Arizona Republican Congressman Eli Crane has introduced legislation to tax massive endowments held by the country's elitist academic institutions as their leaders repeatedly fail to offer moral clarity on a variety of issues.
Taking to Twitter, Crane announced the filing in response to the presidents of Penn, Harvard and MIT refusing to fully condemn calls for genocide against Jewish students on campus. A number of lawmakers are onboard.
Enough is enough. We’re $33 trillion in debt & the “elite” institutions of this country are failing the American people & abusing federal funds.
— Rep. Eli Crane (@RepEliCrane) December 6, 2023
I have filed legislation to defund any university with an endowment greater than $5 billion. We have to start somewhere. https://t.co/ygh0hY0Giz
Co-sponsor. Relatedly, I tried to offer an amendment a few weeks ago restricting federal funds to universities that are subject to the endowment tax (that would capture a large number of these academic hell-holes)… but it was ruled non-Germane… but we will fix that next time. https://t.co/ciW1Z7jBPx
— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) December 6, 2023
Elite colleges are taking BILLIONS from American taxpayers, all while propping up antisemitism and pushing radical political agendas.
— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) December 1, 2023
We must pass my COLLEGE Act and ensure universities use endowment funds to lower tuition, not line their coffers to push a political agenda. pic.twitter.com/1k4koYE9Ot
Billionaire Elon Musk is also weighing in.
Let me help them out here: “Calling for the genocide [death] of anyone obviously constitutes harassment.” https://t.co/GH7lXLxxd6
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 6, 2023
Untaxed university endowments have long been questioned for a change in status.
"With assets totaling $411 billion, the nation's college and university endowments are larger than the annual gross domestic product of Belgium. That's enough money to run the federal government for nearly 50 days. Harvard alone has $35 billion. They pay their managers like rock stars, and, as a group, they've been growing at a double-digit rate by making riskier investments," Bloomberg reported in 2008. "Their ostensible purpose, providing for the financial needs of their institutions, gets a sliver of the total each year, about 4.6% of assets. And they're tax-exempt to boot."
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