WASHINGTON, D.C. – Leading aggressive oversight of the U.S. Department of Education Friday during a hearing held by the Higher Education and Workforce Training Subcommittee, U.S. Rep. Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson prompted Inspector General Kathleen Tighe to further investigate allegations of improprieties within the DOE regarding the recently unveiled communications between the department and Wall Street about proposed regulations.
Thompson submitted for the record a letter which cited a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that indicates high level officials at the DOE were speaking to hedge fund managers regarding the release date of proposed “Gainful Employment” regulations for proprietary career colleges, many of which are publicly traded entities.
According to him, the emails warrant further examination from the Department’s Office of Inspector General. Thompson pressed Tighe to ensure that they would be working with the Security and Exchange Commission to further investigate questions surrounding the FOIA findings.
Thompson has continued thorough oversight of the administration’s regulatory proposals and program funding, in particular those related to Gainful Employment, a process that would impose arbitrary requirements on proprietary schools and deny access to thousands of higher education students, and has recently drawn bipartisan opposition.
In May 2010, Thompson requested the DOE to vacate the proposed regulations and recently worked with a bipartisan group of colleagues to pass House Amendment 214, an amendment to the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act of 2011, which would prohibit funds to be used by the DOE to implement regulations on Gainful Employment.
Click here to view the hearing.
