The federal government is proposing that the Departments of Labor and Education merge.
The two departments hold nearly the same purpose, advocates of the merge argue. Both departments currently “operate in silos, inhibiting the federal government’s ability to address the skill needs of the American people in a coordinated manner.” The new agency would better align the “education-to-career pipeline,” and create “coherence within the workforce development and higher education worlds.”
In addition to merging the two departments, the plan would also “consolidate public assistance programs into a renamed Department of Health and Public Welfare, would combine some duplicative food safety programs run by the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration, and would seek to privatize the postal service and air traffic control services,” according to Reason.
This restructuring has been in the works for some time now. The Office of Management and Budget announced a plan to “reshape American government in the 21st century,” following a March 2017 executive order issued by President Trump, which “directed the proposal of a comprehensive plan to reform the Federal Government to be more efficient, effective and accountable.”
In a 132-page report issued by the Office of Management and Budget, the agency asserts that “public trust in the federal government has declined over the last decade, calling into question how well the current organizational constructs of government are aligned to meet Americans’ needs in the digital age.”
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“Government in the 21st Century is fundamentally a services business, and modern information technology should be at the heart of the U.S. government service delivery model,” the report continues. “And yet, today’s Executive Branch is still aligned to the stove-piped organizational constructs of the 20th Century, which in many cases have grown inefficient and out-of-date. Consequently, the public and our workforce are frustrated with government’s ability to deliver its mission in an effective, efficient, and secure way.”
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos called the proposal “bold” and “a big step” towards fulfilling President Trump’s promise to “reduce the federal footprint in education and to make the federal government more efficient and effective.”
“Artificial barriers between education and workforce programs have existed for far too long. We must reform our 20th century federal agencies to meet the challenges of the 21st century,” stated DeVos.
“This proposal will make the federal government more responsive to the full range of needs faced by American students, workers, and schools,” Devos continued. “I urge Congress to work with the Administration to make this proposal a reality.”
Some have come out against the proposal, however, arguing that the merge would essentially create “a new department of industrial labor policy.” Neal McCluskey, an education analyst for the libertarian Cato Institute, says there’s a real possibility that the “unconstitutional, ineffective, expensive programs” of the Education Department will simply be folded into a “new, more expansive bureaucratic machine.”
