{"id":1520693,"date":"2022-06-17T12:34:50","date_gmt":"2022-06-17T16:34:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1520693"},"modified":"2022-06-17T12:35:17","modified_gmt":"2022-06-17T16:35:17","slug":"house-gop-demands-investigation-into-biden-staffers-who-could-benefit-from-student-loan-forgiveness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-gop-demands-investigation-into-biden-staffers-who-could-benefit-from-student-loan-forgiveness\/","title":{"rendered":"House GOP Demands Investigation Into Biden Staffers Who Could Benefit From Student Loan Forgiveness"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhouse-gop-demands-investigation-into-biden-staffers-who-could-benefit-from-student-loan-forgiveness%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1520693&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><ul>\n<li><strong>House GOP members are calling on the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) to probe conflicts of interest in the White House after the Biden administration has floated student loan forgiveness for federal borrowers.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>There are more than two dozen senior White House staffers who have student loan debt, according to 2021 financial disclosures obtained by Bloomberg News, adding up to $4.7 million.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>\u201cThe idea that Biden staffers may be using their positions inside the administration to push the president to use taxpayer dollars on loan forgiveness that may directly benefit them is beyond troubling,\u201d Pete McGinnis, the spokesman for the Functional Government Initiative, a federal watchdog probing abuse in government, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. \u201cIt\u2019s exactly the type of insider dealing and government dysfunction that Americans are fed up with.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>House Republicans are demanding an ethics probe into potential conflicts of interest among White House staffers and their family members who may benefit from student loan forgiveness, a policy the Biden administration is considering.<\/p>\n<p>Political appointees are \u201cpresumably\u201d included in the loan forgiveness program President Joe Biden \u201cis planning to undertake,\u201d Sens. James Comer of Kentucky and Virginia Foxx of North Carolina <a href=\"https:\/\/republicans-oversight.house.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Student-Loan-Debt-WH-Letter-0615202.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">say<\/a>. There must be an investigation into the finances of Biden administration employees, the lawmakers wrote in a letter to the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) Director Emory Rounds III Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn addition to the substantial and negative ramifications of this illegal action, we are especially concerned that this policy may have been promulgated by White House staffers who stand to financially benefit from the decision, especially considering recent reports that White House political appointees owe millions in student loan debt,\u201d the Republicans said. <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2022\/05\/06\/house-republicans-legislation-greg-murphy-ban-joe-biden-administration-canceling-student-loan-debt\/\"><strong>(RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: House Republicans Introduce Legislation That Would Ban Biden From Canceling Student Loan Debt)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The administration is now considering a plan to wipe away $10,000 per borrower, if not more, The Washington Post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/us-policy\/2022\/05\/27\/biden-student-debt-borrower\/\">reported<\/a>. The plan would apply to individuals who earned fewer than $150,000 in the prior year and married couples filing jointly who made fewer than $300,000, two sources familiar with the matter told the Post.<\/p>\n<p>The president is \u201cnot considering\u201d $50,000 worth in \u201cdebt reduction,\u201d he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/biden-says-considering-student-debt-forgiveness-less-50000-rcna26474\">said<\/a> Thursday during a speech at the White House, but is \u201cin the process of taking a hard look at whether or not there will be additional debt forgiveness.\u201d Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2021\/09\/21\/schumer-calls-on-biden-to-cancel-50000-in-student-debt-for-all-.html\">has<\/a> continued to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/zackfriedman\/2021\/06\/29\/schumer-tells-biden-to-cancel-50000-of-student-loans-but-new-research-says-student-loan-cancellation-benefits-wealthy\/?sh=52831fcc3d72\">demand<\/a> Biden <a href=\"https:\/\/nationalinterest.org\/blog\/politics\/schumer-hopeful-biden-will-forgive-50k-student-loan-debt-202123\">erase<\/a> $50,000 worth of student loan debt.<\/p>\n<p>There are more than two dozen senior White House staffers who have student loan debt, <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/wV7Ac\">according<\/a> to 2021 financial disclosures Bloomberg News obtained from OGE in May. Combined, the staffers owe up to $4.7 million, the outlet reported.<\/p>\n<p>Comer told The Daily Caller News Foundation that Biden\u2019s student loan \u201cbailout\u201d is unfair to American workers who are not college educated or \u201cmade tough financial decisions\u201d to pay for their college degree. Forgiving student debt amounts to \u201cethical concerns\u201d and OGE should \u201cprovide answers\u201d in order to confirm staffers \u201care not seeking to gain a financial windfall,\u201d he also said.<\/p>\n<p>Among those who listed debt on their financial disclosures are White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and National Economic Council Deputy Director Bharat Ramamurti, Bloomberg News reported. Not all former and current staff have filed their disclosures, the outlet reported.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe last thing that hardworking taxpayers in this country should be doing is footing the $4.7 million student loan bill for political appointees in the Biden White House,\u201d Foxx told TheDCNF. \u201cWhen these men and women took out their student loans, they signed on the dotted line and made a commitment that the money would be repaid \u2014 there\u2019s no such thing as a free lunch.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7453551\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-7453551\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">US President Joe Biden addresses the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate from the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next to the White House, in Washington, DC on June 17, 2022. \u2013 Biden told the conference that Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine shows the shift to renewable energy is a matter of national security as well as vital to preventing climate crisis. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN \/ AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Republicans are asking OGE to provide them by June 29 with a list of all Biden administration employees who have worked on student loan forgiveness policy, as well as documents and communications \u201cindicating\u201d which employees have debt that the policy would wave away.\u00a0They are also asking for signed ethics waiver copies for employees who have worked on the Biden administration\u2019s forgiveness policy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe idea that Biden staffers may be using their positions inside the administration to push the president to use taxpayer dollars on loan forgiveness that may directly benefit them is beyond troubling,\u201d Pete McGinnis, the spokesman for the Functional Government Initiative, a federal <a href=\"https:\/\/functionalgovernment.org\/\">watchdog<\/a> probing abuse in government, told TheDCNF. \u201cIt\u2019s exactly the type of insider dealing and government dysfunction that Americans are fed up with.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment by The Daily Caller News Foundation, nor did Jean-Pierre, OGE or Ramamurti.<\/p>\n<p>Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact <a href=\"mailto:licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org\">licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>House GOP members are calling on the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) to probe conflicts of interest in the White House after the Biden administration has floated student loan forgiveness<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":381,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1520693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1520693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/381"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1520693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1520693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1520693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1520693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1520693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}