Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) introduced legislation on Tuesday targeting elite universities and student protestors with two new bills. The Woke Endowment Security Tax (WEST) Act would impose a six-percent excise tax on the endowments of 11 major universities, using the revenue to reduce the national debt and strengthen border security. Additionally, the No Student Loans for Campus Criminals Act would strip federal student loan eligibility from any campus protestor convicted of a crime.
Cotton justified the endowment tax by citing the universities’ wealth and their role in fostering anti-Israel demonstrations. “We should levy this tax on these schools’ endowments. A tax on the billions of dollars these schools have amassed would be more than enough to pay down our national debt or secure the southern border,” Cotton stated.
The proposed excise tax would apply to secular institutions with endowments exceeding $11.9 billion and state contract colleges with endowments of at least $10.5 billion. Cotton’s office estimates that the tax would generate $16.6 billion in revenue. The 11 targeted universities include:
- Harvard
- Yale
- Stanford
- Princeton
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- University of Pennsylvania
- Northwestern
- Columbia
- Washington University
- Johns Hopkins
- Cornell
The second bill, the No Student Loans for Campus Criminals Act, would prevent students convicted of crimes during protests from receiving federal student loans or loan forgiveness. “American taxpayers shouldn’t underwrite the tuition of criminal, pro-Hamas protesters who deface their college campuses, disrupt classes, and endanger their fellow students,” Cotton said in a statement.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) has also called for taxing Ivy League endowments as a way to offset student loan debt, criticizing the current administration’s approach. “You want to pay for these student loans? Go tax those big liberal Ivy League endowments,” Roy said. “But that’s not what we’re going to do—we’re going to take this money out of the hides of hard-working Americans.”
Cotton’s proposals signal a growing Republican effort to hold elite universities accountable for their financial practices and campus activism, with a focus on shifting the burden of higher education costs away from taxpayers.
