Virginia Foxx subpoenas Education Department over student loan borrower’s defense program

House Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) issued a subpoena Tuesday demanding the Department of Education turn over documents related to its implementation of the borrower’s defense of repayment program.

The subpoena is the first for the committee since Republicans took over the majority in January 2023. In a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona accompanying the subpoena, Foxx said that the department had failed to comply with prior requests for documents related to borrower’s defense and had made excuses as to why it could not provide the documents, forcing the committee to issue a subpoena.

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“As part of the Department’s stonewalling, it suggested that documents we requested could not or would not be provided until after the Government Accountability Office completed its own inquiry on borrower defense to repayment,” Foxx wrote. “Such contentions not only lack any basis in law, but also are a direct affront to Congress’s constitutional prerogatives and responsibilities.”

“As such, the committee has determined that compulsory measures are necessary,” she added.

Graeme Jennings and AP

The requested documents pertain primarily to the legal settlement for the case Sweet v. Cardona, a lawsuit from students who attended primarily for-profit colleges who claimed they had been defrauded.

The lawsuit, which was originally filed during the Trump administration, asked the department to adjudicate their claims under borrower’s defense of repayment, a program that allows the Department of Education to discharge student loans for borrowers who can prove they were defrauded.

Under Cardona, instead of adjudicating the case in court, the department elected to settle the lawsuit by forgiving the loans of some 200,000 students who attended a list of 151 schools. Foxx has repeatedly sought documents related to the settlement and the department’s implementation of the borrower’s defense program.

In a statement accompanying the subpoena, Foxx noted that it was the first one the committee had issued to the Department of Education and said, “It is a measure that I do not take lightly.”

“Secretary Cardona sat before this Committee in May and gave us his word that he would assist us in our oversight efforts,” she said. “At every turn, the Department has thrown up roadblocks to prevent us from getting answers on borrower defense to repayment. Clearly, Secretary Cardona’s word doesn’t mean much. His lack of candor not only blocks the Committee from doing its job, but it also leaves students, borrowers, and institutions in the dark. We intend to get the answers for the American people.” 

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In a statement to the Washington Examiner, a spokesperson for the Department of Education said, “The department is unapologetically proud of our efforts to fix borrower defense that have helped nearly 1.1 million students get $14.8 billion in relief from notorious predatory institutions.”

“While Congressional Republican Leadership of the Education and Workforce Committee stand by these predatory colleges, the Department has the backs of borrowers who were taken advantage of and will continue to hold colleges accountable for their illegal actions toward students,” the spokesperson said. “The Department has already been responsive to the Committee’s requests and this escalatory action is inappropriate. Despite this political stunt, we remain committed to cooperating with Congress in good faith.”