ICYMI: McMahon accepts GIFFORDS’ offer, vows to meet with parents of children killed in school shootings

WASHINGTON — Last night, Education Secretary Linda McMahon sat down with Jake Tapper on CNN and was asked to respond to a letter sent by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords which urged Sec. McMahon to reverse $1 billion in funding cuts to school mental health programs and requested she meet with families of children killed in school shootings to hear about the impact these cuts would likely have.

Watch McMahon’s response to Tapper here:

TAPPER: Your Education Department recently stopped $1 billion in funding for mental health treatment in schools, slashing grants from a bipartisan gun safety bill, the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, passed in the wake of the Uvalde shooting, killing 19 students, two teachers.

Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat of Arizona, who herself survived an assassination attempt, wrote you a letter saying, quote, I have serious concerns that your department’s recent cuts have made our nation’s classrooms significantly more dangerous. I ask you to reconsider before it’s too late. She also offered to set up private meetings with parents and survivors of school shootings with you. What’s your response? Will you take her up on the offer?

MCMAHON: Any time I could sit and visit with any of them and hear, not necessarily just Sandy Hook, but others, you know, I would like to have that opportunity to do it.   

“GIFFORDS is pleased that Secretary McMahon agreed to meet with the families of children who have been killed in school shootings. We will work to ensure she follows through on her promise to listen to these families in hopes that she will decide to restore these critical programs for our kids,” said Vanessa Gonzalez, Vice President of Government and Political Affairs at GIFFORDS. “Secretary McMahon must recognize that this mental health funding has such broad bipartisan support because it will save lives. We cannot ignore the dual epidemics of the gun violence crisis and mental health crisis threatening our children, and this bipartisan funding is one of our most direct tools for providing life-saving help.”

The funding, which was cut by the Trump Administration last month, was originally allocated by Congress in 2022 via the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. The passage of the Act was a historic bipartisan effort meant to address the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde,Texas where 19 children and two teachers lost their lives, and prevent similar tragedies in the future. Former Congresswoman Giffords’s full letter to Secretary McMahon can be read here. 

Below is an expanded transcript of Sec. McMahon’s CNN interview:

TAPPER: So your Education Department recently stopped $1 billion in funding for mental health treatment in schools, slashing grants from a bipartisan gun safety bill, the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, passed in the wake of the Uvalde shooting, killing 19 students, two teachers.

Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat of Arizona, who herself survived an assassination attempt, wrote you a letter saying, quote, I have serious concerns that your department’s recent cuts have made our nation’s classrooms significantly more dangerous. I ask you to reconsider before it’s too late. She also offered to set up private meetings with parents and survivors of school shootings with you. What’s your response? Will you take her up on the offer?

MCMAHON: You know, I think one of the things she referenced in that letter, too, was Sandy — the Sandy Hook shootings. I am from Connecticut.

TAPPER: Right.

MCMAHON: And that day in December, I won’t ever forget sitting at home and watching what happened in that school, you know, on television. I saw policemen crying. I saw firemen, you know, first responders that, you know, had to have a lot of treatment after that. I won’t ever forget that, and I would hate to have been standing in the shoes of those parents.

And any time I could sit and visit with any of them and hear, not necessarily just Sandy Hook, but others, you know, I would like to have that opportunity to do it. […]