Rep. Erin Houchin, R-Ind., has "no doubt" that Linda McMahon, as President-elect Donald Trump's pick for education secretary, will set the Department of Education straight when it comes to federal student aid.
"As with other agencies within the Biden administration, the Department of Education was no different with their failures across the board," Houchin told Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "So, Congress dictated that three years ago they simplified the FAFSA [Free Application for Federal Student Aid] and when they tried to roll that out – I'm a mom of two college students, so I had to go through this process, too – it was a complete disaster.
"The suggested deadline for the Department of Education to release FAFSA is Oct. 1, but it's not a hard deadline. So, they delayed until December, and then in January it didn't work. And we still have reports of students who've not been able to access financial aid because of the failures at the Department of Education."
"So, we put forward the FAFSA Deadline Act to have a hard deadline by Oct. 1," she said. "This is a big issue because when the department started getting calls from parents across the country who are having trouble accessing the form, 75% of those calls went unanswered.
"That's more than 4 million people who did not get answers from the Department of Education. So, part of this legislation says if the department cannot meet the deadline, they have to come before Congress in early September to explain to the American people what these issues are and put forth a plan on how they're going to address it."
Houchin said reform was necessary.
"I have no doubt that under Linda McMahon's leadership at the Department of Education this is not going to be a problem," Houchin continued. "It wasn't a problem under the previous administration. It only started under President [Joe] Biden.
"And so I think Linda McMahon is the right pick for this post. She's going to do a great job, but what we want is these agencies to work well on behalf of the American people and they didn't under this administration. So, we're going to make sure that they do moving forward."
The Indiana congresswoman also commented on stepping into her new role of secretary of the House Republican Conference when the new Congress is sworn in Jan. 3.
"I am honored to have been selected by my colleagues in the House Republican Conference to serve as their conference secretary," Houchin said. "We have a great team, starting with President [Donald] Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson, leader Steve Scalise, Whip Tom Emmer, [incoming House Republican Conference Chair] Lisa McClain.
"Our whole leadership team is ready to get to work on behalf of the American people to put forth President Trump's agenda. We want to get back to where we were four years ago, and I think we'll be able to do that quickly with this great team."
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Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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