Department of Education botches Title IX obligations in response to Congress, ex-official says

Article here. Excerpt:

'If the House Education Committee wanted advice on topics to bring up with acting Education Secretary John King at its Wednesday hearing on the department’s “policies and priorities,” it got a targeted list from a former Ed lawyer.

Hans Bader, who served in the Office for Civil Rights, wrote a blistering analysis of a letter sent by that office’s chief to Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., who heads the Regulatory Affairs Subcommittee and has asked what authority OCR has to issue substantive new regulations in everything but name.

OCR’s Catherine Lhamon basically told Lankford that her office didn’t need to go through a notice-and-comment proceeding before issuing its controversial “Dear Colleague” letters because they only purported to explain current law, not enforce new regulations.'