Education Secretary Linda McMahon Allocates $43,000 for Office Furniture Amid Push to Shutter Agency
Education Secretary Linda McMahon has authorized $43,278.64 for new office furniture as part of a workspace relocation, a purchase that coincides with her ongoing efforts to dismantle the federal education agency. According to unpublished Education Department records, congressional notification submitted in September indicated that current furnishings are worn out and incompatible with the new headquarters.
A senior department official confirmed the expenses cover a new desk, conference table, and chairs. The communications department did not respond to requests for an itemized cost breakdown.
The expenditure comes as Ms. McMahon executes a broader plan to move the agency out of its longtime seven-story building in southwest Washington, a concrete-and-glass structure completed in 1961 officially named the Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education Building under a 2007 statute signed by President George W. Bush. The new headquarters will occupy a smaller space one block south in a privately owned building previously housing the U.S. Agency for International Development, which the administration closed last year. The new location will utilize 80 percent less space than the previous facility’s 386,600 usable square feet, managed by the General Services Administration.
Ms. McMahon stated that the relocation will save approximately $5 million in annual operating costs. However, Savannah Newhouse, the Education Department’s press secretary, defended the furniture purchase, stating that new offices require standard equipment. “Believe it or not, just like in the private sector, new federal offices need places to sit, write and meet,” Ms. Newhouse said, adding that the agency is saving taxpayers millions.
The purchase drew swift condemnation from congressional Democrats. Senator Patty Murray of Washington, top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, and Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, top Democrat on the education appropriations subcommittee, sent a letter urging Ms. McMahon to reconsider the expense. The lawmakers criticized the administration over what they termed waste and hypocrisy.
Rachel Gittleman, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, representing over 2,000 current and former workers, also condemned the spending as insulting to civil servants and taxpayers managing two years of organizational upheaval.
Federal law mandates the executive branch operate the department, and Congress has not approved legislation to dissolve it. The Senate education committee has advanced measures to block the transfer of major offices to other agencies. Nonetheless, during her 20 months in office, Ms. McMahon has overseen significant staff reductions, bringing the workforce down to approximately 2,300 employees from about 4,100 at the start of the administration’s second term, leaving roughly 70 percent of the former headquarters vacant.
Functions have been reassigned to the Labor and Justice departments, while the transfer of special education programs to Health and Human Services has drawn protests from disability advocates. Previous administrations faced similar office spending scrutiny, including 2017 plans by housing secretary Ben Carson and 2018 expenses that led to the resignation of EPA administrator Scott Pruitt over a secure phone booth purchase.
Meanwhile, federal planning documents show approximately $13 million will be spent renovating the education department’s new space. Once vacated, the historic 1961 building—listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017—is slated for takeover by the Energy Department. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee estimates project that subsequent renovations for the Energy Department will cost $215 million, following prior multi-million-dollar modernizations during President Trump’s first term.
