EXCLUSIVE — House Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-PA) are seeking answers from the Department of Education after the agency failed to provide documentation to an external auditor.
In a letter sent to the department Monday, which was provided exclusively to the Washington Examiner, Foxx and Smucker demanded the agency turn over records related to the agency's cooperation with KPMG in conducting an independent audit of the agency's fiscal 2022 financial statements.
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The audit report, which was released last month, included a disclaimer that said the department had not provided documentation supporting certain cost estimates related to the Biden administration's plan to forgive up to $20,000 in student loans for borrowers making less than $125,000 a year.
"During fiscal year 2022, the Department announced broad-based debt relief for certain of its student loan borrowers under the Direct Loan and Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) programs," the audit disclaimer said. "Management estimated the subsidy costs stemming from the broad-based debt relief as of September 30, 2022. However, management was unable to provide adequate evidential matter to support certain key assumptions used to estimate the subsidy costs. As a result of this matter, we were unable to determine whether any adjustments to the balance sheet might have been necessary with respect to the fiscal year 2022."
In their letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, Foxx and Smucker said the department's failure to cooperate fully with the audit "is yet another example of this administration’s lack of transparency when it comes to wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars."
"Given your Department’s track record of hiding the costs of the Direct Loan and Federal Family Education Loan programs, we are greatly concerned about the lack of a sufficient evidentiary basis for the cost estimates of the President’s illegal debt relief plan," the lawmakers wrote, including a list of desired documents.
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In a speech on the House floor Tuesday, Foxx said she had "had enough with the Biden Department of Education’s utterly dishonest accounting tricks" and noted the department's estimate that a widespread student loan forgiveness would cost $300 billion over 10 years differed from the Congressional Budget Office's estimate of $400 billion.
"At worst, the department is trying to hide the true cost to taxpayers of these debt bailout schemes," Foxx said. "At best, the department is practicing shoddy accounting — again. Either way, this is a completely irresponsible way to govern such a major program."