ROBERT P. CASEY5.9511153? div-.1 - .. L11,

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The Honorable Betsy DeVos
Secretary

U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue SW
Washington, DC 20202

Dear Secretary DeVos:

I write today to express my serious concern at your continued refusal to commit to upholding the
protections currently in place to prevent sexual assault and support victims. I want to reiterate a
point I made to you at your continuation hearing: any rollback of protections for victims of campus
sexual assault is completely unacceptable, and your refusal to express support for federal
protections for victims of sexual assault does a disservice to the women and men who have bravely
spoken out about their own experiences in order to end this injustice.

I understand that you will be meeting this week with a number of stakeholders, including survivor
advocacy groups, but also including groups that are dedicated to overturning the important
protections for survivors, some of whom employ aggressive and repulsive tactics such as publicly
identifying victims of sexual assault. I am deeply distressed that you would entertain groups that
have been characterized by the Southern Poverty Law Center as ?misogynistic.? It is disturbing
that the Department of Education would place these radical groups on the same level as those
working tirelessly to confront the crisis of sexual assault on our campuses. Inviting these groups,
such as the National Campaign for Men, is a slap in the face to the victims of campus sexual assault
and the Department of Education should reverse course. Instead of catering to organizations that
want to sweep sexual assaults on college campuses under the rug. the Department of Education
should confront this challenge directly by coming to uphold the protections currently in place.

I reiterate my request that you publicly commit to fully supporting and enforcing the law. I ask for
your written assurances that the Department of Education will continue to conduct Title IX
investigations, both proactively and based on speci?c complaints ?led with the Of?ce for Civil
Rights. 1 also ask for your commitment to keep in place the guidance issued in the 2011 Dear
Colleague letter outlining the responsibilities of institutions of higher education to protect their
students from gender discrimination (including sexual violence}.

I am including a copy of an open letter from 114 survivors of sexual assault, including ?ve women
from published this week in Teen Vogue, which i urge you to consider carefully as
it details concerns of the survivor community. We have made signi?cant progress in the last several
years, starting with the passage of my Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act in 2013, but
unfortunately we have not yet ended campus sexual assault. It is not the time to roll back
protections for victims.

Given the importance of this issue and the fact that students will be returning to college campuses
across the country next month, I request a response to this letter by Jul}r 31, 2017.

Sincerely,

031:1. 

Robert P. Casey, Jr.
United States Senator