Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (NY-24) this week cast her vote in support of two legislative measures aimed at enhancing transparency in higher education funding and challenging President Biden’s student loan policy.
The first bill, H.R. 5933, known as the Defending Education Transparency and Ending Rogue Regimes Engaging in Nefarious Transactions Act or the DETERRENT Act, seeks to bolster accountability in reporting foreign financial contributions to colleges and universities. This bill, which passed the House with a 246–170 vote, proposes to lower the threshold for reporting foreign gifts from $250,000 to $50,000 and eliminates the threshold entirely for gifts from countries of concern, such as China or Iran. It also addresses loopholes in reporting and mandates additional disclosures for research-heavy institutions.
In addition to the DETERRENT Act, Tenney supported H.J. Res. 88, a Congressional Review Act resolution intended to overturn the Biden administration’s new rule on student loan cancellation. This move comes after the Supreme Court declared a previous version unconstitutional, with Tenney criticizing the administration’s effort as a way to bypass constitutional norms. The resolution, which Tenney co-sponsored, passed the House by a 210-189 vote and is estimated to counter a policy with a potential cost of $559 billion.
Expressing her views on these legislative actions, Tenney highlighted the burden of student loan cancellation on the 87% of Americans without federal student loan debt and raised concerns about foreign influence in U.S. colleges and universities. She emphasized the importance of the bills in protecting non-college goers from bearing the financial weight of college attendees’ loans and in shielding students from “malicious anti-American propaganda” funded by foreign entities. The DETERRENT Act and H.J. Res. 88 represent steps towards ensuring fiscal responsibility and safeguarding academic integrity against foreign interference in the American educational system, according to Tenney.
FingerLakes1.com is the region’s leading all-digital news publication. The company was founded in 1998 and has been keeping residents informed for more than two decades. Have a lead? Send it to [email protected].