(The Center Square) – Using Federal Work-Study funds to support the campaign of President Joe Biden is being called Bidenbucks and unfair by four members of Congress from North Carolina, Wisconsin, Illinois and Florida in a letter to the Education Department leader.
Secretary Miguel Cardona and the administration was blasted in the letter from U.S. Reps. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., Bryan Steil, R-Wis., Mary Miller, R-Ill., and Laurel Lee, R-Fla. The four leaders from the Committee on Education and Workforce, and the Commission on House Administration, said in part, “The department’s plan to use FWS funds to support the administration’s campaign efforts seems designed to heighten voters’ already existing distrust in the system in a time when we can least afford it.”
The letter, dated Tuesday, refers to a Federal Student Aid memo dated Feb. 26 providing guidance on the use of the funds to support voter registration activities. It concludes asking Cardona to supply answers by March 26 to six questions among other things addressing internal Education Department correspondence; its definition of “political activity”; and all entities involved in the policy change.
The letter, giving Cardona evidence of tampering, says, “Indeed, a photo posted by Vice President Harris on X (formerly known as Twitter) hours before the program was officially announced, only serves to illustrate further the risk that these activities may be abused for partisan ends. The photo included an individual she described as a ‘nonpartisan poll worker’ eligible to participate in the FWS program; yet, it was later revealed that the individual is actually a staff member at the Alliance for Justice and formerly worked for the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia.
“While both organizations may operate under the tax code as ‘nonpartisan’ groups, they are certainly not neutral. Americans are well aware that both groups have very strong, left-leaning ties. As such, voters cannot trust that this new program will not run afoul of federal law or be used by partisan students to help their political party win an election.”
The authors of the letter say Americans should see the administration’s campaign as “above reproach,” and not using “public funds to help it get reelected.”
“Unfortunately,” it continues, “through the administration’s Dear Colleague Letter and through its turning federal agencies into voter registration centers, Americans should have serious concerns about the even-handedness of election administration in these circumstances. As such, the Committees urge the Administration to retract its recent letter allowing taxpayer dollars to fund get-out-the-vote activities.”
Foxx is chairwoman and Miller vice chairwoman of the Committee on Education and the Workforce. Steil is chairman of the Committee on House Administration, and Lee is chairman of the Subcommittee on Elections in the Committee on House Administration.
