The Department of Labor was created in 1913, the Department of Education in 1979, and in 2019 they could become one.
The Trump administration will be releasing plans to advocate for a merger between the DOE and DOL. While the policy proposal has not yet been made public, insiders familiar with the proposal describe it as part of the administration’s “government overhaul” activities.
The plan is nothing new. Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), has been working on a reorganization plan for over a year. Mulvaney also heads the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – a position he was appointed to after publicly expressing on numerous occasions his desire to abolish the agency.
He requested a $0 budget for the agency this year, which he accused of being a Democrat slush fund, and a government version of Yelp (as people report complaints about financial institutions to the agency). (RELATED: White House Official Requests $0 In Funding for Agency Obama Ran as a Democrat ‘Slush Fund’).
Given Mulvaney’s fiscal conservativism, the proposed merger will likely require proposals for massive cost-cutting between the agencies. The OMB said their unreleased proposal would “allow the Federal government to address the educational and skill needs of American students and workers in a coordinated way, eliminating duplication of effort.”
And this proposal only exists because back in March 2017, Trump signed an executive order called the “Comprehensive Plan for Reorganizing the Executive Branch.” The order required the OMB to determine whether “some or all of the functions of an agency, a component, or a program are redundant, including with those of another agency, component, or program.”
According to the Daily Caller, “The DOE, which is responsible for federal civil rights laws at schools, federal student loans, and K-12 funding, would be the simplest to liquidate in terms of size — it houses fewer than 4,000 employees and controls a $68-billion budget. Conversely, the DOL, which manages worker training and minimum wage laws, boasts around 15,000 employees, but only has a $13-billion budget.”
Congress has tried at least twice since the 1980s to significantly modify or abolish the Department of Education. Let’s see if the third time’s the charm.
If Trump is able to merge these bloated departments into one, it could help to cut much of the waste that exists in the federal government. Draining the swamp is a great slogan, but it is becoming a reality!
