Warren, Colleagues Call for Top DeVos Adviser's Recusal from Decisions on For-Profit Colleges Owned by Former Employer
Proposed Merger Requires Approval from Department of Education; Senators Press DeVos on Robert Eitel's Plans for Recusal
Washington, DC - United
States Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), Kamala
Harris (D-Calif.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), and
Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) today sent a letter to Secretary of Education
Betsy DeVos requesting information on whether her Senior Counselor Robert Eitel
plans to recuse himself from matters related to the proposed merger of Ashford
University and the University of the Rockies - two for-profit colleges owned by
Eitel's former employer, Bridgepoint Education.
On March 13, 2018, Bridgepoint Education announced that it would merge its two
for-profit institutions, Ashford University and the University of the Rockies,
and the combined institution (collectively known as Ashford University) will
seek to convert into a nonprofit. Bridgepoint would continue to operate
separately as an Online Program Management (OPM) company, with Ashford as its
first client. The complicated process that Bridgepoint must go through to
separate itself from Ashford University and the University of the Rockies, and
the process that Ashford University and University of the Rockies must go
through to merge, require a number of state and federal approvals-including by
the Department of Education.
Prior to serving at the Department, Mr. Eitel worked as the Vice President of
Regulatory Legal Services at Bridgepoint. From February 13, 2017 to April 5,
2017, Mr. Eitel was a joint employee of the Department and Bridgepoint. He was
reportedly on an "unpaid leave of absence" from Bridgepoint during
this nine-week period before officially resigning from the for-profit college
company. Mr. Eitel joined the staff of the Department of Education as a Special
Assistant to the Secretary on February 13, 2017. Mr. Eitel was later promoted
to the position of Senior Counselor to the Secretary and "charged with
advising the Secretary on the implications of proposed, new, or revised
policies, regulations, and legislative proposals and assessing their potential
impact on the Department's mission."
"As a federal employee, Mr. Eitel is governed by ethics laws, rules, and
regulations designed to prevent conflicts of interests and prohibit the misuse
of government resources for private gain," wrote the senators. "It appears
clear that Mr. Eitel must recuse himself from any and all matters related to
the separation from Bridgeport and the proposed merger of Ashford University
and the University of the Rockies."
Mr. Eitel is governed by the Standard of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the
Executive Branch, which make clear that federal employees must "endeavor
to avoid any actions creating the appearance that they are violating the law or
(executive branch) ethical standards." He is also bound by Executive Order
13770, which outlines an "ethics pledge" that executive branch
employees must adhere to. Paragraph six of the ethics pledge states that
federal appointees "will not for a period of 2 years from the date
of...appointment participate in any particular matter involving specific
parties that is directly and substantially related to (a) former employer or
former clients, including regulations and contracts."
The senators urged Secretary DeVos to clarify that Mr. Eitel will be recusing
himself from this matter by no later than April 5, 2018.
Senator Warren has been raising
concerns about Robert Eitel's hiring since March 2017. In May 2017,
Senators Warren and Murray raised
concerns about potential ethics violations by Mr. Eitel. In
August 2017, Senator Warren asked DeVos whether Mr. Eitel violated federal
conflict-of-interest law by working on the Education Department's Borrower
Defense to Repayment rule while simultaneously employed by the Department and
by Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Senator Warren's oversight effort, DeVos
Watch, has been tracking the series of steps taken by Secretary DeVos and
the Department that violate conflicts of interest and undermine protections for
students and taxpayers.
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