Rep. Tim Walberg praises McMahon confirmation, says universities that allow antisemitic protests risk losing federal funds

Rep. Tim Walberg, chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, said in a radio interview that newly confirmed U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon should return power to states, reduce federal spending on education and press colleges that tolerate antisemitic demonstrations by threatening to withdraw federal funds.

Walberg, a congressman from Michigan, praised McMahon’s confirmation by the U.S. Senate — which voted 51 to 45 to confirm her — and said the administration’s apparent moves to review federal contracts and grants at Columbia University demonstrate seriousness about cracking down on campus antisemitism. “If you want to allow this to carry on, then you’re gonna lose your federal funding,” Walberg said. “I think that should wake them up.”

The comments came as the interview played a clip from McMahon’s confirmation hearing in which she was asked to enforce federal civil-rights law and ensure Jewish students’ safety on campus. In the clip, the questioner asked, “Will you enforce the law, title 6 ... and will you make sure that Jewish Americans are safe on our campuses ...?” The clip then records McMahon replying, “Absolutely. Or face defunding of their of their monies.”

Walberg said he wants the Education Department to “return power back to The States,” cut “wasteful spending,” raise test scores and “advance educational freedom through school choice.” He described closing or shrinking the federal department as “challenging, but … worth doing,” and said he expects movement on higher-education policy under the new administration.

Walberg also said college presidents had recently expressed concerns to him and that a Columbia University student would sit in his guest seat for the State of the Union address to highlight the campus issues. He referred to work done last year in the House Education and Workforce Committee under the previous chairman, identified in the interview as “Representative Fox,” as having exposed what he called a problem of “indoctrinating our students against Judaism, but also against America.”

Walberg invoked historical language about education, quoting the Northwest Ordinance and referencing a hat gifted by former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos that reads “make America make education great.”

While the interview included calls to use federal funding as leverage, it did not record any new rulemaking or Department of Education actions. The Senate vote confirming McMahon was reported in the interview as 51–45.