Education Secretary Linda McMahon testified Wednesday on the White House's budget request for the agency that President Donald Trump has ordered to be dismantled.
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McMahon insisted that she runs the Education Department, not Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, when questioned by Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., during her testimony before the House Appropriations Committee.
Pointing out that 1,300 employees were fired and another 600 took a buyout, McMahon said "a good majority" of those removals "happened before I came on board."
Pocan later pressed McMahon about why 74 people were later asked to return to their jobs after having been dismissed. McMahon defended the practice, saying she had participated in a similar restructuring in the private sector.
"You hope that you're just cutting fat," McMahon said. "Sometimes, you cut in the muscle."
But, Pocan argued, that the practice could have been prevented by working to "plan ahead" and not firing people that would eventually be asked to re-join the team.
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McMahon was also asked to provide information about how the Trump administration was facilitating student loan collections, including for borrowers struggling to stay on track.
Blaming the previous administration for "disastrous messaging about loan forgiveness," Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., expressed concern as he questioned McMahon that "individuals across the country are at risk of damaging their own credit ratings and going into default."
"This kind of financial damage can be devastating to countless constituents across the country," he said.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration began sending loans in default to collections, which could result in the withholding of tax refunds or other federal payments for those impacted. If loans remain in default by later this summer, the Education Department could begin the process of garnishing paychecks.
More than 5 million borrowers across the country are in default.
McMahon said she sent letters to borrowers on May 5. Since then, working with the Treasury Department on collections, "we have now collected almost $100 million in back loans. Some on a voluntary basis and then some is restructuring the way those folks are going to be repaying their loans."
"We're on the right track," she added.