Happy New Year 2025

Tag: tape

Into the ring: Trump education chief pick McMahon to testify on cutting ‘red tape’ amid DOGE sweeps

FIRST ON FOX: Linda McMahon, the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and President Donald Trump’s pick to head the Department of Education, will testify before the Senate on Thursday, centering her opening remarks around creating “a better future for every American learner.”

The Trump nominee, who was tapped in November, will kick off her confirmation process during a hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee on Thursday morning. Republican Sens. Tim Scott of South Carolina and Katie Britt of Alabama will introduce McMahon before the hearing, Fox News has learned.

McMahon will focus her remarks on enacting Trump’s vision with the idea that “education is the issue that determines our national success and prepares American workers to win the future,” according to an excerpt of her opening remarks, shared first with Fox News Digital.

“I would like to thank President Trump for his confidence in me to lead a Department whose mission and authority were a special focus of his campaign. He pledged to make American education the best in the world, return education to the states where it belongs, and free American students from the education bureaucracy through school choice,” McMahon will say in her opening remarks.

TRUMP EDUCATION DEPT LAUNCHES PROBE INTO ‘EXPLOSION OF ANTISEMITISM’ AT 5 UNIVERSITIES

Linda McMahon arrives for a meeting in Washington, D.C. (Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg)

McMahon is being boosted to head the department that Trump has suggested he wants to dismantle during his term, recently saying that if McMahon is confirmed, he wants her to “put herself out of a job.”

Trump said Wednesday just hours ahead of McMahon’s hearing that he wanted to close the Education Department “immediately.”

“It’s a big con job,” he said. “They ranked the top countries in the world. We’re ranked No. 40, but we’re ranked No. 1 in one department: cost per pupil. So, we spend more per pupil than any other country in the world, but we’re ranked No. 40.”

His comments came as Trump’s executive agency, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) run by Elon Musk, continues its financial audit of the federal government.

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McMahon previously served as the administrator of the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term before stepping down in 2019 to “return to the private sector.”

She plans to say during her opening remarks Thursday, “My experience as a business owner and leader of the Small Business Administration, as a public servant in the state of Connecticut, and more than a decade of service as a college trustee has taught me to put parents, teachers, and students, not bureaucracy, first.”

“Outstanding teachers are tired of political ideology in their curriculum and red tape on their desks. This is why school choice is a growing movement across the nation: it offers teachers and parents an alternative to classrooms that are micromanaged from Washington, D.C.”

President Donald Trump shakes hands with Linda McMahon after announcing her resignation on March 29, 2019. (Joshua Roberts)

The Trump nominee also plans to highlight antisemitism in schools and the issue of biological males competing in women’s and girls’ sports.

“If I am confirmed, the department will not stand idly by while Jewish students are attacked and discriminated against,” her remarks read. “It will stop forcing schools to let boys and men into female sports and spaces. And it will protect the rights of parents to direct the moral education of their children.”

In her opening remarks, McMahon will note that “many Americans today are experiencing a system in decline” but that “the opportunity before us these next four years is momentous.”

Linda McMahon speaks at the Republican National Convention on July 18, 2024. (Mike Segar)

“It is my great honor to announce that Linda McMahon, former Administrator of the Small Business Administration, will be the United States Secretary of Education,” Trump said in his nomination announcement in November.

Before being tapped to head the Education Department, McMahon founded WWE with her husband in 1980, which has grown into a global wrestling entertainment network.

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“As Secretary of Education, Linda will fight tirelessly to expand ‘Choice’ to every State in America, and empower parents to make the best Education decisions for their families,” the press release added. “Linda served for two years on the Connecticut Board of Education, where she was one of fifteen members overseeing all Public Education in the State, including its Technical High School system.”

After McMahon’s confirmation hearing, the committee will schedule a vote on whether to advance her nomination to a full floor vote.

Aubrie Spady is a Writer for Fox News Digital.

February 13, 2025
Top Georgia Republican unveils statewide DOGE plan to ‘reset’ regulations: ‘Red Tape Rollback’

Georgia’s Republican lieutenant governor has introduced a plan similar to the DOGE efforts taking place with the Trump administration that he tells Fox News Digital will bring much-needed government accountability to his state.

“I own my own business employing thousands of people, and I know one of the biggest things that we run into as small business owners is regulatory burdens. And that’s regulatory burdens at the local, state and federal level,” Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones told Fox News Digital of his Red Tape Rollback Act of 2025.

“We’ve been fortunate here in Georgia to be the No. 1 state to do business for 11 years running, and if we want to stay like that, we’re going to have to always be retooling how we do things, improving how we do things, making government more efficient, making it try to work more like business.”

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Jones introduced the plan last year but was unable to move it through the Georgia Legislature. But he said Trump’s DOGE efforts provided an opportunity to pair the plan with the new DOGE brand that has become increasingly popular with Republicans and some Democrats in Washington, D.C.

