President Donald Trump’s promise to shrink the bloated federal bureaucracy is taking another step forward with the physical downsizing of the Department of Education.
The department said Thursday it would move out of its headquarters in downtown Washington, D.C., according to The Washington Post.
The Lyndon B. Johnson Building will be abandoned, with the space being given to the Energy Department.
“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,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement.
The Education Department, formally created by Congress in 1979, cannot be closed without congressional approval. Although the department cannot be abolished, the Trump administration has radically downsized it.
The department’s workforce has been roughly cut in half since Trump took office.
“Once again, the Trump administration is taking a strong step to reduce bureaucratic bloat and act as a responsible steward of taxpayer dollars,” House Education Committee Chairman Tim Walberg said, per Politico.
“President Trump and Secretary McMahon have been committed to right-sizing the Department so our education system serves students, not bureaucrats,” the Michigan Republican added.
The department said Thursday that the building it is leaving was 70 percent vacant.
Moving out to another D.C. office will save $4.8 million per year and is expected to be completed by August.
The Energy Department’s James V. Forrestal Building is outdated, meaning that shifting it to the Lyndon B. Johnson Building will reduce costs, the administration said.
“One year ago, President Trump signed one of the most consequential executive orders of his presidency — to break up the federal education bureaucracy and return education to the states,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said, according to an Education Department news release.
“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,” she continued.
“This is an important step in our efforts to forge brighter futures for our nation’s students, honor the taxpayers who invest in their promise, and support the civil servants who keep this vital work moving forward,” she said.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright meanwhile said that “relocating to the LBJ building will deliver significant taxpayer savings and will ensure the Energy Department continues to deliver on its mission.”
A fact sheet noted that “the Trump Administration has secured the largest national education freedom expansion in history, empowered state education leaders with the flexibility to innovate, and broken up the education bureaucracy by partnering with agencies better positioned to manage critical programs.”
“The Trump Administration has successfully decreased the scope of the federal education bureaucracy, so much that the headquarters building is no longer needed,” the fact sheet said.
The fact sheet estimated the Department of Energy will save $350 million in the move.
It also noted that the Department of Education “has spent more than $3 trillion on the federal education bureaucracy since 1980 — with dismal results.”
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