Education Department releases draft amendatory text, says three negotiator data requests cannot be validated in time
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Summary
Federal negotiator Dave Musser presented the Department's draft amendatory text and said staff could not validate three negotiator data requests in time (written‑arrangement counts, gainful employment earnings, and Pell recipients with prior bachelor's degrees); the Department asked for an hour to finish drafting and circulated hard copies for review.
Federal negotiator Dave Musser told negotiators the U.S. Department of Education had finalized a set of amendatory texts but could not validate three requested datasets in time for discussion. "We have fulfilled one of the data requests on institutions offering short term programs that qualify only for direct loan funds," Musser said, and added, "we won't be able to fulfill the other data requests" because the Department could not pull and validate those data quickly enough.
The unresolved requests included (per Musser): counts of written arrangements reported in the system (limited in the Department's extract to those exceeding what Musser described as "25 of the eligible program"), gainful employment earnings data the Department could not validate in time, and a dataset on Pell Grant recipients who already hold bachelor's degrees. Musser said the Department had pointed negotiators to older validated earnings data as at least a partial reference.
Why it matters: negotiators had submitted roughly 80 proposals over the prior three days, Musser said, and several of those proposals depend on empirical checks the Department could not complete on the meeting timeline. Musser asked for an hour for Department staff to complete drafting amendatory text and to prepare hard copies; negotiators used the break for informal caucusing.
Negotiators pressed on next steps and on whether the missing data could be produced later. Musser cited privacy and systems limits and declined to commit to a date, saying Department staff and FSA colleagues would need to evaluate feasibility. After the caucus, Musser returned with revised draft language and walked the committee through the changes, pausing for clarifying questions and distributing hard copies and an electronic version.
The committee recessed to allow the Department to complete its drafting work and planned to reconvene at 10:15 a.m. for a full review of the proposed amendatory text.