President-elect Donald Trump stands with Betsy DeVos after a meeting at his golf club in Bedminster Township, N.J., Nov. 19. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
A group of Senate Democrats is urging President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for education secretary, Betsy DeVos, to pay $5.3 million in fines imposed on her political action committee for campaign finance violations in Ohio eight years ago.
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“As secretary of education, Betsy DeVos would be responsible for overseeing the nation’s student loan program, including ensuring that students repay their loans, so it’s troubling that she has blatantly ignored her own PAC’s debt to the people of Ohio,” said Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.). “When a student borrower defaults, it has serious ramifications that haunt that student for years — yet when DeVos’s PAC defaulted on its fine for violating the law, they just walked away.”
Udall, along with Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), sent DeVos a letter this week requesting she pay the millions of dollars in fines and late fees ahead of her confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
Representatives for DeVos, a conservative who has pushed to expand taxpayer-funded vouchers for private and religious schools, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The debt stems from a 2008 case the Ohio Elections Commission brought against All Children Matter, an organization DeVos headed that lobbied for school-choice legislation. Two years earlier, the PAC asked the commission whether it was allowed to contribute more than the $10,000 limit to an affiliate in Ohio. Even though the commission advised that such a move would be in violation of state law, All Children Matter proceeded to provide $870,000 to the Ohio outfit.
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The “blatant disregard for the law,” as Democratic lawmakers call it, led the state election commission to impose $2.6 million in fines, its largest penalty to date. The PAC fought the decision, but an Ohio court upheld the fine and imposed additional late fees. All Children Matter’s PAC, however, ceased operations and walked away from the debt.
“That’s not acceptable behavior from anyone, much less a Cabinet secretary for a President-elect who promised to ‘drain the swamp’ of insiders who game the system for special treatment,” Udall said. “I hope Ms. DeVos will have the good judgment to ensure her own PAC’s fine is paid.”
Although tax filings lists DeVos as an officer in All Children Matter, she was never named in the case. The umbrella organization still exists, even though the PAC closed up shop. Yet according to 2015 tax filings it has less than $300, not nearly enough to cover the millions of dollars owed.