August 07, 2025

ED Secretary McMahon Reveals Massive Backlog of Unresolved Complaints From Students and Borrowers, Warren Presses for More Answers on Trump’s Attacks on Public Education

“The American people deserve to know how your policies are impacting services and programs that millions of students and families across the country rely upon.”

ED Response | Warren Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) publicly released Secretary of Education Linda McMahon’s response to the senator’s 60+ questions, sent in advance of the June meeting between McMahon and Warren, regarding the Department of Education’s (ED)’s relentless war on students. Calling McMahon’s response “severely lacking,” Senator Warren pressed for additional information from Secretary McMahon and announced that she would refer certain matters where the Department has proved uncooperative to the Government Accountability Office and the Education Department’s Inspector General.

ED revealed several key pieces of information in its letter, including:

The staff of ED’s Office of the Ombudsman currently have a backlog of over 27,000 complaints from students and student loan borrowers, while a mere 1,122 complaints were closed during May 2025. It is unclear how many of those closed complaints were successfully resolved by ED.
ED will be moving some of the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority’s (MOHELA’s) federal student loan portfolio to other servicers later this year, a process that the Biden Administration set into motion given MOHELA’s abysmal performance.
ED has apparently ruled out cutting ED’s loan servicing budget by 60 percent, as DOGE reportedly recommended several months ago.

Senator Warren responded to ED’s letter by pushing Secretary McMahon for clarity on a number of issues.

“Unfortunately, your letter contained more omissions and evasive rhetoric than concrete information,” wrote Senator Warren.

In her follow-up letter, Senator Warren pushed for answers on:

Restoring the income-driven repayment (IDR) payment counter – a commitment Secretary McMahon made to Senator Warren in their June meeting;
The IDR backlog, which is preventing nearly 1.5 million borrowers from entering repayment plans and making progress towards PSLF or IDR debt relief;
Access to debt relief for the many borrowers who become eligible each year through programs like PSLF or IDR;
Borrower delinquencies and defaults, which can block borrowers from accessing affordable mortgages, auto loans, or other forms of credit;
Data on the distribution of firings across ED’s offices that occurred during the reduction in force (RIF);
Moving the statutory functions of ED to other agencies, which Secretary McMahon admitted she did not have the authority to do in her June meeting with Senator Warren;
The performance of federal student loan servicers, including MOHELA’s performance in particular;
The state of Pell Grants, which House Republicans attempted to drastically cut in their proposed version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act;
ED’s progress towards more rapidly approving colleges’ Title IV aid applications; and
McMahon’s cuts to ED’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR).

“The American people deserve to know how your policies are impacting services and programs that millions of students and families across the country rely upon,” concluded the senator.

Senator Warren launched the Save Our Schools campaign in a coordinated effort to fight back against President Trump’s attempts to abolish the Department of Education:

On August 8, 2025, Senator Warren led eight Senators in pressing major private student loan lenders on their plans to serve the incoming surge of borrowers who will be pushed to the industry because of Republicans’ recently passed “Big, Beautiful Bill.”
On July 17, 2025, Senator Warren released a new 23-page report, “Education At Risk: Frontline Impacts of Trump’s War on Students,” highlighting warnings from 11 major national education and civil rights organizations on the impact of the Trump Administration’s dismantling of the Department of Education (ED), slashing support to millions of American students, primary and secondary school teachers, administrators, parents, and student loan borrowers.
On July 15, 2025, Senators Warren and Sanders, along with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, sent a letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, urging her to reverse the interest hike on student loan borrowers in the SAVE forbearance.
On July 14, 2025, Senator Warren joined a letter to the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, and Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, demanding that the Department of Education stop blocking nearly $7 billion in funds for K-12 schools, including for afterschool programs.
On July 3, 2025, Senator Warren led her colleagues in submitting an amicus brief for NAACP v. US, arguing to the United States District Court District of Maryland that President Trump’s attempts to dismantle the Department of Education violate separation of powers and lack constitutional authority.
On June 10, 2025, Senator Warren met with Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and delivered over 1,000 letters to McMahon that the senator had received from people in all 50 states who were worried about the Secretary’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education.
On June 9, 2025, Senator Warren led her colleagues in pushing the Acting Inspector General of the Department of Education to open an investigation into new information obtained by her office, revealing that DOGE may have gained access to two FSA internal systems, in addition to sensitive borrower data.
On May 20, 2025, Senator Warren and 27 other senators pushed for full funding to the Office of Federal Student Aid.
On May 14, 2025, Senator Warren led a Senate forum entitled “Stealing the American Dream: How Trump and Republicans Are Raising Education Costs for Families,” highlighting the consequences of Secretary Linda McMahon’s reckless dismantling of the Department of Education (ED) and President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” for working- and middle-class students and borrowers.
On May 13, 2025, Senator Warren agreed to meet with Education Secretary Linda McMahon and promised to bring questions and stories from Americans across the country to highlight how the Trump administration’s attacks on education are hurting American families.
On May 6, 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren highlighted the consequences of President Trump and Secretary Linda McMahon’s reckless dismantling of the Department of Education for American families in a Senate forum.
On April 24, 2025, Senator Warren launched a new investigation into the harms of President Trump’s attacks on the Department of Education, seeking information on the impact of the Trump administration’s actions from the members of twelve leading organizations representing schools, parents, teachers, students, borrowers, and researchers.
On April 10, 2025, following a request led by Senator Warren, the Department of Education’s Acting Inspector General agreed to open an investigation into the Trump administration’s attempts to dismantle the Department of Education.
On April 2, 2025, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Mazie Hirono, along with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, sent a letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon regarding the Department of Government Efficiency’s proposed plan to replace the Department of Education’s federal student aid call centers with generative artificial intelligence chatbots.
On April 2, 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren launched the Save Our Schools campaign to fight back against the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education (ED) and highlight the consequences for every student and public school in America.
On March 27, 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) led a letter to Acting Department of Education Inspector General (IG) René Rocque requesting that the IG conduct an investigation of the Trump Administration’s attempts to dismantle the Department of Education.
On March 20, 2025, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders led a letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon regarding the Trump Administration’s decision to slash the capacity of Federal Student Aid to handle student aid complaints.
On February 24, 2025, in a response to Senator Warren, Secretary McMahon gave her first public admission that she “wholeheartedly” agreed with Trump’s plans to abolish the Department of Education.
On February 11, 2025, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Andy Kim sent Linda McMahon, Secretary-Designate for the U.S. Department of Education, a 12-page letter with 65 questions on McMahon's policy views in advance of her nomination hearing.

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