Sen. Elizabeth Warren is officially keeping an eye on controversial Trump Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. Through her Senate office, Warren launched "DeVos Watch," which will "seek information about the Department's actions and inactions around federal student loans and grants" and publicize it so people can track the department's initiatives and submit oversight suggestions.
After noting that two of DeVos's first hires at the department were Robert Eitel and Taylor Hansen, Warren wrote on CNN:
One of Secretary DeVos' first actions on higher education was to delay a critical rule preventing fly-by-night colleges from loading students up with gigantic debts for worthless degrees, a move that directly benefited those same colleges that have paid Eitel and Hansen for years. [...]
Next, DeVos reversed a policy preventing student loan debt collectors from charging sky-high fees to students desperately trying to catch up on their student loans -- a policy whose loudest opponent was a major student loan debt collector that was headed by Hansen's father.
As news stories exposed these relationships, I wrote to Secretary DeVos, citing Hansen's and Eitel's conflicts and the Department's recent actions, asking for information about their roles. The day my letter arrived, Hansen resigned.
Warren hopes to provide people with student loans a way to monitor the department, hold it accountable, and provide feedback about how the department is affecting them. But the move also fueled speculation that Warren is an eyeing a 2020 bid for president.
The salvos targeting DeVos are just the latest attempt by Warren to branch out from her expertise on financial matters — a pattern that has fueled speculation she is eyeing a presidential bid in 2020.
After the 2016 election, Warren joined the Senate Armed Services Committee, giving her a chance to gain experience on the military matters that are crucial for the commander in chief.