Education, labor merger eyed:

The Trump administration is planning to propose merging the education and labor departments as part of a broader overhaul to be announced on Thursday that would make good on President Donald Trump’s pledges to streamline the federal government.

The White House planned to announce the sweeping government reorganization plan at Trump’s Cabinet meeting, including plans to merge the two federal agencies, according to a person familiar with the plan. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Soon after he took office, Trump charged the Office of Management and Budget with coming up with a plan to reorganize the government and eliminate unnecessary agencies, pointing to redundancy and billions of dollars being wasted. Trump’s budget chief, Mick Mulvaney, has been putting together the plan for months.

“We will develop a detailed plan to make the federal government work better, reorganizing, consolidating and eliminating where necessary,” Trump said in March 2017 after signing an executive order on the reorganization. “In other words, making the federal government more efficient and very, very cost productive.”

Whether the proposal will prove effective is unclear. Some changes could require approval from Congress and congressional leaders have been hesitant to adopt a plan that would eliminate federal agencies they are charged with overseeing. (AP)