Betsy DeVos blasted by budget chairman: We need to meet

WASHINGTON — The Republican chairman of a key budget committee criticized U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Tuesday for not visiting with him to talk over spending proposals.

Noting that DeVos and her team have been on the job for more that a year, House Appropriations Committee chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., made it sound as though DeVos has not been to his office to talk to him directly about funding and that there seems to be a lack of understanding as to how the legislative process works.

"You’ve been on the job for awhile," Frelinghuysen said as a subcommittee meeting got underway into the Education Department's spending proposal. "I would welcome an opportunity and a visit to my office. ... I'm concerned that we have some kind of disconnect here."

"It's important to connect with the people who pay the bills," Frelinghuysen added.

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Given the importance of congressional funding for the U.S. Department of Education, Frelinghuysen made it seem unusual that an education secretary and his or her advisers wouldn't visit with him to discuss spending priorities. The most recent budget proposal from the Trump administration widely tracks last year's proposal even though many of the reductions it proposed were refused even by Republican members of Congress.

DeVos didn't immediately respond to the criticism. Frelinghuysen's remarks come as the department is proposing cutting some $3.6 billion from the federal education budget even as it increases by more than $1 billion spending on school choice programs. DeVos has also come under fire because of reports that she is working behind the scene to reconstitute the department, consolidating offices and disbanding its budget office.

DeVos has also been widely criticized for a recent appearance on "60 Minutes," where she seemed to acknowledge that she did not know what effect school choice measures in her home state of Michigan were having on academic achievement and that she hadn't intentionally visited underperforming schools.

Contact Todd Spangler at 703-854-8947 or at tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @tsspangler.