[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 38 (Tuesday, February 28, 2023)]
[House]
[Page H919]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               KPMG AUDIT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, I have had enough with the Biden Department 
of Education's utterly dishonest accounting tricks. The Department of 
Education's 2022 financial statement doesn't have a leg to stand on.
  KPMG, an independent auditor, stated that there were material 
weaknesses in the department's estimates regarding how much the Biden 
administration's student loan debt relief plan would cost.
  The Biden administration claims that its plan would cost $30 billion 
annually over 10 years, but this is assuming that the Department of 
Education has properly estimated the participation numbers. According 
to KPMG, the Department has no evidence behind these numbers, and these 
numbers matter a lot.
  If these numbers are off by just 10 percent, then the cost of Biden's 
program would rise to $400 billion according to the Congressional 
Budget Office.
  Folks in the Biden Education Department need to go back and learn 
some math.
  At worst, the department is trying to hide the true cost to taxpayers 
of these debt bailout schemes. At best, the department is practicing 
shoddy accounting again. Either way, this is a completely irresponsible 
way to govern such a major program.
  It is obvious to anyone paying attention that the department hasn't 
learned anything from its past mistakes. It was assumptions like this 
that got our student loan systems into this mess in the first place.
  When Democrats passed the Income-Driven Repayment program, IDR, they 
grossly underestimated the number of borrowers who would participate. 
This, in conjunction with the student loan moratorium, has led to a 
$311 billion budget deficit within the Federal student loan program.
  In other words, the Federal student loan program is already costing 
taxpayers a fortune, and the Biden administration's actions will make 
the problem far worse.
  To put salt in the wound, the Biden administration's proposed changes 
to IDR will cost far more than they are letting on. While the 
department claims that its changes will cost taxpayers $138 billion 
over the next 10 years, a nonpartisan student loan expert has estimated 
that the true cost could be $1 trillion.
  Senator Everett Dirksen said: ``A billion here, a billion there, and 
pretty soon you are talking real money.''
  This is real taxpayer money.
  Once again, the Biden administration is trying to pull the wool over 
our eyes.
  As chairwoman of the Education and the Workforce Committee, I cannot 
let this pattern of deception and mismanagement continue. I will spend 
the 118th Congress doing everything in my power to hold this 
administration accountable. Taxpayers deserve nothing less.

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