FSA Staff Scheduled to Begin Office Relocation to Treasury Office in August

The Office of Federal Student Aid is scheduled to begin vacating its longtime space in the Department of Education’s Lyndon B. Johnson Building at the end of July, with staff set to relocate to a Department of Treasury building on K Street in Washington—where IRS staff also work. The first wave of FSA staff will settle into the new space on August 17, with a second wave expected September 8. In the meantime, those employees are being asked to work remotely, an arrangement that juxtaposes the Trump administration’s general opposition to telework. ED framed the move as a way to strengthen coordination with Treasury and reduce bureaucratic layers, noting that FSA has been housed separately from the rest of the Department before and that service to students, borrowers, and schools should not be disrupted. Inside Higher Ed reports that critics see it differently, arguing the relocation, coming just months after the administration transferred oversight of defaulted student loans to Treasury, is another concrete step toward functionally dismantling the Department of Education by gradually shifting its core responsibilities, staff, and physical presence to other agencies, at one of the busiest moments of the year for financial aid operations.