Following Murray, Warren Request, Independent Government Watchdog Expands Investigation Into Trump Admin Efforts to Dismantle Education Department

Government Accountability Office (GAO) announces investigation into transfer of defaulted student loan portfolio from Education Department (ED) to Treasury Department, other interagency agreements

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, received a response to their request from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), an independent government watchdog, confirming the expansion of its investigation into the Department of Education's (ED) transfer of critical programs to other agencies through interagency agreements (IAAs), including the transfer of student loan default collections to the Department of the Treasury. Following a letter from Senators Murray, Warren, Sanders, and Baldwin, GAO previously confirmed it had initiated an investigation into ED's transfer of grant programs for career and technical education and adult education to the Department of Labor.

"These illegal agreements jeopardize the resources students and families rely on and weaken our nation's education system," said Senator Murray. "The GAO's investigation is an important step in protecting the programs that serve our students and the rights they are entitled to by law. I'll keep fighting back to ensure our students and schools receive all the support they deserve."

Last summer, the Trump administration formalized an IAA moving the day-to-day management of career and technical education and adult education grant programs, like Perkins V and AEFLA, from ED to the Labor Department. The Administration has since entered into nine other IAAs moving the administration of large parts of the Department of Education to other federal agencies. On February 19, the senators asked GAO to investigate the agreements' impacts on program costs, timely access to funding, access to services, and quality of technical assistance for grantees.

On March 11, the GAO confirmed it had opened an investigation into ED's transfer of grant programs to the Department of Labor and other agencies, writing: "GAO accepts your request as work that is within the scope of its authority."

Now, GAO is expanding its probe. In the new letter, GAO wrote that it has initiated work in response to the lawmakers' February request for a review of the impacts of ED's IAAs and that it intends to initiate additional workstreams reviewing other IAAs announced by ED, including the transfer of student loan default collections from ED to the Treasury Department.

The full text of the letter is available HERE.

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