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President Donald Trump tapped a veteran bureaucrat to lead the Education Department until the Senate confirms his appointee Linda McMahon, but he has so far held off on announcing other interim leaders for the agency.

However, that’s not too unusual for the second day of a new administration, policy experts say, and while the department didn’t respond to a request for comment, a spokesperson said more details about the department’s landing team can be expected in the coming days.

The landing team refers to a group of political appointees that don’t require Senate confirmation, take up leadership roles shortly after inauguration and help the new administration get up to speed. Members of the landing team are often also selected to serve as acting officials and fill the role of a nominated senior official until they are confirmed. In addition to the landing team, civil servants or career staffers help to keep the agency running.

So, regardless of who temporarily fills the department’s key roles, higher ed experts say they expect little policy work to get done until the former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO takes the reins, if she is confirmed. The Senate has yet to schedule a hearing for McMahon.

“There’s not really going to be a whole lot that this department can do from a firm policy stance. So we’re expecting just the basic operations to continue,” said Emmanual Guillory, senior director of government relations at the American Council on Education.

Trump, who has nominated two people so far to lead the Education Department, did select as acting secretary Denise Carter, who was acting chief operating officer of the department’s Office of Federal Student Aid. She assumed that role last year after Rich Cordray resigned in the wake of a bungled federal aid application rollout.

As acting COO, Carter was tasked with reviewing FSA’s operations and reorganizing the agency. She also helped with the launch of the 2025–26 federal student aid application, which occurred in phases and was tested by small groups of students and counselors before being fully opened to the public in November.

Before moving to Federal Student Aid, she served as the department’s acting assistant secretary of finance and operations, where she managed the department’s finances, human resources, security and property operations. Carter also served in multiple roles at the Department of Health and Human Services.

“We’re glad to see that the new administration chose to appoint someone from within the department during this transition time to ensure operational continuity until a new secretary is confirmed,” said Karen McCarthy, vice president of public policy and federal relations at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

Carter’s selection was one of more than 30 similar appointments Trump made shortly after his inauguration ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda Monday. Later in the day, he also signed a historic number of executive actions, a few of which—including an order proclaiming that there are only two sexes—could impact the Education Department.

But policy experts say they don’t expect Carter or any of the other acting officials who join her to carry out those policies, though other acting leaders at other departments have already moved to change the Biden administration’s policies and bring employees back to the office full-time. Instead, they expect the landing team to focus on getting their bearings and helping to smooth the road for Trump’s appointees before they arrive. The members of the landing team hadn’t been announced as of Tuesday afternoon.

“Right now, they are getting the lay of the land, wrapping their minds around everything the Biden administration has done, trying to figure out what are the issues, what are the concerns and what’s the strategy and plan in place,” Guillory said. “We know that they’ve been having these conversations, so they’re not starting from scratch, per se, but they’re … doing their due diligence, put it that way.”

The department official confirmed that the Trump administration has selected other acting officials, even though they haven’t been publicly unveiled. Aside from McMahon, the only other education nomination Trump has made is former University of Florida vice president Penny Schwinn to be deputy secretary. But Clare McCann, a former department appointee during the Obama and Biden administrations, said she trusts that the civil servants of the department will help to maintain its operations until more of the landing team is announced.

“The department has a roster of well-qualified civil servants who generally fulfill key leadership roles during presidential transitions. I imagine that’s true in this transition as well,” said McCann, who is now managing director of policy and operations for American University’s Postsecondary Equity and Economics Research Center

The Biden administration announced the first members of its landing team Jan. 21, 2021, Guillory said. But just because the Biden administration made its announcement the day after the inauguration doesn’t mean that the Trump administration must do the same, or that it is behind if it doesn’t, he added.

“We hope that that announcement will come soon, but we are not concerned at this juncture,” Guillory said. “I don’t think that this negatively impacts anything right now. It’s only Jan. 21.”

McCarthy from NASFAA agreed that the lack of details isn’t concerning yet.

“However, if it were to drag on and on, it could have an impact on operations,” she said.

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