The budget reconciliation deal reached by Democratic senators Wednesday does not include the repeal of a 1.4% excise tax on private college endowments sought by several Ivy League universities.
The Inflation Reduction Act was announced Wednesday after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) reached a deal on the legislation, which is expected to be passed on a party-line vote through the budget reconciliation process.
IVY LEAGUE SCHOOLS PLEADING WITH CONGRESS FOR TAX BREAK IN RECONCILIATION BILL
Several private universities, including Ivy League universities, have lobbied Congress over the past several months to include in the legislation a repeal of the 1.4% private college endowment tax enacted in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed by then-President Donald Trump.
The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities confirmed to the Washington Examiner that the provision sought by the nation’s prestigious universities was not included in the deal. It had previously been included in the Build Back Better bill congressional Democrats attempted to pass last year until Manchin announced his opposition to the larger framework.
The West Virginia senator dragged out negotiations for the much smaller deal for months, saying he was concerned that expanded spending would worsen the inflation crisis.
Harvard and Stanford universities, two institutions that had pushed congressional Democrats to repeal the tax, did not respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.
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Harvard President Lawrence Bacow had personally met with Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to push for the repeal of the tax. The university’s senior executive director of federal relations, Suzanne Day, in a letter to congressional Democrats earlier this month, reiterated the university’s desire to see the tax repealed.
