Ranking committee member Bernie Sanders voted against Linda McMahon’s nomination, saying he would oppose any Trump nominee.
A Senate panel has advanced the nomination of Linda McMahon for education secretary to the Senate floor, bringing her one step closer to confirmation as the Trump administration weighs overhauling or even dismantling the department.
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions voted 12–11 on Feb. 20 to advance her nomination to the full Senate. The final vote date wasn’t announced.
McMahon, 76, served as administrator of the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first administration. She is a member of the Sacred Heart University Board of Trustees and previously served on the Connecticut State Board of Education.
McMahon and her husband, Vince McMahon, founded World Wrestling Entertainment.
The committee’s chairman, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), voted in favor of the nomination, saying McMahon will bring much-needed change to K–12 schools and higher education following a period of decline.
“For the last four years, the Department of Education has focused on everything but learning,” he said.
Ranking member Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) voted no, saying McMahon failed to outline a plan to benefit 26 million low-income students and protect special education funding. He also criticized Trump’s proposed education cuts and said he could not endorse any nominee who goes along with the president’s plan.
“It doesn’t matter who the secretary will be because he or she doesn’t have the power,” Sanders said.
During her confirmation hearing last week before the same committee, McMahon said she supports universal school choice and strengthening career and technical education. She pledged to enforce Trump’s executive orders banning diversity, equity, and inclusion; critical race theory; and transgender ideology in K–12 and higher education.
McMahon previously stated that only Congress can eliminate the Department of Education, although some of its functions could be moved to other agencies to save taxpayers billions of dollars. She said student loans, Pell Grants, and federal funding for low-income schools and special education would remain intact.
Despite McMahon’s assurances, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said he voted no as a message to preserve the Department of Education in its current form.
“I can’t vote for someone who would engage in the destruction of the very agency she wants to lead,” he said.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), who voted yes, said the United States had the top public education system in the world when the agency was formed in 1979 but that it has since dropped to No. 34. He said that several members of his immediate and extended family have worked as teachers or principals in the public schools and that all of them agree that the system is failing.
“I don’t know how, with a straight face, you can say it’s working,” he said.