“That’s what the essence or the genesis behind red tape rollback, which is our state version of DOGE that the Trump administration is doing, and I’m excited about what they’re doing with the first week of that administration,” Jones said.

Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones is pushing a statewide plan in Georgia that’s similar to DOGE efforts by the Trump administration. (Getty Images)

Jones explained to Fox News Digital what the priorities of his statewide DOGE plan would entail if successfully passed through the Legislature.

“The first thing we’d like to do is basically have a reset on all regulatory issues at every state agency. And what I mean by that is, instead of always adding more regulations, we’ll start back at zero and then the agencies just add what they need,” Jones said.

ELON MUSK’S DOGE MAKES ANOTHER HIRING PUSH

“There are so many regulations that are on the books that have been put there from decades worth of, you know, legislative laws that were passed or whatever. What our bill will do is basically have a reset just like you would on a computer game or whatever.

“And say there’s a lot of things that are unneeded, whether we’re talking about on the educational front, on the environment front, transportation, whatever it might be, just the entire blanket. Have a reset, and then make the agencies tell us what regulations are needed and which ones they’re glad to get rid of.”

Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones (Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg)

Jones said in a press release his bill will “also give legislators the ability to request a ‘Small Business Impact Analysis’ for pending legislation to better understand how a bill might impact Georgia’s most important job creators.”

Jones told Fox News Digital that statewide spending waste is at a much “smaller scale” than federal government waste, but he said he hopes his statewide efforts will help shine a light on waste in the federal government.

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Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are heading the Department of Government Efficiency. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“There’s no question D.C. is the elephant, so to speak, in the room that has gotten so bloated through duplicate agencies, duplicate services, whatever it might be,” Jones said. “There’s a lot of ways to trim the fat at the federal level.

“State government, it won’t be anything like what you have at the federal level, but there’s definitely inefficiencies that need to be addressed, whether it’s in licensing, permitting processes, whatever it might be, regulatory codes and things that need to be repealed. Those are all things that are going to be on the table.”

Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to [email protected].

February 1, 2025
‘We can’t wait’: Issa fights back against ‘green tape’ regulations impacting firefighters

FIRST ON FOX: GOP Congressman Darrell Issa has introduced a bill in response to the devastating California wildfires aimed at slashing through the regulatory burdens that prevent firefighters from most effectively preventing the fires.

Issa, who represents California’s 48th Congressional District, is putting forward the Green Tape Elimination Act which would exempt hazardous fuel reduction activities on federal lands from federal regulations for a decade.

Eliminating those regulatory burdens, Issa says, will allow firefighters to clear brush, cut shrubs, prescribe fires, along with other fire prevention activities without being hindered by six major federal environmental regulations.

Those regulations include the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, National Historic Preservation Act, Clean Air Act, Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and Migratory Bird Conservation Act.

BILL MAHER TRASHES KAREN BASS, CALI OFFICIALS FOR RESPONSE TO FIRES: ‘FIDDLING IN GHANA WHILE THE CITY BURNED’

GOP Rep. Issa has introduced legislation aimed at preventing wildfires in California (Getty Images)

“For years, environmental rules have become regulatory ‘green tape’ — locking in dangerous conditions and contradicting common sense reforms,” Issa, who will be touring the Palisade Fire devastation with President Trump on Friday, told Fox News Digital. “That’s why this is no time for tinkering around the edges. We can’t wait for the next deadly disaster.”

“Giving a blank check to finance even more of California’s mismanagement would be like giving matches to an arsonist,” Issa continued. “We’re dedicated to helping the victims of this disaster first and working to prevent the next one. It’s a message I’ll bring to President Trump when I see him today in Los Angeles.”

The Golden State’s struggles with preventing or at least moderating severe wildfires over the past few decades has been a longstanding concern that was only exacerbated by the recent Eaton Fire and Palisades fire which killed at least 28 people.

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This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows the Eaton Fire on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025, in Altadena, Calif. (Maxar Technologies via AP)

Many have argued that a wide range of federal and state regulations make it more difficult to conduct mitigation activities, like prescribed burns or treatments to remove hazardous trees and vegetation.

Chuck Devore, a former member of the California State Assembly and the chief national initiatives officer at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, told FOX Business in a recent interview that federal and state rules have hampered wildfire mitigation efforts, resulting in larger fuel loads that drive more intense wildfires.”

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Aftermath of fire in Pacific Palisades and along Pacific Coast Highway. ( David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images))

“The nature of the wildfire problem changes a little bit from north to south… In both cases, you have the issue of air quality management districts that are under both federal and state mandate to clean up the air. That makes it difficult to have prescribed burns with the sort of frequency that needs to happen to be able to reduce the fuel load,” Devore said.

Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to [email protected].

January 24, 2025