DeVos to testify before House committee next week

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is set to appear on Capitol Hill for an annual oversight hearing next week, a committee spokesman confirmed Wednesday.

DeVos is scheduled to take the hot seat before the House Education Committee on Dec. 20, just days before lawmakers are expected to leave town for their holiday recess.

Committee Democrats are likely to grill DeVos over her recent decision to roll back Obama-era guidelines on how colleges and universities should handle allegations of sexual assault on campus.

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Democrats are also expected to press the Trump administration official on her decision to rescind protections for students against misleading and predatory practices by for-profit schools.

The Education Department’s Inspector General said this week the agency has stopped cancelling the student-loan debt of people defrauded by failed for-profit schools, Reuters reported.

DeVos is rewriting the borrower defense to repayment rule, which was created after the collapse of Corinthian Colleges in 2015 to give students who were cheated a way to get their federal loans forgiven. 

DeVos, who has been a controversial Cabinet official since President Trump put forth her nomination, said the process is muddled and puts taxpayers on the hook for significant costs.

Michael Woeste, a committee spokesman, said the hearing next week will be a general oversight hearing of the department’s priorities.