(The Center Square) — The White House announced it will introduce a new rescissions package that will bring cuts to education funding.
The proposal comes after the Trump administration gave the Department of Education the green light to take steps to dismantle itself.
It is unclear what the rescissions package will cut from education funds.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair told reporters in Washington, D.C., that this next package can be expected in the coming weeks.
“We’ve got a number of items we’re looking at also, obviously talking to the senators too,” Blair said. “They’re going through the appropriations process. We don’t know what’s important to them, but you know, you’ll obviously see that very soon.”
Trump’s first rescissions package, passed by Congress, cut $9.4 billion in federal funding to public media companies NPR and PBS.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said Wednesday she and the Education and Workforce Committee chairman, U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Michigan, discussed plans to work with Congress to use smaller bills to move different department programs to other government agencies. The goal is to further the effort of dismantling the Education Department.
“Rather than trying to combine all of education going back to the states in one large, all-encompassing bill,” McMahon told the Daily Signal, “I was talking to him about, did he think there would be a greater appetite to develop programs and prove that they work?”
McMahon believes that is the best step in ending the department, while making sure certain programs continue.
Education Committee member U.S. Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah, said he supports either path in dismantling the department.
“Whether it’s done through one big bill or a series of smaller ones, the goal is the same: Return education to parents, local leaders and state authorities — where it belongs,” Owens said.
The secretary of education said the Trump administration’s goal has been to get rid of the red tape so more funding that is appropriated by Congress can go to the states.
“I think that is one of the most important things that we can do as we wind down the bureaucracy in Washington,” McMahon said. “We’re not winding down education, we are lifting education. But we have to cut out the bureaucracy and the red tape and all the costs that go along with that.”
