Dive Brief:
- Rep. Virginia Foxx, the chair of the House’s education committee, subpoenaed the U.S. Department of Education on Thursday for documents and communications related to the agency’s rollout of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
- The subpoena requires the Education Department to hand over documents by Aug. 8. It comes nearly two months after Foxx and Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, the top Republican on the Senate’s education committee, accused the Education Department in a May 31 letter of “stonewalling” a government watchdog’s investigation into the rocky debut of the revamped form.
- “It’s clear that the Department of Education isn’t going to give its co-equal branch the relevant information willingly, so today’s subpoena is the only logical next step,” Foxx, a Republican from North Carolina, said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
The subpoena adds to the scrutiny over the widely panned release of the new FAFSA form, which was beset by chronic delays, frequent technical glitches and last-minute changes to the aid formula.
At the request of over two dozen lawmakers, the U.S. Government Accountability Office opened an investigation into the rollout earlier this year.
An Education Department official said in an email that the agency has received the subpoena and "will respond to the Chair, as we do to all her requests for information." The official said the subpoena "seems like an unnecessary political stunt" given the agency’s efforts to respond to Foxx’s inquiries, keep her staff informed and provide hundreds of records to the GAO.
The department’s top priority is improving the FAFSA for the upcoming aid cycle, the official said. But the agency is committed to cooperating with congressional inquiries related to the form and holds regular meetings with Foxx’s staff to provide updates and respond to questions.
However, Foxx and Cassidy said in their May 31 letter that the GAO had yet to receive many of the records it requested from the Education Department. At the time, an Education Department spokesperson told Higher Ed Dive that the agency remained committed to responding to the GAO’s requests as soon as possible.
In their May 31 letter, the lawmakers demanded that the Education Department turn over the documents within the week.
“Nearly six weeks have passed, and the Committee has not received a response letter, much less any information or documents,” Foxx said in a letter Thursday to U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.
Moreover, the Education Department’s Legislation and Congressional Affairs Office didn’t mention the department’s progress on producing the documents during a June 7 meeting with the House education committee’s oversight team, according to Foxx’s letter.
Another conversation between the two groups on July 11 also “yielded no documents or commitment to sending documents,” she added.
“Given the lack of full responsiveness on these critical matters, the Committee has determined that compulsory measures are necessary,” Foxx said.
Roughly 241,000 fewer high school seniors completed the FAFSA through July 12 compared to the same time last year, according to tracking from the National College Attainment Network. This deficit has prompted widespread concerns that the form’s botched rollout will lead to college enrollment declines this fall.
