Education Secretary Linda McMahon announces plans for department’s ‘final’ mission
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(WASHINGTON) — Education Secretary Linda McMahon has released what she calls the “final mission” for the Department of Education, as the Trump administration appears to be laying the groundwork for the agency’s dismantling.
The newly confirmed secretary’s plans for the coming months will result in what she calls a “historic overhaul” of the education department that “will profoundly impact staff, budgets, and agency operations here at the Department.”
In a brief list of goals guiding the department’s path forward that was posted to the Education Department’s website on Monday, McMahon, the former head of the Small Business Administration and Trump donor, stated, “Parents are the primary decision makers in their children’s education.”
She adds, “Taxpayer-funded education should refocus on meaningful learning in math, reading, science, and history—not divisive DEI programs and gender ideology.”
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, according to DEI experts, are intended to address and correct discriminatory policies or practices that may be found within an organization.
“Postsecondary education should be a path to a well-paying career aligned with workforce need,” McMahon adds in the list of goals.
Parental rights and “divisive” topics have been hot button issues on the state-level for years, quickly making their way to the national stage – with heated debate taking place in recent years over school voucher programs, content restrictions, book bans, and more.
McMahon’s plans follow President Donald Trump’s campaign proposals for education reform. One of these proposals — an expansion of school voucher programs — has been a key education talking point for the Trump administration, touted as an opportunity for parents to have more of a say in where their child goes to school.
School voucher programs allow families to use public school funds to pay for private school tuition, homeschooling, and similar education opportunities.
McMahon also echoed the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict the discussion of certain topics – like race, sex, gender and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) – in the K-12 classrooms as well as in higher education.
Trump signed an executive order in January that aims to find ways to cut federal funding to schools that teach certain topics related to race, sex, gender or politics.
Restricting DEI topics in schools has also been a cause championed by “parental rights” advocates who have been behind a wave of book banning attempts as well as pressures on certain curriculum requirements at the local and state level.
The department memo comes as sources tell ABC News the president is expected to sign an executive order as soon as this week calling for McMahon to diminish the education department and work with Congress to pass legislation that would eliminate it.
The Department of Education, which administers and coordinates federal education assistance including Title I and Pell grants, was established under President Jimmy Carter in 1979 and officially began operations in 1980. The department has long stated that education curriculum, as well as graduation and enrollment requirements, have been decided by states and local communities.
Trump’s “Agenda47” campaign proposed eliminating the department. “We are going to close the Department of Education in Washington, D.C. and send it back to the States, where it belongs, and let the States run our educational system as it should be run,” the proposal said.
The agency can only be dismantled by an act of Congress, but how the department is funded and its policy goals are much more within Trump’s immediate scope of executive powers.
In the memo, McMahon stated that under her oversight, “the Department of Education’s role in this new era of accountability is to restore the rightful role of state oversight in education and to end the overreach from Washington.”
ABC News has reached out to the Department of Education for further comment.
ABC News’ Arthur Jones II has contributed to this report.
Republican Rep. Mike Turner on Sunday refuted claims that the massive overhaul of the federal government by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) constitutes a federal crisis.
“Elon Musk goes about his job, which is a very important job, I mean the fact that we have Elon Musk looking from the private sector into the public sector, advising the president in ways that we can find ways to to reduce overall spending, to get this curve down is incredibly important and an unbelievable opportunity for for our government,” Turner said in an exclusive interview with co-anchor Martha Raddatz on “This Week.”
President Donald Trump tasked Musk with cutting federal spending through DOGE. Since Trump took office, Musk’s controversial task force has encouraged federal workers to leave their jobs and slashed many programs and agencies.
“In this instance, we have Elon Musk and the president of the United States going over to the bureaucracy and saying, ‘We’re going to tame you. We’re going to pull you back under the executive branch. We’re going to look at ways in which we can find savings, and we’re going to bring this spending curve down,'” Turner said.
Turner said that DOGE’s drastic cuts to the federal government will assist in meeting spending goals. The federal government is currently operating under a continuing resolution that was negotiated in December. The resolution is set to expire in March and without a new deal, the government will shut down.
Turner said: “This administration is taking an immediate assessment of where are we spending our funds and where do we need to spend them? And in order to do so, they need to take a stop, they need to take a critical view and let the American public know that their monies are being spent around the world, and they need to determine how they need to be spent in the way that advances U.S. interests and do so in a way that we can balance the budget.”
DOGE’s purge of the federal government resulted in the shuttering of the U.S. Agency for International Development. The Trump administration placed all USAID direct-hire employees on administrative leave effective Friday, but a federal judge late Friday blocked the move and reinstated some 500 USAID workers who had already been put on administrative leave and ordered that no USAID employees should be evacuated from their host countries before Feb. 14 at 11:59 p.m.
