Washington, D.C. — Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today introduced the WEST (Woke Endowment Security Tax) Act, legislation that would institute a 6% excise tax on the endowments of 10 American universities. The revenue from the taxes—$15.47 billion—would act as a source of funding for money going to aid Israel’s war against Hamas, Ukraine’s war against Russia, and to efforts to secure 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,” said Senator Cotton.

 Text of the legislation may be found here.

 Background:

• The tax would stablish a one-time, 6% tax on the 2022 value of the endowments of the universities.
• 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 contract college.
• Covered institutions include Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern, Columbia, Washington University, and Cornell
• Revenue is estimated at $15.47B