DeLauro and Murray Call for Full Transparency Surrounding Rewrite of Rule to Protect Defrauded Students

WASHINGTON, D.C. (November 14, 2017)– Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), ranking member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, sent a letter to Secretary DeVos voicing concerns about the lack of transparency surrounding the "borrower defense" rulemaking process, and urging Secretary DeVos to open all meetings related to this rule to the public. The borrower defense rule allows for much-needed relief for students who were cheated out of their education and savings by predatory institutions, including Corinthian Colleges. The Department, however, inexplicably established a private subcommittee meeting to deal with the rules measuring the financial health of institutions of higher education.

"Given the Trump Administration's repeated efforts to undermine protections for defrauded students, we are deeply concerned by the lack of full transparency surrounding the borrower defense rule, which is intended to aid students who were cheated out of their education and savings," wrote the Members of Congress.

After Secretary DeVos delayed implementation of an updated version of the borrower defense rule—which would provide further protections for taxpayers and students that were defrauded by predatory for-profit colleges—negotiations to rewrite the rule began on Monday. However, the negotiations were temporarily stalled when the Department of Education refused to allow the panels to be livestreamed and reiterated its opposition in allowing the public to observe the subcommittee meetings.

The full letter is available here.