参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦敦促教育部长琳达·麦克马洪恢复前教育部雇员的职位，她说这些雇员对国家的联邦学生贷款程序至关重要，否则借款人将遭受“可怕的后果”，据一家信沃伦周三发给麦克马洪。
沃伦和一群民主党参议员在给麦克马洪的一封信中写道:“教育部(ED)似乎正在放弃数百万依靠正常运作的联邦学生援助系统来降低教育成本的家长、学生和借款人。”
“教育署应该立即恢复所有被解雇的负责审查学生援助投诉的[联邦学生援助]雇员，并避免采取任何措施阻止投诉的提交，”参议员补充说。
FSA公务员的任务是帮助全国学生实现高等教育，包括监督1.6万亿美元的学生贷款组合，并为学生上大学提供助学金。这是教育部最大的办公室之一。该办公室有1，000多名员工，超过整个教育部员工总数的四分之一。
根据这封信，FSA在2024财年收到了近30万起投诉。根据这封信，特朗普教育部打算从FSA的网站上删除“提交投诉”按钮。该公司发现，该部门的一名高级员工称这一举措是“整体胜利”，因为这一改变将减少投诉的数量和次数。但去年该办公室90%以上的投诉都是在网上提交的。
“教育署的行为将伤害那些试图了解如何正确提交FAFSA以便能够负担得起送孩子上大学的父母，那些由于他们的部署而贷款偿还状态被错误处理的退伍军人，以及那些被掠夺性盈利性学校不当扣留援助的学生，”信中说。
这封信声称，金融服务管理局网站的变化，如移动提交投诉功能，削弱了金融服务管理局解决投诉的能力，并使借款人面临贷款诈骗的风险。马萨诸塞州沃伦。，参议员们要求回答该机构的投诉积压，该部门为什么解雇公务员，以及埃隆·马斯克和政府效率部对解雇有多大影响。
“唐纳德·特朗普告诉学生，如果你被你的学生贷款服务机构诈骗，或者在获得上大学所需的援助方面遇到问题，他不在乎，”沃伦在给美国广播公司新闻的一份声明中说。“麦克马洪部长正在帮助特朗普剥夺那些只想接受良好教育的孩子的机会，结果，真正的人将受到伤害。参议院的民主党人不会放弃我们的孩子，我们正在反击，”沃伦补充道。
多位知情人士告诉美国广播公司新闻，预计唐纳德·特朗普总统将于周四签署一项行政命令，在白宫改组美国教育部。据知情人士透露，总统的命令将指示麦克马洪采取法律允许的一切必要措施解散国务院。参议院需要60票才能解散这个由国会创建的机构。
据该机构称，教育部上周采取了初步措施，通过大规模裁员、推迟辞职和退休买断来削减该机构近一半的劳动力。在一名联邦法官下令前试用员工复职后，数十人被重新雇用。一位知情人士告诉ABC新闻，大部分力量的减少影响了民权办公室和联邦学生援助办公室。
裁员前，该办公室约有1，400名员工，上周裁员后，将有数百人失业。麦克马洪最近强调，尽管如此，教育部仍将继续管理来自弱势背景的学生所依赖的法定职能，包括助学金、公式资助和贷款。
她在福克斯新闻频道的“英格拉哈姆角度”节目中说:“我们希望确保我们留住所有合适的人，优秀的人，确保面向外部的项目，拨款，国会的拨款，所有这些都得到满足，没有一个会被遗漏。”。
据知情人士透露，FSA的业务已经受到影响。联邦学生贷款网站上周短暂关闭。据消息人士称，被解雇后不到24小时，IT员工就被疯狂地召集起来，参加长达一小时的故障排除电话会议。
在乔·拜登总统的任期内普遍存在的问题免费申请联邦学生资助，或FAFSA，表格。在去年春天的众议院拨款委员会听证会上，前教育部长米格尔·卡多纳说，教育部正在“昼夜不停地”修复表格的拙劣推出麦克马洪的部门吹捧的数字增加了50%FAFSA应用与去年同期相比。
沃伦和参议院卫生、教育、劳工和养老金委员会的资深成员伯尼·桑德斯是签署这封信的11名议员之一。政府回应的最后期限是4月2日。
一名前金融服务管理局律师在借款人辩护部门负责监督和执行，他说，当他们在情人节被解雇时，他们非常伤心。
自从上个月支票不再寄来，这位前雇员说靠失业救济金生活很困难。这位前雇员描述说，在被解雇之前，他的收入只有他们收入的五分之一。
然而，他们说给麦克马洪的信给了他们新的希望。
“如果我能回到我的工作岗位，我会毫不犹豫地接受，”这位前FSA律师告诉ABC新闻，并补充说，“我喜欢我们所做的工作。”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren warns of 'dire consequences' of Education Department firings for student loans
Sen. Elizabeth Warren is urging Education Secretary Linda McMahon to reinstate former Department of Education employees she says were critical to the nation's federal student loan process or else borrowers will suffer "dire consequences," according to aletterWarren sent to McMahon on Wednesday.
