WASHINGTON — Rep. Jahana Hayes is turning into Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ worst nightmare. Last April at a hearing of the House Education & Labor Committee hearing, Hayes waved a stack of papers at DeVos and offered a teacher-like reprimand, “you have the authority to do it. Read the memo … read the memo!”
The issue was federal funding of school districts intent on arming teachers with guns. The internal Education Department memo advised DeVos she had the power to deny such funding. DeVos insisted it was up to Congress.
Fast forward to earlier this week: Hayes, the former Waterbury social studies teacher, again is ruffling DeVos’ feathers at a committee meeting.
This time it’s over another internal department memo, which concluded that student victims of for-profit colleges’ broken promises should have their federal student loan debt canceled.
DeVos had opined that the students got some value from the shady schools and did not deserve full compensation. NPR last week first reported the existence of a memo showing departmental staff members recommending full debt cancellation.
At the hearing, Devos’ statement that she had not read the staff memo got Hayes cranked up again.
“I just find it to be a total lack of regard that after the NPR story broke on Friday and you knew you were coming here for a hearing on borrowers’ defense, you wouldn’t even take time to acquaint yourself with the memo.”
DeVos demurred, saying she has countless memos and papers that cross her desk. It was classic DeVos, rising above it all — although unlike last time DeVos did not hind behind a “who, me?” smile.
“Did you not know you were coming here today?” Hayes interrupted.
“Congresswoman, there are hundreds of documents written …”
Hayes cut in again. “I know I’m a freshman congresswoman and if I were coming before a committee and I had taken time to prepare … I would say to my staff, ‘Can you get this document for me so I can read it myself, because I am sure this committee will have questions in relation to this memo.’ That didn’t cross your mind at all?”
“No, I didn’t need to read the document … I don’t need to read every document,” DeVos responded.
One possible moral of the story: In Congress as in John F. Kennedy High School in Waterbury, don’t arrive without doing the reading. And if you do, expect Mrs. Hayes to put you on the spot.
Murphy skeptical on China deal
Count Sen. Chris Murphy among the doubters of the newly announced U.S.-China trade deal.
“This is classic Donald Trump — escalating a crisis for show and ratcheting it down with no wins for the U.S. when it’s politically expedient,” Murphy said in a statement Friday. “This is what he always does, and it’s American families who pay the price.”
Trump himself took to Twitter (where else?) to extoll the Phase I agreement as “an amazing deal for all. Thank you!”
Trump argued the deal commits China to serious structural reforms, good enough to merit cancellation of $160 billion in new tariffs on Chinese goods set to kick in on Sunday. Plus, Trump said, the deal commits China to large purchases of U.S. agricultural, energy and manufacturing exports.
Murphy, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wondered aloud about whether it could make up the losses suffered by farmers and manufacturers caught up in the ever-heightening U.S. trade war with China.
”What on earth did Trump put us through this economic hell for? ” said Murphy. “U.S. farm exports to China plummeted last year by $12 billion, and then Trump made taxpayers shell out $28 billion in emergency farm payouts. The promises China is making in this deal don’t come close to making up for the billions we have already lost and spent on Trump’s nonsensical trade war.”
For a small state, Connecticut has done relatively well with exports to China. In 2018, the state exported $904 million in goods to China, a rise from $759 million in 2017. But both numbers are down from the high of just over $1 billion in 2015.
Lead products were from aerospace, navigational and measurement, and electrical equipment. Top services were education, travel and “management & advisory services,” which would include financial services.
So it remains to be seen whether Connecticut’s skin in the game heals or gets more bruised. But, as the old saying goes, it’s better for a state like Connecticut to be at the table rather than on the menu.
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