CNN —The powerful House Ways and Means Committee is threatening to reconsider the tax-exempt status of Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University amid allegations the elite schools have failed to fight antisemitism on campus. Rep. Jason Smith, the Republican chair of the committee, sent a letter on Wednesday to the four schools expressing alarm at their responses to antisemitism. The controversy has fueled a backlash from donors and politicians and helped contribute to the ousters of former Harvard President Claudine Gay and former UPenn President Liz Magill. The Ways and Means chairman noted that the universities’ tax-exempt status provides “lucrative financial benefits” and “advantageous tax treatment” of their endowments. Harvard is also under pressure to respond to wide-ranging document requests from another House panel, the Committee on Education and the Workforce, on both antisemitism and plagiarism.

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Persons: Jason Smith, ” Smith, Claudine Gay, Liz Magill, Smith, ” Cornell, Rebecca Valli, ”, UPenn, “ Penn, ” UPenn, Sally Kornbluth, Martha Pollack Organizations: CNN, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University, US, Harvard, UPenn, MIT, Cornell, Education, ” Locations: Israel