{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.merkley.senate.gov/news/in-the-news/democratic-senators-press-trumps-education-pick-betsy-devos-to-pay-years-old-53-million-fine", "Democratic senators press Trump’s education pick Betsy DeVos to pay years-old $5.3 million fine", "2016-12-14", "2016", "2016-12", "Democrat", "House", "OR", "Jeff Merkley", "M001176", "www.merkley.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Democratic senators press Trump\u2019s education pick Betsy DeVos to pay years-old $5.3 million fine \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nWednesday, December 14, 2016\r\n\r\n\t\n\r\n\r\n\r\n  \r\n    By:\u00a0\r\n    Danielle Douglas-Gabriel\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nA group of Senate Democrats is urging President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s nominee for education secretary, Betsy DeVos,\u00a0to pay $5.3 million in fines imposed on her political action committee\u00a0for campaign finance violations in Ohio eight years ago.\r\n\u00a0\u201cAs secretary of education, Betsy DeVos would be responsible for overseeing the nation\u2019s student loan program, including ensuring that students repay their loans, so it\u2019s troubling that she has blatantly ignored her own PAC\u2019s debt to the people of Ohio,\u201d said Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.). \u201cWhen a student borrower defaults, it has serious ramifications that haunt that student for years \u2014 yet when DeVos\u2019s PAC defaulted on its fine for violating the law, they just walked away.\u201d\r\nUdall, along with Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), sent DeVos a letter this week requesting she\u00a0pay the millions of dollars in fines and late fees ahead of\u00a0her confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.\r\nEd Patru, a spokesman for DeVos, said she was never a party to the lawsuit at the center of the fine. Furthermore, he said a trial court judge ruled that none of the officers or board members at All Children Matter could be held liable for the fine.\r\n\u201cThis suit was a politically driven effort to derail education reform in Ohio,\u201d Patru said in a statement. \u201cAnyone looking at today\u2019s developments understands it\u2019s a transparently political maneuver that doesn\u2019t in any way change the underlying facts of this case.\u201d\r\nThe debt stems from a 2008 case\u00a0the Ohio Elections Commission brought against All Children Matter, an organization DeVos headed\u00a0that lobbied for school-choice legislation. Two\u00a0years earlier, the PAC asked the commission whether it was allowed to contribute more than the $10,000 limit to an affiliate in Ohio. Even though the commission advised that such a move would be in violation of state\u00a0law, All Children Matter proceeded to provide $870,000 to the Ohio outfit.\r\nThe \u201cblatant disregard for the law,\u201d as Democratic lawmakers call it, led the state election commission to impose $2.6 million in fines, its largest penalty to date. The PAC fought the decision, but an Ohio court upheld the fine and imposed additional late fees. All Children Matter\u2019s PAC, however, ceased\u00a0operations and walked away from the debt.\r\n\u201cThat\u2019s not acceptable behavior from anyone, much less a Cabinet secretary for a President-elect who promised to \u2018drain the swamp\u2019 of insiders who game the system for special treatment,\u201d Udall said. \u201cI hope Ms. DeVos will have the good judgment to ensure her own PAC\u2019s fine is paid.\u201d\r\nAll Children Matter still exists, even though the PAC closed up shop. Yet according to 2015 tax filings, it has less than $300, not nearly enough to cover the millions of dollars owed.\r\nDeVos\u2019s supporters argue that the contribution\u00a0at the center of the commission lawsuit\u00a0is no longer illegal in a post-Citizens United world, making the case irrelevant. Yet the\u00a0Supreme Court\u2019s 2010 ruling\u00a0allowing corporations to spend unlimited money on advocacy for or against candidates had no bearing on a lawsuit that predates the decision by two years.\r\n\u201cThe United States Supreme Court\u2019s decision in the Citizens United case renders this case against a now defunct PAC moot,\u201d said Matt Frendewey of the American Federation for Children, a school-choice advocacy group DeVos once chaired. \u201cChoosing to ignore these facts demonstrates this is nothing more than an attempt to impugn Ms. DeVos\u2019 reputation as a nationally recognized education reformer.\u201d\r\nThe nomination of DeVos, a conservative who has pushed to expand taxpayer-funded vouchers for private and religious schools, has rankled liberal lawmakers and teachers unions. The nominee has no experience as an educator or education leader, but has spent millions of dollars lobbying for school choice proposals.\r\n\r\n \r\n           \r\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tPrint\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tEmail\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t  \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTweet", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.merkley.senate.gov/news/in-the-news/democratic-senators-press-trumps-education-pick-betsy-devos-to-pay-years-old-53-million-fine"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4623450115323067, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}