Turner said federal agencies needed fiscal and policy reviews.
“We’ve had USAID that has been separate from, really, the ambassador structure and our embassy structure. Commerce has been separate. DOD has been separate. You know, taking a view where we, how do we merge these back so we have one voice in foreign policy.”
But while Musk has made baseless claims of fraud within USAID, Turner emphasized the importance of the agency’s work.
“USAID is not a criminal enterprise, and people who work for the government have an important job to do, and they need to be honored,” he said.
Current and former officials warn that dismantling USAID could create a global vacuum that could be filled by U.S. adversaries like China. However, Turner, the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said that he does not believe China will act.
“They’re not going to come in and start providing aid of this nature. They don’t have the heart for it,” he said. “They don’t have the goals and objectives for it. This is not what they do.”
Additionally, on Tuesday Trump announced in a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the U.S. “will take over” the Gaza Strip. Trump outlined a scenario in which Palestinians would be relocated and the U.S. would own and rebuild Gaza. Experts warn that rhetoric like this could rattle the fragile ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
Turner said Trump’s language does not worry him, but it might be distracting.
“I think it does pose the challenge of focusing on the fact that Hamas and the Palestinians and the terrorist structure that’s there needs to be dismantled, that Israel does deserve and need a peaceful structure.” Turner said.
(WASHINGTON) — The bipartisan House Ethics Committee on Monday released a scathing report concluding its yearslong investigation into former Rep. Matt Gaetz, finding “substantial evidence” that he had sex with a 17-year-old in 2017 in violation of Florida’s statutory rape law, and engaged in a broader pattern of paying women for sex.
The report also detailed evidence of illegal drug use, acceptance of improper gifts, granting special favors to personal associates, and obstruction, after Gaetz refused to comply with subpoenas and withheld evidence from the committee.
A woman testified to the committee that Gaetz had sex with her in 2017, when she was 17 and had just completed her junior year of high school, and Gaetz was in his first year in Congress. Identified only as “Victim A” in the report, the woman told investigators she received $400 in cash from the then-congressman that evening, “which she understood to be payment for sex,” according to the report.
“The Committee received credible testimony from Victim A herself, as well as multiple individuals corroborating the allegation,” the report says. “Victim A said that she did not inform Representative Gaetz that she was under 18 at the time, nor did he ask her age.”
While many of the allegations in the committee’s report have been previously reported, this is the first time the woman’s direct testimony about Gaetz having sex with her when she was a minor has been made public, along with corroborating testimony from others.
Investigators noted that while the former Florida congressman has “suggested that the allegations against him have been manufactured” and had called into question Victim A’s credibility, “the Committee found no reason to doubt the credibility of Victim A.”
The report details that between 2017-2020, records obtained by the committee show Gaetz paid nearly $100,000 dollars to 12 different women and to Joel Greenberg, his one-time close friend who pleaded guilty to numerous crimes, including sex trafficking Victim A.
While all the women who testified to the committee described their sexual encounters with Gaetz as consensual, according to the report, one woman raised concerns that drug use at the parties and events may have “impair[ed their] ability to really know what was going on or fully consent.” Another woman told the committee, “When I look back on certain moments, I feel violated.”
The report alleges that Gaetz “took advantage of the economic vulnerability of young women to lure them into sexual activity for which they received an average of a few hundred dollars after each encounter.”
“Such behavior is not ‘generosity to ex-girlfriends,’ and it does not reflect creditably upon the House,” the report reads, referencing the former congressman’s previous statement dismissing the allegations as someone “trying to recategorize my generosity to ex-girlfriends as something more untoward.”
“Based on the above, the Committee determined there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress,” the report says.
Gaetz has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. The Justice Department declined to charge him last year after a yearslong investigation into similar allegations.
Earlier Monday Gaetz filed a lawsuit against the Ethics Committee in an effort to stop the committee from releasing its report.
“This action challenges the Committee’s unconstitutional and ultra vires attempt to exercise jurisdiction over a private citizen through the threatened release of an investigative report containing potentially defamatory allegations,” the filing from Gaetz said.
Gaetz in the filing asked the court to issue a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to block the release of the report or any findings, which he says would cause “damage to his reputation and professional standing” that would be “immediate and severe.”
“The threatened release of information believed to be defamatory by a Congressional committee concerning matters of sexual propriety and other acts of alleged moral turpitude constitutes irreparable harm that cannot be adequately remedied through monetary damages,” the filing stated.
Gaetz’s lawsuit highlights that he is now a public citizen and claims he did not receive “proper notice” of the report’s impending release.
