Rep. Jim Banks (R) questions a witness during a hearing of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Communist Party of China at the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, DC, on February 28, 2023. Indiana).
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House Republicans have a long-term plan to strip elite universities of government funding and federal student loan funding, Republican Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana told a group of business leaders on a private Zoom call last Friday. Ta.
Banks is an ally of former President Donald Trump and serves on the House Education Committee. The committee recently launched investigations into Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Pennsylvania. The study’s release follows a Dec. 5 hearing in which leaders at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Pennsylvania struggled to clarify their positions on anti-Semitic speech on campus. I was disappointed.
Banks told business leaders that the hearing is the first step in a larger effort to compete with Ivy League schools. An audio recording of the call was provided to CNBC by a participant who requested anonymity to share private conversations.
“The second step is an investigation and a subpoena to collect all the documents and records from these universities to prove the point,” Banks said. “This creates a dangerous environment for Jewish students on campus,” he said.
“And once that is proven, number three, defund these universities by cracking down on student loan defunding, taxing donations, and actually forcing the administration to conduct civil rights investigations. ,” Banks said.
Banks’ candid explanation of Congressional plans reveals previously unreported long-term goals for at least some Congressmen regarding at least two Ivy League schools and another elite university, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It’s a clue. said Rep. Virginia Foxx, RN.C., chair of the House Education Committee.interview NewsNation reported that the committee is also considering Columbia University and Cornell University.
(LR) Harvard University President Dr. Claudine Gay, University of Pennsylvania President Liz McGill, American University Professor of History and Jewish Studies Dr. Pamela Nadel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Dr. Sally Kornbluth, 2023 Testifying before the House Education and Labor Committee on December 5th at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC.
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Asked how Congress could focus on revoking federal funding for schools like the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University, Banks said: “That’s where we’re laying the groundwork. The hearing is the first step in that. It was,” he said.
Banks also informed participants that the committee has hired full-time staff to lead investigations into Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Ali Wish, a senior adviser to Mr. Fox who is helping lead the investigation, previously worked with the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
In response to a question about how school defunding would work, a spokesperson for the commission said: “As the commission’s investigation progresses, we will be in contact with the Department for Education to ensure that pupils’ performance is being reduced. “We will work to ensure enforcement action is taken at the school,” he told CNBC. .
“One of these enforcement actions could mean schools lose federal funding,” the spokesperson said.
A congressional aide to Banks later told CNBC that the congressman was speaking only for himself, not for the committee as a whole. Mr. Banks is running in the Republican primary for the Indiana State Senate seat.
The idea of selectively taxing university endowments has support from at least one other Republican in Congress. His Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance recently invoice That would result in a 35% tax, hitting more than $10 billion worth of university endowments.
The bill has little chance of passing the current Democratic-controlled Senate or being signed into law by President Joe Biden. But with a Republican in the White House and a Republican-controlled Senate in 2025, the calculus could be very different.
But the impact of bills like Vance’s would not be limited to Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and MIT. Yale University, Notre Dame University, Columbia University and Duke University all have endowments of more than $10 billion, according to the National Association of University Executives.
These schools also rely on significant federal funding. For example, in 2021, Harvard University It received $625 million in federal funding, about 67 percent of the school’s total sponsorship revenue for the year.
From the government’s perspective, student financial aid makes up a large portion of the federal budget paid to universities. In 2018, 65% of the $149 billion in total federal funds received by higher education institutions went toward federal student aid. According to , this includes scholarships, work-study, and loans given to students to pay for their education. american factsa nonprofit site that collects government data.
