White House wants to merge Labor, Education departments

The Trump administration wants to streamline the federal government by combining two massive departments: Education and Labor. That recommendation is part of a wider effort to reorganize the federal government, although details of the other moves aren’t yet public. Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, reportedly began working on the plan a year ago. If approved, the merger would recombine efforts once handled by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Congress split that department into three agencies in the 1970s and would need to approve the White House plan to bring two of them back together. Last year, the Education Department proposed taking over some of the Labor Department’s programs most closely tied to schooling, including employment for people with disabilities, dislocated worker programs, and youth workforce training.