February, 2025
Washington — Within the past few days, federal departments like Treasury and USAID have been coerced by individuals reporting to Elon Musk to divulge huge databases of financial, organizational, and personal information, previously considered to be protected from potential misuse. Will the Department of Education's massive databases on student financial aid programs, including its $1.5 trillion student loan portfolio, be next?
If departmental inspectors general might have stood in the way of such colossal data breaches — likely the largest in history — they won't now, as they have been fired.
Can you imagine what could happen with a breach of FAFSA data? The information could be used to identify whole families for deportation.
Can you imagine what could happen with the student loan portfolio? Borrowers could be notified that their forbearances and deferrals are being ended. Loan cancellations under Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Borrower Defense could be eliminated, via email. The Secretary's powers of loan modifications under 20 U.S.C. 1082 could be applied viciously in the service of Musk's dubiously established Department of Government Efficiency. Borrowers could be coerced into either paying up immediately or seeking a private lender to take over their loans, a move that would doubtless please those in the private loan business.
A large data breach happened once before, at a cost of billions to federal taxpayers before it was finally shut down. I recounted the occasion in a previous blog post at
https://viewfromthreecapitals.blogspot.com/2022/02/loan-servicer-victims.html
The Senate will soon take up the nomination of Linda McMahon to be Secretary of Education. At the top of the list of questions for her would be whether she will consent to these data breaches. Of course, the breaches might happen before she is confirmed.
A possible remedy for this would be a federal district court stay against DOGE access. Another would be for Congress to exercise its power of the purse to cut off all funding for these dangerous misadventures. The latter might be combined with a move by Congress to cut off all support for the misguided External Revenue Service and reassert congressional authority over tariffs and trade. In a few days, citizens all over the country — especially from the heartland — may be reeling from both DOGE and tariffs, and start to demand congressional action.
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UPDATE: Within a day after the above was posted, several news reports confirmed that DOGE has gained access to ED's student financial aid databases. And in a development that will reverberate in the heartland, DOGE is cutting off payments to Lutheran Social Services of South Dakota, citing allegations that Lutherans are money-launderers, not a religious faith. Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota: Musk has directly challenged you. Will you stand up to his dangerous nonsense? Same question for my Nebraska congressional delegation, as LSS of Nebraska was also cited by DOGE.
