Trump’s Final Cabinet Nominee Gets Huge News In The Senate

One of President Donald Trump’s final three cabinet nominees received a major boost on Friday as U.S. Senate Republicans voted on a procedural motion to advance her nomination to the floor next week.

Linda McMahon, the president’s selection to head up the U.S. Department of Education, saw her nomination advance on a 51-47 vote that sets her up for confirmation considerations on Monday. The party-line vote saw no Democrat join all Republicans in voting for her.

The former WWE CEO was grilled earlier this month by members of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, who questioned her about President Trump’s proposal to dismantle the DOE entirely.

“I would like to thank President Trump for his confidence in me to lead a department whose mission and authority were a special focus of his campaign,” McMahon told the committee, CBS reported at the time. “He pledged to make American education the best in the world, return education to the states where it belongs, and free American students from the education bureaucracy through school choice.”

Challenged by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) about Trump’s desire to close the department, McMahon insisted she could not do so without congressional approval.

“It is set up by the United States Congress, and we work with Congress,” she said. “It clearly cannot be shut down without it.”

McMahon’s collegiality did not sway Senate Democrats from warning about the dangers of putting her in charge of a department with a $50 billion annual budget that services children with disabilities, sets policy, administers funds, and enforces laws related to education.

On Thursday the Trump administration launched a new portal on the DOE website encouraging Americans to file discrimination complaints on the basis of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The “end DEI” website is supported by parents rights activists like Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice, a supporter of McMahon’s nomination.

“For years, parents have been begging schools to focus on teaching their kids practical skills like reading, writing, and math instead of pushing critical theory, rogue sex education, and divisive ideologies,” Justice said, “but their concerns have been brushed off, mocked, or shut down entirely. Parents, now is the time that you share the receipts of the betrayal that has happened in our public schools.”

McMahon is one of several cabinet nominees with political experience to draw from. She ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 2010 in her home state of Connecticut.

In her committee hearing, McMahon underscored that Congress has the power to continue appropriating funds for school districts across the nation but stopped short of guaranteeing that she would continue to foist federal guidance onto schools.

Democratic senators, seeking to extract commitments for historically black colleges and universities and civil rights enforcement, submitted a list of 30 questions to McMahon that she answered before Thursday’s vote, according to Politico.

She answered diplomatically, “I commit to review all statutes, regulations, and student outcomes and to work with Congress to determine the best way to ensure that HBCUs continue to receive funds appropriated by Congress.”