WASHINGTON –Today, Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee Ranking Member Bill Cassidy (R-LA) blasted the Biden administration for illegally obstructing the Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation into the administration’s failure to implement the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) program. Previously, Foxx and Cassidy made multiple requests to GAO to investigate the Department of Education (DeptEd) botched FAFSA rollout, including reported issues with the information technology systems that contributed to the delays.
From the time GAO began its investigation earlier this year, DeptEd has failed repeatedly to provide requested information to GAO as required by federal law. According to GAO, investigators met with the DeptEd “numerous times” and offered accommodations to allow the Department to gather the documents relevant to the investigation. Despite this, GAO “still [has] not received many of the requested items.” Further, GAO stated that these delays “have impacted [GAO’s] progress on the work and [its] ability to meet [its] expected timeframe for issuance [of its findings] this summer ahead of the fall FAFSA cycle.”
This comes as a recent report revealed that DeptEd staff warned the Biden transition team in 2020 that there would be significant challenges to implement the technical changes in the new FAFSA program by the original 2023-2024 cycle deadline. Instead of taking these concerns seriously, senior administration officials “often failed to check in on the [FAFSA simplification] project along the way, and were overly focused on other priorities such as the Biden administration’s loan forgiveness plans.” Biden’s student loan schemes transfer the burden of college debt onto Americans who chose not to go to college or already paid off their loans, costing taxpayers up to $1.4 trillion.
“Instead of owning up to its mistake, the Biden administration is hiding evidence relating to its botched FAFSA rollout from Congress and the American people,” wrote the lawmakers.“GAO is investigating the FAFSA rollout at our request, and by stonewalling, the Department is interfering with our ability to carry out our constitutionally mandated oversight responsibilities.”
“The Department’s ongoing failure to comply with GAO’s requests is unacceptable," continued the lawmakers. “Accordingly, please produce all records that GAO has requested in connection with its investigation no later than June7,2024.”
