Two Republican state attorneys general are accusing Education Secretary Miguel Cardona of "flagrant" Hatch Act violations over comments made about the Biden administration's student loan transfer scheme.
In a letter to the Hatch Act unit special counsel on Wednesday, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen (R) and Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach (R) said 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."
The Hatch Act prohibits civil service employees, including most political appointees, from engaging in partisan political activity while in their official capacity.
"The violations appear to be flagrant, such that a substantial penalty is warranted," the letter stated.
Knudsen and Kobach questioned both the timing and political nature of Cardona's statements and actions, as two different attempts by the Biden administration to cancel student loans, which would effectively transfer student loan debt to taxpayers who may not have even gone to college, were aligned with elections and called out Republicans explicitly.
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 lifechanging opportunities a higher education can provide," the education secretary wrote in the letter.
Defending Cardona, a spokesperson for the Department of Education said, "The statements were factually accurate descriptions of the lawsuits, were for the purpose of addressing potential borrower confusion about the status of their loans in the wake of the court decisions, and did not violate the Hatch Act," according to Fox News.
In addition to highlighting what they said were partisan talking points from official administration communications, the GOP attorneys general pointed out the timing of both student loan transfer schemes.
"The timing of the Biden-Harris Administration’s debt cancellation plans makes plain 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.
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They also noted that despite the Supreme Court striking down an initial attempt to transfer $400 billion in student loan debt to taxpayers last year, the Biden administration came out with a new $156 billion transfer scheme only 10 days after the high court's decision.
In the letter, Knudsen and Kobach argued that Cardona "consciously chose to use government resources for political activities, including to affect the upcoming Presidential election . In view of the repeated, flagrant violations of the Hatch Act, a significant penalty is warranted."
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