Press Releases

Currently showing results related to Oversight

House Chairs Condemn President Trump’s Assault on IGs

04.10.20 WASHINGTON - Today, the chairs of multiple House Committees sent a letter condemning President Donald Trump's assault on Inspectors General (IGs) and requesting direct input from the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency on legislative and other proposals to increase the independence of IGs and protect them from retaliation. "Unlike any President in modern history, President Trump has engaged in offensive and unjustified attacks against Inspectors General, criticizing th… Continue Reading

Committee Leadership Celebrate Final Passage of Supporting Older Americans Act

03.11.20 WASHINGTON - Today, the House unanimously passed the Supporting Older Americans Act of 2020 (H.R. 4334), a bipartisan proposal that increases funding for vital programs that help aging Americans live independently and with dignity. The legislation - which passed the Senate last week - reauthorizes the Older Americans Act (OAA), the primary legislation that covers social and nutrition services for older Americans and their caregivers. The OAA serves roughly 11 million older Americans every year,… Continue Reading

Chairman Scott Asks Education Department Watchdog to Investigate DeVos’ Plan to Deny Full Debt Relief for Defrauded Borrowers

03.09.20 WASHINGTON - Today, Committee on Education and Labor Chairman Robert C. "Bobby" Scott (VA-03) sent a letter to the Education Department's Office of Inspector General (OIG) requesting an investigation into the Department's plan to deny full debt relief for borrowers defrauded by for-profit colleges. The request comes after multiple independent analyses found that the Department's new plan to provide only partial relief to defrauded borrowers was "nonsensical and harmful to students." On Decembe… Continue Reading

Scott, Trahan Seek Explanation for Education Department’s Scheme to Deny Full Debt Relief for Thousands of Defrauded Borrowers

02.03.20 WASHINGTON - Today, Committee on Education and Labor Chairman Robert C. "Bobby" Scott (VA-03) and Representative Lori Trahan (MA-03) sent a letter to Education Department Secretary Betsy DeVos requesting documents and further information regarding the Department's deeply flawed partial relief formula and the Department's efforts to alter the formula. Two days before Secretary DeVos' testimony before the Committee, the Department unveiled a new formula to process claims by defrauded borrowers … Continue Reading

Lawmakers Question Education Department and Accreditor About Fake Universities Used to Entrap Foreign-National Students

01.16.20 Text of the Letter to Education Department (PDF) | Text of the Letter to Accreditor (PDF) Washington, DC - House Education and Labor Committee Vice Chair Andy Levin (D-Mich.), House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Investment Chair Susan Davis (D-Calif.); and United States Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee; sent letters to the Department of Education and the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools an… Continue Reading

Top Committee Democrats Call on Labor Secretary to Quantify How Much Workers Will Lose Under Proposed Tip Rule

10.24.19 WASHINGTON - Today, top Democrats on the Education and Labor Committee submitted a letter to Department of Labor (DOL) Secretary Eugene Scalia calling on the Department to publish legally required estimates about the full impact of its proposed tip rule on American workers. The proposed rule, published earlier this month, included a provision codifying a repeal of the 80/20 rule but failed to include an economic analysis of the potential costs to workers, as required by law. The 80/20 rule proh… Continue Reading

Scott Statement on Revisions to OSHA’s Beryllium Standards for Construction and Shipyards

09.27.19 WASHINGTON - Chairman Bobby Scott (VA-03) issued the following statement after the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced today that it is vacating the June 27, 2017, proposed rule to roll back protections for construction and maritime workers from exposure to beryllium. That proposal would have eliminated ancillary protections that had been included in OSHA's final beryllium standards issued on January 9, 2017. The compliance date for the ancillary… Continue Reading

GAO Report Reveals Education Department’s Failure to Implement Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program

09.05.19 WASHINGTON - A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released today reveals that the Department of Education is denying 99 percent of student borrowers applying for loan forgiveness under the Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (TEPSLF). Congress established the emergency TEPSLF program last year in response to extremely high denial rates for the original Public Loan Service Forgiveness (PSLF) program, giving the Department specific instructions to simplify and exp… Continue Reading

Committee Chairs to Secretary DeVos: Weak Oversight of Student Loan Industry is Hurting Students and Families

08.13.19 WASHINGTON - Today, Education and Labor Committee Chairman Bobby Scott (VA-03), Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (CA-43), and Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (MD-07) sent a letter to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos expressing deep concern over the Education Department's failure to protect students and families from student loan companies. The letter addresses recent reports that the Department is shielding student loan servicing companies from sta… Continue Reading

