Budget Chairmen: Dept. of Ed’s Rule Could Cost Taxpayers Billions
WASHINGTON D.C. – Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY) and House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-GA) have asked the Department of Education for additional information concerning a new proposal by the department that could add as much as $41 billion to the cost of the federal student loan program over the next decade, according to an administration estimate.
Read the full letter to the Department of Education here.
Excerpts follow:
“This is the latest in a series of administrative actions taken by the Education Department under this administration that have substantially increased the cost of the Federal direct student loan program. There are at present no budget control mechanisms to limit the cost of administrative changes to the student loan programs made pursuant to current law, however great the cost or the departure from long-standing policy.
“This administration has used its discretion to spend billions of unbudgeted dollars, most recently via a loan repayment/forgiveness rule published last October that the Department estimated would cost taxpayers $15.3 billion over 10 years.”
Chairman Enzi continues to track the Education Department’s unbudgeted spending and irresponsible accounting. Last June, he requested a Government Accountability Office examination of how the Department underestimated the cost of its own unbudgeted expansion of borrower repayment reductions and loan forgiveness. And in October, he issued a Budget Bulletin describing ways in which the agency has used administrative actions to increase spending and deficits without Congressional action or approval.
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