McMahon said the relocation would save taxpayers $4.8 million a year
The Trump administration has said its education cuts are saving “millions of dollars.” The New York Times reported that Education Secretary Linda McMahon is planning to furnish her office at the Education Department with new furniture — a desk, conference table, chairs and other items — expected to cost $43,278.64, according to an unnamed senior official who briefed the newspaper.
McMahon’s office told Congress that the secretary’s current furniture was worn out and “cannot be configurationally or aesthetically integrated into the agency’s new office space,” according to non-public records seen by the New York Times.
The purchase comes as the department changes offices. In March, McMahon announced that the Education Department would relocate from its headquarters in the Lyndon B Johnson building to a smaller building in downtown Washington DC. That building housed the US Agency for International Development before the Trump administration closed it down.
McMahon said the relocation would save taxpayers $4.8 million annually.
Education Department press secretary Savannah Newhouse said in a statement that the administration was “saving taxpayers millions of dollars” through its education cuts. She added: “Believe it or not, just like in the private sector, new federal offices need places to sit, write, and meet.”
McMahon is reportedly planning to furnish the new office even as her broader aim is to diminish the department’s staffing and remove the responsibilities it oversees, in effect shuttering the agency.
Congress created the department, and only Congress can dissolve it. The Republican-controlled chambers have not moved to do so, even as the administration works to reduce the department’s authority.
Shortly after returning to office in 2025, Donald Trump signed an executive order directing McMahon — a former executive at World Wrestling Entertainment turned cabinet member — to close the Department of Education.
The administration has instead reduced the department’s reach through steps short of statutory closure. It has nearly halved the department’s staffing through workforce reductions and moved department-specific responsibilities to other agencies through “interagency agreements.”
Among those transfers, special education services have moved to the Department of Health and Human Services, and civil rights enforcement efforts have moved to the Justice Department.
Trump and McMahon have said that effectively shuttering the department would give states more authority over education, though states already control most of their education policies, and would eliminate unnecessary bureaucratic processes.