Warren requests GAO investigation into Education Department layoffs

Sen. Elizabeth Warren requested the head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office to investigate whether staff cuts at the U.S. Department of Education have hampered the agency’s ability to combat fraud and abuse carried out by colleges. 

As part of the Education Department’s mass layoffs last year, the Office of Federal Student Aid lost about 46% of its employees, according to a recent GAO report.

“Alarmingly, this included workers who were responsible for overseeing colleges to combat fraud, waste, and abuse of the federal financial aid funds that millions of students rely upon,” Warren said in her letter last week. 

Before the cuts, the Massachusetts Democrat said, the Education Department monitored colleges that receive federal student aid to ensure they were complying with federal requirements. That included reviewing independent compliance audits to ensure colleges weren’t misusing student aid and investigating institutions suspected of wrongdoing, such as misleading students about their costs or programs.

The Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. 

Warren raised particular concerns with for-profit colleges, which bore the brunt of FSA’s enforcement actions during the Biden administration, according to her letter. 

“The prospect of a reduction in FSA’s enforcement activity is especially concerning in light of recent Trump administration policies that are poised to boost the growth of for-profit colleges,” Warren said, listing the upcoming expansion of Pell Grant eligibility to short-term programs as an example. 

Warren asked Orice Williams Brown, the GAO’s acting comptroller, to estimate the financial costs the government would incur from lessened oversight of colleges. She also asked for other information, such as whether the cuts have impacted how many investigations and enforcement actions that department pursues.

The Trump administration has made dismantling the Education Department a policy priority, though fully eliminating the agency would require congressional approval. Along with the workforce reductions, the Education Department has also struck 10 agreements with other federal agencies to offload some of its duties — moves that some Democratic lawmakers have called illegal.