Last week rep. Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, against introduced legislation to close the agency. The proposal for one sentence said the education department “shall end on December 31, 2026.”

Still, there is evidence that Trump is determined to deliver his promise.

Dozens of employees in the education department was Set on paid leave Friday in response to a Executive Order Prohibition of diversity, justice and inclusion efforts in the federal government. Most of the workers do not work in DEI, but had taken an optional diversity course that was promoted by the department, according to a trade union representing the department’s staff. Trump’s order called for Government’s DEI officials to be fired to the “maximum extent allowed by law.”

The White House has also pushed federal workers to quit. Educational department workers were among those who received an offer to leave their jobs per. 6. February and receive a Buyout Worth seven months’ salary.

A fresh wave of anxiety shrouded the agency when a team from Elon Musk’s so -called Department of Government Efficiency showed up at the department’s offices this week. A spokesman for the education department confirmed that a team was on site Monday but did not give details about the nature of its work. Musk’s colleagues have already tried to close US Agency for International Development And to access sensitive payment systems by the Ministry of Finance.

Trump’s comments on his press conference raised alarms among schools and say that relying on federal money. Federal financing is a small part of public school budget-ca. 14%-but it adds targeted support to low-income schools and special education, including subsidies programs.

In Minnesota, Democrats in the State Assembly warned about the potential impact of Trump’s order on Tuesday. Senator Mary Kunesh said she was concerned that the order could interfere with funding and called for more clarity about the plan.

“Imagine if we have billions of dollars frozen at the federal level,” Kunesh said at a press conference. “How should we make sure they have the curriculum they have to learn?”

Some Republicans in Minnesota’s legislature said there was no reason to panic without detailed information about the order.

These details are expected to be sorted by Trump’s Head of Education, and the president did not immediately say if he would seem to maintain the core work of the department.

A potential model can be found in Project 2025, a plan for Trump’s second period created by the Conservative Heritage Foundation. The proposal requires many of the department’s largest programs to be unpacked to other agencies.

According to the project 2025, section in financing, the largest source of federal money for public schools, planned, be moved to the Department of Health and Human Services and given as a block grant to states for them to use as they will without strings attached. The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights would switch to the Ministry of Justice.

Trump has sought distance from Project 2025, though he has hired some of the staff behind it, and on some problems there is considerable overlap with his own platform.

Democrats in Congress were quick to jump on Trump’s level. Senator Edward Markey, D-Mass., A Member of the Committee on Health, Education, Workforce and Pensions, called it a “attack on teachers, families and students.” He promised to fight it.

Trump’s plan could complicate the confirmation hearing for McMahon, a billionaire professional wrestling mogul and long -time Trump Ally. Some advisers had asked the White House to keep the order asking to avoid thorny questions, and others are pressing that it should be signed after her confirmation. No date has been set for her Senate hearing.

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Associated Press writer Steve Karnowski contributed from Minneapolis.

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