31 House Democrats Join the GOP’s Latest Assault on Higher Ed — Redux

Yesterday, House Republicans voted for an attack on higher education that they first passed in December 2023, and with the same number of Democratic turncoat votes.

Here’s a reminder of what the DETERRENT Act would do from my write-up then:

That was the passage of the DETERRENT Act, which occurred last Wednesday with a vote of 246 to 170.

As the report from Democrats on the House Education and the Workforce Committee laid out, the bill would force colleges and universities to comply with burdensome and duplicative reporting requirements with no discernible increase of security or oversight and jeopardize essential global research partnerships.

Ranking Democrat Bobby Scott (VA-03) explained the absurdity and potential harmfulness of the new reporting requirements:

“For example, colleges must report any gift from a representative of a “country of concern” no matter the value — even a cup of coffee. The faculty’s information is then shared in a publicly searchable database, regardless of whether the action was nefarious or not.

“This is so excessive and burdensome — to say nothing about the potential discriminatory effect — that it would disincentivize universities from conducting critical research using collaborative partners from around the world.

He also explained how the bill could damage work to combat discrimination on campus:

“Students and faculties are already calling on Congress to improve our higher education system and address discrimination on campus. However, certain provisions in this bill would only exacerbate the ongoing culture wars that have consumed my colleagues in Congress.

“For example, the legislation singles out partnerships with certain countries, targeting researchers based solely on their nationality.

“And as I’ve said before, we can achieve accountability and compliance without contributing to anti-Asian, antisemitic, or Islamophobic animosity.

Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Judy Chu (CA-28) likewise criticized the bill for the chilling effect it could have on the Asian American research community:

“From the incarceration of Japanese Americans in World War II to racial profiling of Chinese American scientists under the failed China Initiative, countless Asian Americans have had their lives destroyed because our government falsely accused them of being spies.Already, seventy two percent of Asian American academic researchers report feeling unsafe.”

A group of higher education coalitions also highlighted how the language in the bill was so broad that it could threaten academic and cultural exchange programs.

Democrats offered numerous amendments in committee and on the floor to address their concerns, and House Republicans repeatedly voted them down, committed to fostering xenophobia and attacking research.

New session, same bad policies.

And, again, 31 Democrats joined this attack on higher ed. But not the same 31.

Here are the 31 from this week:

How did that change from 2023?

7 Democrats who voted YES in 2023 flipped to NO: Brendan Boyle (PA-02), Nikki Budzinski (IL-13), Steve Cohen (TN-05), Bill Keating (MA — 09), Brad Schneider (IL-10), Kim Schrier (WA-08), and Eric Sorensen (IL-17).

6 Democrats who voted YES in 2023 are no longer in the House: Yadira Caraveo (CO-08), Matt Cartwright (PA-08), Jeff Jackson (NC-14), Kathy Manning (NC-06), Wiley Nickel (NC-13), an Elissa Slotkin (MI-07).

5 first-year Democrats voted YES, whereas their Democratic predecessors voted NO: Wesley Bell (who replaced NO voter Cori Bush), Sarah Elfreth (who replaced NO voter John Sarbanes), Maggie Goodlander (who replaced NO voter Annie Kuster), George Latimer (who replaced NO voter Jamaal Bowman), and Eugene Vindman (who replaced NO voter Abigail Spanberger). AIPAC has been a strong champion of the bill, hence the appearance of 2024 AIPAC favorites like Bell, Elfreth, and Latimer here.

AIPAC and groups like the Republican Jewish Coalition are pushing a conspiracy theory that academic partnerships with countries like Qatar are the reason why protests against genocide exist on college campuses.

5 first-year Democrats voted YES, and they replaced Republicans: Laura Gillen, Adam Gray, Tom Suozzi, Derek Tran, and George Whitesides.

2 Democrats who voted YES were absent the day of the 2023 vote: Angie Craig and Steven Horsford.

And 1 Democrat who voted NO in 2023 flipped to YES: Ritchie Torres. Of course.

A Democratic amendment from Bobby Scott (VA-03) to mitigate the problems of the bill failed 199 to 214. Dan Goldman (NY-10), Josh Gottheimer (NJ-05), and Jared Moskowitz (FL-25) joined Republicans in voting against it.

It would have streamlined foreign gift and contract reporting, aligned reporting with other federal research security compliance requirements, established common-sense sanctions for noncompliance, and required the Secretary of Education to conduct negotiated rulemaking to receive stakeholder feedback.

An amendment from Republican Keith Self (TX-03) would have made the bill even more draconian by lowering the threshold for which gifts must be reported from $50,000 to $1. (The $1 threshold in the bill exists only for “countries of concern.”) It failed 92 to 321.

Rashida Tlaib (MI-12) filed two amendments to attack underlying hypocrisy in the bill. Her amendment #5 would have amended the definition of “Foreign Country Of Concern” to include any country that is defending a case before the International Court of Justice relating to an alleged violation of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and to include any country the government of which includes officials that have outstanding arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal (i.e., include Israel in the definition). Only Ilhan Omar (MN-05) and Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) joined her on this amendment.

Her second amendment (#6) would have amended the definition of “Investment of Concern” to include any entity that the Secretary of State determines consistently, knowingly, and directly facilitates and enables state violence and repression, war and occupation, or severe violations of international law and human rights. Al Green (TX-09), Omar, and Pressley joined her.