WASHINGTON (AP) — The Education Department will relocate from its headquarters to a smaller Washington office as part of the Trump administration’s dismantling of the agency, officials said Thursday.
The agency has seen its ranks thinned by mass layoffs since President Donald Trump took office, and its headquarters building has been 70% vacant, the Education Department said. In its place, the Energy Department will assume the lease in the building.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon hailed it as a milestone in the administration’s efforts to shutter the agency, which Trump ordered to move toward closure a year ago this month.
“Thanks to the hard work of so many, we have made unprecedented progress in reducing the federal education footprint, and now we are pleased to give this building to an agency that will benefit far more from its space than the Department of Education,” McMahon said in a written statement.
The Education Department’s relocation to another office space in Washington is planned for August.
Administration officials said the move would save taxpayers money by eliminating wasted space and avoiding needed maintenance on the Energy Department’s current headquarters building.
The move is the latest in a series of steps the Trump administration has taken to dismantle the Education Department, a campaign promise.
The union representing department workers condemned the move.
“The message the Secretary’s announcement sends to our staff and the American public is clear — education is next on the chopping block,” American Federation of Government Employees Local 252 President Rachel Gittleman said in a statement.
Only Congress has the authority to close the department, but the Trump administration has offloaded many of the Education Department’s programs and functions to other parts of the federal government through so-called “ interagency agreements.”
Still, moving the Education Department out of its headquarters is one of the most “overt actions” McMahon has taken to shut down the agency, said Virginia Rep. Bobby Scott, the top Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee.
“This decision to close the Department’s physical building is not just a symbolic move,” Scott said in a statement. “It reflects a broader effort to reduce the federal government’s role in ensuring people have equal access to a quality education.”
In the most recent effort to break apart the Education Department, the Trump administration last week assigned management of student loans in default to the Treasury Department. Responsibility for the rest of the $1.7 trillion federal student loan portfolio is to go to Treasury at an unspecified date.
Over the last year, programs that oversee a range of education initiatives, including family engagement, funding for low-income schools and teacher training have moved to agencies such as Health and Human Services and the Labor Department.
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