US Education Secretary spends US$43,000 on new furniture even as she looks to close dept

• US Education Secretary Linda McMahon plans to spend US$43,000 on new office furniture while pushing to close the Education Department, drawing criticism over waste and hypocrisy.
• Her team says the current furniture is worn out and will not fit the new office space. The move to a smaller building should save about US$5 million a year.
• After the report, Senators Patty Murray and Tammy Baldwin urged her to “reconsider this wasteful purchase”. The old Education building may later go to the Energy Department, but it needs US$215 million in renovations.

WASHINGTON – US Education Secretary Linda McMahon plans to spend US$43,000 (S$55,000) on new furniture for her government office, a work space makeover that comes as she lobbies Congress to shut down her department.

McMahon’s team has informed Congress that her current furniture is worn out and “cannot be configurationally or aesthetically integrated into the agency’s new office space”, according to Education Department records reviewed by The New York Times that have not been publicly disclosed.