Scott, Cummings, and Norton Seek Compliance in D.C. School Voucher Investigation

07.30.19 WASHINGTON-Today, Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA), Chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor, Congressman Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD), Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, and Oversight and Reform Committee Member Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) sent a letter to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos seeking a response to a document request made in March 2019 for documents and information on the federal private school voucher program in the District of Columbia. "We w… Continue Reading

Chairman Scott Statement on Closing of Dream Center-Owned College Chain

03.07.19 WASHINGTON - Chairman Bobby Scott (VA-03) issued a statement following the announcement that 22 Dream Center-owned colleges will close tomorrow. "The closure of Dream Center-owned college chains, including Argosy University, will have terrible, life-altering consequences for thousands of students on 22 campuses across the country. Many students are now left with burdensome debt and few options to finish their degree. Students should never be put in this situation. "The Department of Education … Continue Reading

Murray, Davis Request Information from U.S. Department of Education on Mismanagement of Federal Student Loan Program

03.05.19 WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-CA), Chair of the House Higher Education and Workforce Investment Subcommittee, sent two letters today to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos on the recent Office of Inspector General (OIG) report that found internal failures at the Department to appropriately oversee student loan servicers that receive federal contracts. The first l… Continue Reading

Scott, Murray Blast DeVos for Deeply Flawed Rulemaking Process That Could Weaken Key Protections for Students

10.31.18 WASHINGTON - Today, Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA), ranking member of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, and U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee, sent a letter to Secretary Betsy DeVos urging the Department of Education (ED) to suspend the flawed, forthcoming negotiated rulemaking process that could abandon key protections for students and give predatory institutions free reign to take advantage of st… Continue Reading

Top House Democrats to DeVos: Reverse Changes to College Scorecard

10.29.18 WASHINGTON - Today, four House Democrats sent a letter to Secretary Betsy DeVos calling on the Department of Education to reverse its changes to the College Scorecard, a widely used tool that helps prospective students make informed decisions regarding college enrollment. In September, the Department removed a metric from the College Scorecard that allowed consumers to compare schools' academic and financial outcomes to the national median, which allowed students and parents to make sense of the… Continue Reading

Top Democrats to OMB: Don’t Suppress Data on Pay Discrimination

10.24.18 WASHINGTON - Ranking Member Bobby Scott (VA-03), the top Democrat on the Committee on Education and the Workforce, Congressman Mark Takano (CA-41), the top Democrat on the Workforce Protections Subcommittee, and Congressman Don Beyer (VA-08), sent a letter to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney requesting that he reverse a decision to stop the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) from collecting data on pay discrimination. Under the Obama administration, the … Continue Reading

Democratic Committee Leaders Slam New Trump Administration Health Care Sabotage

10.22.18 WASHINGTON - Today, the three House Democratic leaders of the committees with jurisdiction over health care, Education and the Workforce Ranking Member Bobby Scott (D-VA), Ways and Means Ranking Member Richard Neal (D-MA), and Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) released the following joint statement after the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of the Treasury issued a new guidance. This guidance continues Republicans' unrelenting push to sabotage… Continue Reading

Over 150 Democrats Call on DeVos to Release More Information about the Department’s Failure to Faithfully Implement the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program

10.17.18 WASHINGTON - Ranking Member Bobby Scott (VA-03), House Committee on Education and the Workforce, Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA), Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, along with Representatives Susan Davis (CA-53) and John Sarbanes (MD-03), and Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO), led more than 150 Democrats requesting Education Secretary Betsy DeVos turn over more information-and swiftly act to fix- regarding the Department's flawed handling … Continue Reading

Scott Statement on Education Department Missing Deadline to Finalize Rollback of Consumer Protections

10.03.18 WASHINGTON - Ranking Member Bobby Scott (VA-03) issued the following statement in response to reports that the Education Department will miss a deadline to finalize its rollback of rules that protect students from predatory schools. The delay, which is a result of the overwhelming number of public comments submitted in response to the proposals, means the Obama-era protections for students and taxpayers will remain in effect until at least July 1, 2020. "The reported delay in the Trump administ… Continue Reading

Top House Democrats: Proposed Change to Child Labor Rules Could Endanger Young People and Patients

09.26.18 WASHINGTON - Ranking Member Bobby Scott (VA-03), Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03), and Congressman Mark Takano (CA-41), and Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard issued the following statement after the U.S. Department of Labor released a proposed rule to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to operate patient lifts in health care settings. "This rushed proposal to repeal restrictions on teens' use of patient lifts could endanger the safety of young workers and the patients they serve. It appears the De… Continue Reading

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