Robert Shireman, the deputy undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Education, is moving on. (Hat tip to former Bush adviser John Bailey’s twitter feed.)

Shireman is the Department’s loans guru and an architect of the administration’s push to get rid of the Federal Family Education Loan Program, which relies on subsidized lenders, in favor of the Direct Lending program. In the new program, students borrow right from the U.S. Treasury, and cost savings are poured back into student aid.

UPDATE: Read Inside Higher Ed’s lengthy piece on Shireman, which includes a very interesting nugget about how the stock market greeted the news of his departure.

Bailey points out that the timing of his departure is a little odd, since the department is now busily working on the regulations for that new law, which passed along with the health care bill this spring.

But sources say his departure has been planned for some time, and that Shireman will be staying on until July, and then will be serving in an advisory capacity to help with the transition.

Maybe it was just his job to get the bill through?