Key Points
- Senators Patty Murray and Tammy Baldwin asked Education Secretary Linda McMahon to cancel a planned $43,278.64 furniture purchase for her new office.
- Federal law requires notice to Congress before an agency spends more than $5,000 to furnish a Cabinet secretary’s office. The Department sent that notice in September.
- The dispute lands as Congress negotiates FY2027 education funding, with the current stopgap spending law set to expire December 11, 2026.
Two Senate Democrats sent Education Secretary Linda McMahon a letter (PDF File) last week, asking her to drop plans to spend $43,278.64 on new furniture for her office. Murray serves as vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Baldwin is the top Democrat on the committee that writes the Education Department’s budget.
The furniture is for McMahon’s office in the Department’s new headquarters at 500 D Street SW, part of its move out of the Lyndon B. Johnson building.
A senior Department official told the New York Times the cost covers a new desk, a conference table, chairs and other items. The senators’ letter quotes the Department saying the old furniture “cannot be … aesthetically integrated into the agency’s new office space.”
That space is about 80% smaller than the old building, a downsizing that followed a 40% cut to the Education Department’s workforce.
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Why It Matters
The letter pulls McMahon’s office decorating budget into the larger fight over federal education spending.
Murray and Baldwin write that McMahon asked Congress this year to cut higher education programs by nearly $5 billion, including TRIO and Federal Work-Study. The administration’s FY2027 budget request would eliminate TRIO and shift 90% of Federal Work-Study wage costs to employers. Congress rejected nearly identical Work-Study cuts last year.
The senators end their letter calling this expenditure wasteful, especially in light of all of the layoffs and other downsizing at the Department of Education.
The senators also say McMahon pushed out nearly half of the Department’s staff. The College Investor reported that an Inspector General review counted 1,579 departures between January 20 and March 31, 2025, a 40% cut from 3,902 employees. Federal Student Aid alone fell from 1,446 employees to an estimated 861.
For borrowers, the GAO found Federal Student Aid stopped reviewing servicer accuracy and call quality in February 2025, citing a lack of staff.
What Does The Law Require?
Federal law lets the Department buy the furniture as long as it tells Congress first. Section 710 of the annual Financial Services and General Government appropriations law requires advance notice to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees before an agency spends more than $5,000 to furnish a presidential appointee’s office.
The rule requires notice, not approval. To stop a Department action outright, Congress has to pass legislation, such as the Senate bill that would block Education Department office transfers.
Records show the notice went to Congress in September, months after the Department announced its headquarters move. The notice rule has caught agencies before. In 2018, the GAO ruled the EPA broke the law by spending $43,238.68 on a soundproof phone booth for its administrator without notifying Congress. That total came within $40 of McMahon’s furniture request.
What Does The Department Say?
The Department says the headquarters move saves money overall.
The Department estimates the smaller office will cut about $4.8 million a year in operating costs, one step in the administration’s plan to wind down the Education Department.
However, the New York Times reported the new space still needs about $13 million in renovations, citing two people familiar with the planning.
The Numbers Behind The Letter
The furniture request is a small line item next to the other costs and savings tied to the Department’s move and its staff reductions.
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Furniture Request For McMahon’s Office | $43,278.64 |
| Section 710 Notice Threshold | $5,000 |
| EPA Phone Booth GAO Ruled Unlawful (2018) | $43,238.68 |
| Claimed Annual Savings From Headquarters Move | About $4.8 million |
| Reported Renovation Cost For New Office Space | About $13 million |
| Education Department Staff Departures, Jan. 20 To March 31, 2025 | 1,579, a 40% cut from 3,902 |
| Current Government Funding Deadline | December 11, 2026 |
How This Connects
The furniture dispute is just the latest clash over how McMahon is shrinking the Department without an act of Congress.
The Department has shifted work to other agencies through interagency agreements, including a plan to hand defaulted student loan collections to the Treasury Department.
A recent report says Federal Student Aid could become an independent agency by October 2027, a change that would need congressional approval.
The committee Murray and Baldwin lead write the bills that funds the Department’s day-to-day operations. If there is a shift in Senate leadership during this upcoming election, that could also drive potential change here.
What’s Next
The current continuing resolution funds the government through December 11, 2026, at FY2026 levels. Congress has to pass FY2027 education funding or another stopgap before then to avoid a shutdown.
Families can review how a government shutdown affects student loans and financial aid ahead of that deadline. The senators asked McMahon to reconsider the purchase, but the letter did not set a deadline for a response. There is also no way for the senators to block the purchase without passing their own legislation.
The furniture order does not change any borrower’s monthly payment or any student’s financial aid award. The December government funding deadline matters more for families, because a full-year FY2027 bill would set funding for Federal Work-Study, TRIO and other programs the administration wants to cut. Until then, those programs run at FY2026 levels under the stopgap law.
Editor: Colin Graves
Robert Farrington is the founder of The College Investor and is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading voices on student loan debt and saving for college. He holds an MBA from UC San Diego Rady School of Management and has spent over 15 years researching, writing, and advising on student loans, 529 plans, financial aid programs, and saving and investing for young professionals.
Robert has been featured in the The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, NBC News, and Forbes, where he has been a regular personal finance contributor for over a decade. His work combines both professional expertise and personal experience – he successfully navigated his own student loan repayment journey and has helped thousands of readers do the same.
He is committed to making the intersection of personal finance and education transparent and accessible. You can learn more about Robert on the About Page or on his personal site RobertFarrington.com.