Hatch Act VIOLATIONS Over Student Loans
Miguel Cardona, the Secretary of Education, is being accused by two Republican state attorneys general of “flagrant” violations of the Hatch Act due to remarks he made about the Biden administration’s student loan transfer program.
Attorneys General Austin Knudsen (R) of Montana and Kris Kobach (R) of Kansas claimed that Cardona made “on-duty partisan political statements made in their respective official capacities, and the statements were for the apparent purpose of affecting the outcome of the 2024 Presidential election” in a letter to the Hatch Act unit special counsel on Wednesday.
The Hatch Act forbids partisan political engagement by civil service personnel, including the majority of political appointees, while they are serving in their official capacities.
“The violations appear to be flagrant, such that a substantial penalty is warranted,” the letter stated.
The timing and political bent of Cardona’s remarks and actions were questioned by Knudsen and Kobach because of the Biden administration’s two attempts to cancel student loans, which would essentially shift the debt to taxpayers who may not have attended college at all. These attempts were timed to coincide with elections and specifically targeted Republicans.
In a July 15 letter on official Department of Education letterhead, Cardona said, “Biden and I are determined to lower costs for student loan borrowers, to make repaying student debt affordable and realistic, and to build on our separate efforts that have already provided relief to 4.75 million Americans – no matter how many times Republican elected officials try to stop us.”
“While we disagree with the Republican elected officials’ efforts here to side with special interests and block borrowers from getting breathing room on their student loans, President Biden and our Administration will not stop fighting to make sure Americans have affordable access to the life-changing opportunities a higher education can provide,” the education secretary wrote in the letter.
The GOP attorneys general drew attention to the timing of both student loan transfer plans in addition to highlighting what they claimed were politicized talking lines from official administration communications.
“The timing of the Biden-Harris Administration’s debt cancellation plans makes clear their pretextual nature. The first round of debt relief was rushed out in time for the 2022 elections in a transparent bread-and-circuses attempt to boost base turnout and, in essence, buy votes with federal funds,” Knudsen and Kobach wrote.
They also pointed out that the Biden administration unveiled a new $156 billion transfer plan just ten days after the Supreme Court’s ruling last year, despite the court’s ruling upholding an earlier attempt to shift $400 billion in student loan debt to taxpayers.