“After Plaintiff’s resignation from Congress, Defendants improperly continued to act on its investigation, and apparently voted to publicly release reports and/or investigative materials related to Plaintiff without proper notice or disclosure to Plaintiff,” the complaint states.
President-elect Donald Trump last month tapped Gaetz to serve as attorney general in the incoming administration, and Gaetz resigned his congressional seat shortly after. Gaetz subsequently withdrew his name from consideration for AG, saying his confirmation process was “unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition.”
The Ethics Committee was in the final stages of its probe into Gaetz when Trump tapped him for attorney general. The committee generally drops investigations of members if they leave office, but Gaetz’s resignation prompted a fiery debate on Capitol Hill over whether the panel should release its report to allow the Senate to perform its role of vetting presidential nominations.
Following indications last week that the committee would release its report, Gaetz took to X in a lengthy post, writing in part that when he was single he “often sent funds to women” he dated and that he “never had sexual contact with someone under 18.”
“It’s embarrassing, though not criminal, that I probably partied, womanized, drank and smoked more than I should have earlier in life. I live a different life now,” he posted. “I’ve never been charged. I’ve never been sued. Instead, House Ethics will reportedly post a report online that I have no opportunity to debate or rebut as a former member of the body.”
In its report, the committee concluded that it did not find substantial evidence that Gaetz violated federal sex trafficking laws, finding that while Gaetz “did cause the transportation of women across state lines for purposes of commercial sex,” investigators did not find evidence “that any of those women were under 18 at the time of travel, nor did the Committee find sufficient evidence to conclude that the commercial sex acts were induced by force, fraud, or coercion.”
According to the report, the committee conducted over two dozen interviews, issued 29 subpoenas, reviewed nearly 14,000 documents, and requested information from multiple government agencies as part of its extensive investigation into the allegations.
The committee also received written testimony from Greenberg but, due to credibility concerns, investigators said they would “not rely exclusively on information provided by Mr. Greenberg,” according to the report.
The committee also accused Gaetz of obstructing its investigation by ignoring subpoenas, withholding documents, and declining to answer questions about the allegations.
“Representative Gaetz continuously sought to deflect, deter, or mislead the Committee in order to prevent his actions from being exposed,” the report reads. “His actions undermine not only his claims that he had exculpatory information to provide, but also his claims that he intended to cooperate with the Committee in good faith. It is apparent that Representative Gaetz’s assertions were nothing more than attempts to delay the Committee’s investigation.”
The committee had been investigating allegations that Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift, according to sources.
Earlier this year, the committee released a statement that it would continue its probe but would no longer pursue allegations that Gaetz “may have shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe or improper gratuity.”
According to the report, while several committee members did not support its release, a majority of its members voted in favor of its release on Dec. 10. In a statement at the conclusion of the report, House Ethics Chairman Michael Guest reiterated his stance against the release of the report on behalf of the dissenting members while acknowledging that he and other members do not dispute the report’s findings.
“We believe and remain steadfast in the position that the House Committee on Ethics lost jurisdiction to release to the public any substantive work product regarding Mr. Gaetz after his resignation from the House on November 14, 2024,” Guest wrote.
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(NEW YORK) — New York Attorney General Letitia James sent a letter to health care providers, calling on medical institutions to continue providing gender-affirming care amid reports, according the attorney general’s office, that several providers in the state had stopped providing treatments following a President Donald Trump executive order.
James reminded providers in a Monday letter “to comply with New York law … [providers] must continue to provide health care services, including gender affirming care, to transgender or gender nonconforming individuals.”
They must provide care regardless “of the availability of federal funding,” James told providers, noting that New York State laws prohibit discrimination, which includes “withholding the availability of services from transgender individuals based on their gender identity or their diagnosis of gender dysphoria, while offering such services to cisgender individuals.”
In a Jan. 28 executive order, Trump threatened to stop providing federal funding and grants to medical institutions that provided gender-affirming care for people under the age of 19.
Trump’s executive order does not restrict puberty blockers, hormone therapies, or surgeries for cisgender patients under the age of 19.
On Jan. 31, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order to stop Trump’s efforts to freeze federal funding, saying that the freeze is likely a violation of the Constitution.
James’ office told providers in her letter that the temporary restraining order applied to both current and future grants of federal assistance and that funding cannot be frozen or withdrawn as it applies to providing gender affirming care to minors.
The executive order against gender-affirming care is the latest action from Trump that impacts the transgender community, which is estimated to make up less than 1% of the U.S. population over the age of 13.
Trump also recently signed executive orders restricting transgender participation in the military, ending federal legal recognition of transgender people, and restricting gender marker changes on federal documents.
James was one of 22 state attorneys general behind the lawsuit aiming to halt the implementation of the Trump administration’s policies freezing federal agency grants and financial assistance.
