House Republicans want the Education Department to turn over a tranche of documents that they say will shed light on the agency’s botched rollout of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
Representative Virginia Foxx, the North Carolina Republican who chairs the House Education and Workforce Committee, issued a subpoena to Secretary Miguel Cardona seeking three years’ worth of communications and documents related to the planning and implementing of the new financial aid form, which was beset with delays and technical glitches before it launched earlier this year. The U.S. Government Accountability Office is currently investigating the launch, but Foxx and other lawmakers have accused the Education Department of not cooperating with that investigation.
“Enough is enough,” Foxx said in a statement, calling the subpoena a logical step. “Millions of students are relying on accurate information in order to determine their next steps, but the Biden-Harris administration is too concerned with hiding their incompetence to provide applicants with the certainty they need.”
The subpoena requests documents related to the planning of the form such as minutes of planning meetings and quality management reports. Foxx is also seeking information about the department’s testing of the form and data related to the application’s issues.
A response to the subpoena is due by Aug. 8.
“The department has received the subpoena and will respond to the Chair, as we do to all her requests for information,” an Education Department spokesperson said in a statement. “Given our ongoing work to address Chair Foxx’s many inquiries and keep her staff and others informed, as well as to provide hundreds of documents to GAO in response to their FAFSA engagements, this subpoena seems like an unnecessary political stunt.”
The spokesperson added that the agency has “spent many hours” responding to GAO and congressional requests and meeting with staff. “While we are actively working to produce more documents, our top priority remains delivering a Better FAFSA and improved application experience for the next FAFSA cycle,” the spokesperson noted.
