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Republican lawmakers are using the occasion of John B. King Jr.'s nomination to become secretary of education to revisit the controversy over the Education Department's enforcement of campus sexual assault law.

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) broached the subject in a House hearing Wednesday (and swiftly posted the video to her Twitter). And it's likely to surface again today on the Senate side — probably, insiders say, from HELP Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, who has a close relationship with higher education lobbyists and is a former university president. Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) also recently sent the department a letter about its guidance on how universities should handle investigations. Lankford sits on the Homeland Security Committee with Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who has floated legislation on the issue.

At issue is whether the department’s Office for Civil Rights has overstepped its bounds in issuing guidance to colleges and universities about following Title IX, and threatening enforcement of the law. The agency’s prodding has led campuses to rethink how they handle sexual assault — and spurred concern from the GOP.

“For too long, the OCR has gone around Congress," Foxx said. King said the guidance letters “are an attempt to provide clarity for the field.”

Behind the scenes, the American Council on Education and the (Koch-backed) Foundation for Individual Rights in Education have lobbied long and hard against the department's stepped-up enforcement, but they say there was no specific push behind the latest outcroppings. Terry Hartle, a lobbyist for ACE, said he spoke with Lankford's office months ago and hasn't spoken with Foxx or Alexander. Hartle said the organization wants clarity because schools have gotten mixed messages on whether the Office of Civil Rights's guidelines are legally binding or not.

In response to Lankford's exchange with Assistant Secretary Catherine Lhamon, activists including Know Your IX and groups from Columbia, NYU, Harvard, Yale, Pace, Brown and Northwestern are weighing in with the committee to support the Education Department's actions. A letter from Know Your IX to Alexander and Ranking Member Sen. Patty Murray questions why critics are singling out OCR among all the agencies that followed similar processes.

https://www.politicopro.com/education/story/2016/02/campus-sexual-assault-concerns-coalesce-around-king-097201