Rep. Mark Harris (R-N.C.) said on Tuesday that President Trump successfully made the case against the Department of Education during his 2024 campaign, leading more Republicans to support the effort to drastically reduce its workforce.
In an interview on NewsNation’s “The Hill,” anchor Blake Burman asked Harris what changed among GOP lawmakers, noting 60 House Republicans voted against a measure to abolish the department during the last Congress.
Now, few Republicans are criticizing the Trump administration’s move to cut the workforce by nearly half.
“Well, I think there’s an appetite now because I think there’s the possibility that people really see,” Harris said, adding that poor test scores across the country have demonstrated “a failure in so many ways.”
He also credited the president with influencing public sentiment.
“And I think this president has done a tremendous job of making his case, in the last election that we just went through, that the Department of Education really and truly has not been able to perform at the federal level,” Harris continued, “that we need to be able — whether it be through block grants or whatever ways — to get the money back to the states and the local school boards.”
“Because the governance that governs closest to home, most of the time, governs the most effective. And I believe that’s true in education,” he added. “And I think that we’re seeing an appetite for that. And I think in this Congress, there’s a lot of questions being raised about it.”
The interview came amid reports that the Department of Education was readying to slash a significant share of its workforce.
Shortly after the interview, a senior department official announced that 1,315 staffers were notified Tuesday that they would be let go.
The department started Trump’s second term with more than 4,000 employees, but even before Tuesday, hundreds had already been put on leave or had taken a buyout offer.
After this reduction, there will be 2,183 employees left with the department, which Trump has repeatedly called to shutter completely.
The Hill is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns NewsNation.