WASHINGTON — President Trump is signing an executive order today calling for the shutdown of the Department of Education. Trump has called the department wasteful and polluted by liberal ideology, but finalizing its dismantling is likely impossible without an act of Congress, which created the department in 1979.
Iowa US Senator Chuck Grassley was a member of the US House back in 1979 and voted against creating the department. “I’m the only member of Congress out of 535 people that are still in the Congress, and I voted against setting up the Department of Education late September 1979. I wasn’t an advocate for the federal Department of Education, so obviously I would be one that would want it to go away.”
Grassley says he doesn’t believe there’s enough votes in Congress to do away with the department. “I don’t think the Department of Education will get the 60 votes in the United States Senate to do away with it. Might not even pass the House of Representatives.”
The department oversees $1.6 trillion in federal student loans.
