House committee calls for investigation into possible ethics violations by Biden’s education secretary

EXCLUSIVE: The House Education and Workforce Committee is calling for an investigation into whether Education Secretary Miguel Cardona violated the Hatch Act in an email blaming Republicans for the failure of the administration’s student loan repayment plan.

The committee on Tuesday wrote a letter to Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger regarding a July 2024 email from Cardona that was reportedly sent to “student loan borrowers.”

The email, reviewed by Fox News Digital, shows that the education secretary cited “Republican elected officials” three times as the reason for the Biden administration’s obstacles to student loan repayment.

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As stated in the committee’s letter, the Hatch Act is a federal law that prohibits government officials from using their “official authority or influence to affect or influence the outcome of an election.” The GOP-led committee claimed that Cardona’s email was “a message that appears to have been sent to help the Democratic Party and the Biden-Harris administration in the November 2024 election.”

It was signed by Republican representatives Virginia Foxx of North Carolina and Keith Self of Texas.

Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona speaks during the 2022 National and State Teachers of the Year event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, April 27, 2022. (Susan Walsh)

“In recent weeks, several federal courts have issued rulings in lawsuits brought by Republican officials who are siding with special interests seeking to deny Americans access to the full benefits of the cheapest student loan repayment plan ever – the SAVE (Saving on a Valuable Education Plan),” Cardona’s July email said.

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Cardona added that the Biden administration will continue to fight for student debt relief, “no matter how many times Republican elected officials try to stop us.”

Rep. Virginia Foxx, RN.C, leaves a meeting of the House Republican Conference at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington on May 17, 2022. (Bill Clark)

“While we disagree with Republican officials’ efforts to side with special interests and deny borrowers a reprieve from repaying their student loans, President Biden and our administration will not stop fighting to ensure Americans have affordable access to the life-changing opportunities that higher education can provide,” he wrote.

The letter also mentioned a July 19 press release from Cardona’s office, issued after a federal appeals court ruling blocking President Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan. It said, in part, “It is shameful that politically motivated lawsuits by Republican elected officials are once again standing in the way of lower payments for millions of borrowers.”

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Efforts to reach the Ministry of Education for comment were unsuccessful.