Senator Cotton presents the Woke Tax Act targeting Harvard and nine other institutions

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., introduced the Woke Endowment Security Tax (WEST) Act on Tuesday, a bill that would hit 10 American universities with a 6% excise tax on endowments and be used toward the funding of American allies ensconced in war and border security.

The one-time tax hit, aimed at the endowments of Cornell, Harvard, and MIT, among others, would generate $15.47 billion that would be used to aid Ukraine, Israel and effort to shore up the southern border.

“Many of America’s so-called ‘top’ universities are failing to condemn antisemitism and violence against Jewish students on their campuses. 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 for our aid to Israel or security for the southern border,” Cotton said in the release of his bill.

According to Cotton’s bill, “the tax applies to (1) secular institutions with endowments of at least $12.2 billion and (2) secular institutions with endowments of at least $9 billion that also operate a state contractcollege.”

That tax would also hit Yale, Stanford, Princeton, Northwestern, Columbia, Washington University, and Cornell.

The bill comes after congressional testimony last week by the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and MIT, with each unwilling to say outright that people calling for the genocide of Jewish people would constitute a penalty against the code of conduct of the schools and run afoul of bullying policies.

It led to the weekend resignation of UPenn president Liz Magill and an apology from Harvard president Claudine Gay.

Cotton last week called the testimony of the three “disgraceful.”

The act also comes amid the stalemate between congressional Republicans and the Biden administration over the president’s $109 billion supplemental bill that would aid Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan while also funding border security.

Republican lawmakers have attached stringent border security policy in exchange for their vote on the supplemental, an effort that has run into roadblocks with Senate Democrats.