"The Department of Education (ED) appears to be abandoning the millions of parents, students, and borrowers who rely on a functioning federal student aid system to lower education costs," Warren and a group of Democratic senators wrote in a letter to McMahon.
"ED should immediately restore all fired [Federal Student Aid] employees responsible for reviewing student aid complaints and refrain from taking any measures to deter the submission of complaints," the senators added.
FSA civil servants are tasked with helping the nation's students achieve higher education, including overseeing a $1.6 trillion portfolio of student loans, and providing grants to students to attend college. Its one of the largest offices within the Education Department. The office has over 1,000 employees, which is over a quarter of the entire Education Department's workforce.
FSA received nearly 300,000 complaints in fiscal year 2024, according to the letter. The Trump Education Department intended to remove the "Submit a Complaint" button from FSA's website, according to the letter. It found a senior employee at the department called the move an "overall win" as the change would decrease the volume and number of complaints. But more than 90% of the office's complaints were submitted online last year.
"ED's actions will hurt parents trying to understand how to submit the FAFSA correctly so that they can afford to send their child to college, veterans whose loan repayment status has been processed incorrectly due to their deployment, and students whose aid is being improperly withheld by predatory for-profit schools," the letter said.
The letter alleges the FSA website changes -- like moving the submit a complaint function -- weakens FSA's capacity to resolve complaints and puts borrowers at risk of loan scams. Warren, D-Mass., and the senators demand answers about the agency's complaint backlog, why the department fired the civil servants, and how much influence Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency had on the firings.
"Donald Trump is telling students that if you're scammed by your student loan servicer or have a problem getting the aid you need to go to college, he doesn't care," Warren said in a statement to ABC News. "Secretary McMahon is helping Trump rip opportunities away from kids who just want a good education, and as a result, real people will get hurt. Democrats in the Senate are not going to roll over and give up on our kids -- we're fighting back," Warren added.
This comes as President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order to gut the U.S. Department of Education at the White House on Thursday, multiple sources familiar told ABC News. The president's order will direct McMahon to take all necessary steps permitted by law to dissolve department, according to the sources familiar. It would take 60 votes in the Senate to dismantle the agency that Congress created.
The Education Department took its first steps to eliminate nearly half the agency's workforce last week through a massive reduction in force, deferred resignations and retirement buyouts, according to the agency. After a federal judge ordered that former probationary employees be reinstated, dozens were rehired. A source familiar told ABC News that most of the reduction in force impacted the offices for Civil Rights and Federal Student Aid.
The office had about 1,400 employees before the layoffs and hundreds will be lost after last week's cuts. Still, the department will continue to administer its statutory functions that students from disadvantaged backgrounds rely on, including grants, formula funding and loans, McMahon stressed recently.
"We wanted to make sure that we kept all of the right people, the good people, to make sure that the outward-facing programs, the grants, the appropriations that come from Congress, all of that are being met and none of that is going to fall through the cracks," she said on "The Ingraham Angle" on Fox News.
FSA's operations have already been impacted, according to a source familiar. The federal student loan website was down briefly last week. Less than 24 hours after being fired, IT employees were called frantically to join an hours-long troubleshooting call, according to the source.
Throughout President Joe Biden's tenure there werewidespread issueswith the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, form. During a House Committee on Appropriations hearing last spring former Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the department was working on fixing the botched rollout of the form "around the clock." McMahon's department touted a 50% increase on the number ofFAFSA applicationssubmitted compared to this time last year.
Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders, the ranking member on the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, were among the 11 lawmakers who signed the letter. The deadline for the administration to respond is April 2.
A former FSA attorney, who did oversight and enforcement in the borrower defense unit, said they were heartbroken when they were let go from their dream job on Valentine's Day.
Since the checks stopped coming in last month, the former employee said it's been difficult living on unemployment benefits. The former employee described making about a fifth of what they brought in before being fired.
However, they said the letter to McMahon gives them renewed hope.
"If I could get my job back I would take it in a heartbeat," the former FSA attorney told ABC News, adding, "I loved the work that we did."
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