Representative Jahana Hayes was a real stand-out in the House education committee hearing yesterday (April 10), confronting Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on her lie that she had no say over Title IV money being used to buy guns for teachers. Rep. Hayes pointed out that DeVos’ public silence equaled consent for the gun-buying: “Your silence is a decision.” DeVos claimed last year that her department had no authority to take a stance on the issue, but an internal department memo made the case that she did indeed have that authority. In the hearing, Hayes called out DeVos’ refusal to answer a yes or no question, or accurately characterize her department’s own legal stance:
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DeVos continued to say she did not have the authority to say whether federal funds could be used, or not used, to arm teachers.
That’s when Hayes, who represents Newtown, site of the massacre of 26 children and school faculty, had her “gotcha” moment.
She waived an internal Department of Education memo dated July 16 of last year that was obtained through a Freedom of Information request. It said “the Department’s Office of General Counsel has advised that the Secretary has discretion to interpret the broad language of the statute as to its permissiveness regarding the purchase of firearms and the use of firearms.”
“You have the authority,” Hayes told DeVos. “Read the memo.”
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The memo was sent to DeVos adviser Kent Talbert from Jason Botel, who at the time was principal deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. A spokesman for the House education committee, which made the memo public Wednesday, said the internal document was obtained from “a reliable source.”
Hayes made a valiant effort to overcome DeVos’ inability to even read the memo from her own office:
“I would like to submit these documents for the record so that the secretary has the ability to read the memo that came from her office.”
DeVos appears be functionally illiterate and a compulsive liar, just like her boss. Watch the full five minute exchange here:
Hayes is committed to this issue:
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Last month, Congresswoman Hayes introduced H.Res. 231, a resolution condemning Secretary DeVos’ School Safety Commission recommendations to allow school districts to use federal funds for the purpose of arming teachers, and expressing that it is the sense of the House of Representatives that guns should be kept out of classrooms. Fifty-seven members – including the majority of Democrats on the Education and Labor Committee – have cosponsored this legislation.
Jahana Hayes’ district includes Newtown, where 20 children and 6 adult staff were shot to death in Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. Hayes won her seat in Congress last year, and is up for reelection with the rest of the House next year. Her ActBlue page here:
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