WASHINGTON >> President Donald Trump’s choice to run the Department of Education, Linda McMahon, advocated for the president’s plans to abolish the department at her U.S. Senate confirmation hearing today.

Trump on Wednesday reiterated his call to shutter the department, which employs about 4,200 people and had a $251 billion budget in the fiscal year that ended in September.

“I’d like it to be closed immediately,” Trump said. “The Department of Education’s a big con job.”

Shuttering the Cabinet-level department, created in 1979, would ultimately require the approval of Congress, where many Republicans have pushed for years to prioritize local control of the nation’s schools.

McMahon confirmed there are currently members of billionaire Elon Musk’s government efficiency team conducting a review of the department designed to “take the bureaucracy out of education.”

McMahon told senators that unwinding the department would “certainly require” congressional action and repeatedly promised the federal school funding appropriated by Congress to assist low-income school districts and students would continue.

A former professional wrestling executive who headed the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term, McMahon proposed that the Health and Human Services Department, now under Secretary

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could take over some programs such as those overseeing the education of disabled students.

Despite calling for the department’s closure, Trump and his fellow Republicans have also pushed for the federal government to scrutinize school districts’ sports programs and investigate cases of transgender athletes competing on women’s teams.

Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee pressed McMahon on the administration’s moves to undo diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

Asked by Democratic Senator Chris Murphy from Connecticut if education centered on racial or ethnic experiences like African American History is allowed under the president’s anti-DEI executive orders, McMahon said “I am not quite certain” and promised to look into such programs and the executive order.

While Democrats have the power to grill McMahon, they do not have the votes to block her confirmation in a chamber that Republicans control 53-47.

So far Senate Republicans have not blocked any of Trump’s Cabinet nominees, including controversial picks such as new Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Kennedy.

Republicans chastised the five protesters who interrupted the hearing, and then cheered McMahon’s approach to downsizing the department and her commitment to investigating instances of anti-Semitism on college campuses.

“I will work with Congress to reorient the department to helping educators, not controlling them,” McMahon said, adding: “defunding is not the goal here.”