Six House committees investigate federal funding of Harvard anti-Semitism investigation | News

Six congressional committees will examine federal funding for Harvard University as part of their House-wide investigation into anti-Semitism on campus, committee chairs wrote in a letter Monday to Harvard Acting President Alan M. Garber (class of 1976) and Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny S. Pritzker (class of 1981).

The leaders, led by House Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), wrote that federal funding for Harvard, totaling $676 million in 2023, could be at risk because of the university’s response to anti-Semitism on campus. Nine other colleges and universities received similar letters.

“Failure to act decisively to ensure a safe learning environment for all students would be a serious violation of your responsibilities as interim president of Harvard University and a senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation,” the leaders wrote.

“The House of Representatives will not tolerate the use of federal funds to indoctrinate students into hateful, anti-Semitic and anti-American supporters of terrorism,” they added.

A university spokesperson wrote in a statement: “Harvard has taken and will continue to take action to combat hate and protect our Jewish students, staff, and faculty.”

“Harvard makes clear in its words and actions that anti-Semitism is not tolerated on our campus and will not be tolerated in the future,” he said.

Although Harvard has been under investigation by the House Education and Workforce Committee since December, the letter states that all six committees, including the Oversight and Accountability Committee and the Budget Committee, will conduct their own investigations, likely launching a series of additional document requests to Harvard leadership.

The university, whose leadership is already under subpoena, has sent more than 38,000 pages of information to the Education and Workforce Committee. Monday’s letter did not ask Harvard to provide additional material or explain how the investigation would proceed.

Instead, the letter outlined the reasons why each committee is reviewing federal funding. Grants for science-based research that would be under review included university tax exemptions and financial aid for student aid.

“Fighting anti-Semitism is not a partisan issue,” the letter says. “The undersigned committee chairs are proud to conduct this work with significant bipartisan support and will not rest until the facts are known and Harvard University and others restore a safe learning environment for your students and properly steward the taxpayer dollars entrusted to you.”

Foxx and other lawmakers, including Budget Committee Chairman Jason T. Smith (R-Missouri) and Rep. Jake D. Auchincloss ’10 (D-Mass.), have raised the possibility of revoking Harvard’s tax exemption or federal funding in previous letters and public statements. But Monday’s letter — and its emphasis on public funding — suggests that congressional leaders are increasingly willing to use the threat as leverage against Harvard’s leadership.

Still, the House could face legal problems if it tries to strip Harvard of access to federal funds: Stanley M. Brand, the former House counsel, wrote in a statement that if Congress decided to cut funding on its own, it would de facto overstep the Education Department’s procedures for investigating Title VI complaints.

The Department of Education is currently investigating Harvard over allegations of anti-Semitism and anti-Arab bias in two Title VI lawsuits against the university involving common ancestry.

Cutting funding “would be subject to certain procedural and administrative requirements,” Brand wrote, “none of which would be followed” if Congress decided to bypass the Department of Education and act alone.

Foxx said in an interview with The Crimson last month that the House’s next steps depend on how Harvard deals with anti-Semitism in the future.

“We’ll just have to wait and see how serious Harvard is about fixing the problems,” Foxx said.

—Staff writer Cam E. Kettles can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @cam_kettles or on threads @camkettles.