Six congressional oversight committees on Monday reportedly initiated an investigation into antisemitism at 10 prestigious colleges — laying the groundwork to potentially cut off billions in federal funding.
The Washington Free Beacon, citing a series of letters it had obtained, reported six GOP committee chairs wrote letters to Harvard, Columbia, MIT, Barnard, Northwestern, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, Rutgers, and the University of California's Berkeley and Los Angeles branches.
"The U.S. House of Representatives is deeply concerned by ongoing and pervasive acts of antisemitic harassment and intimidation" on campus, the lawmakers wrote in separate letters to each of the 10 universities, the Free Beacon reported. "Failing to act decisively to ensure a safe learning environment for all students would be a grave dereliction of your responsibilities."
Specifically, the committees want to determine if any of the top-tier schools are guilty of violating Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which mandates recipients of federal funds protect minorities, including Jews.
"This Congress will not stand idly by and allow an environment hostile to Jewish students to persist," the GOP leaders wrote.
Each of the schools has been in the national spotlight after mass anti-Israel protests erupted amid rising antisemitism on campuses, the outlet noted.
According to the Free Beacon, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce has been leading its own probe into antisemitic harassment on campuses for several months. The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability joined that probe in mid-May.
Some of the House's most powerful committees will now join the investigation to determine if the 10 schools should have their federal funding slashed for violating Jewish students' civil rights.
The schools targeted all rely on federal funding, the Free Beacon reported, including Harvard, which took in $625 million in taxpayer funds in 2021 alone, accounting for 67% of its total sponsored revenue.
Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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