Secretary McMahon Is Once Again Asked to Detail President Trump’s Education Budget and Agenda

Overview
This morning at 10:15 AM ET, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon is scheduled to testify before the House Education & Workforce Committee at a hearing entitled ” Examining the Policies and Priorities of the Department of Education.”

The hearing is intended to focus on President Trump’s Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request and the Administration’s Education Agenda – which has already met with considerable scrutiny and

Based upon prior testimony and media speculation, it is anticipated that Secretary McMahon will defend plans to cut 2.9% of the department’s discretionary funding, prioritize school choice, and continue to outline steps being taken to at a minimum diffuse the roles and responsibilities of the Department of Education and other agencies whenever possible and return authority to states.

She will also likely discuss and respond to questions on key higher education policy issues such as
* Dismantling the Department: “We’re not ending federal support for education. We are ending federal micromanagement and paving the way for education renewal,”.
* Budget Cuts & Priorities: The proposed budget cuts to programs like TRIO and Gear Up represent “smart spending” that reduces bureaucracy, focusing on “restoring the right priorities in higher education” and strengthening school choice.
* Accountability & Local Control: She will likely emphasize the need to “fix the broken higher education industry” by linking federal support to “degrees that pay off” and focusing on student performance over federal overreach.
* Student Loans: She will outline efforts to correct “unprecedented confusion” in the student loan system and return integrity to federal student aid.

A new line of questioning is also likely to be the recent announcement that the Department is hiring staff following the prior layoffs of half of the Department’s employees and what appears to be in direct contradiction to eliminating the Department.

CSPEN will be watching the hearing right up until the start of our Board meeting and will catch up on the rest this weekend in preparation for our CSPEN Federal Legislative & Regulatory Update webinar next Monday.