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Business Wire
21-07-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
The ESOP Association CEO James Bonham to Testify at Congressional Hearing on Restoring Trust at the DOL's Employee Benefits Security Administration
WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--James Bonham, President and CEO of The ESOP Association, has been invited by U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, Chair of the House Education & Workforce Committee, to provide testimony at a subcommittee hearing titled 'Restoring Trust: Enhancing Transparency and Oversight at EBSA.' 'EBSA's anti-ESOP bias is well documented and a serious threat to ESOPs, plan participants, and fiduciaries." Bonham will address the longtime systemic anti-ESOP bias at EBSA, how abusive investigative practices have caused a chilling effect on ESOP formation in contravention of Congress's bipartisan intent, and how Congressional action and oversight can help curb such abuses. Bonham will specifically highlight the practice of secret common interest agreements, where taxpayer resources are used to subsidize private law firms and plaintiffs' attorneys' class action lawsuits against employee benefit plan sponsors and fiduciaries. The ESOP Association has been concerned by these agreements for some time, which were first brought to light in an ESOP case currently under litigation. The DOL Inspector General announced an investigation into the matter last month. Bonham will also share concerns about never-ending investigations, indiscriminate 'dragnet' style investigative tactics, and EBSA's continued practice of regulation by litigation that has led to arbitrary and capricious enforcement of unwritten rules. 'EBSA's anti-ESOP bias is well documented and a serious threat to ESOPs, plan participants, and fiduciaries. Members of Congress want to see employee ownership flourish in the United States, but this is deeply curtailed by EBSA's practices,' said Bonham. 'The ESOP Association thanks Education & Workforce Chair Tim Walberg and Subcommittee Chair Rick Allen (GA) for holding this hearing and allowing these concerns to be raised publicly and on the record, and we urge the Congress to take the necessary action to protect the future of ESOPs and employee ownership.' There are currently two bills pending action in the Education & Workforce Committee that would serve to create greater accountability at EBSA. The EBSA Investigations Transparency Act (HR 2869), introduced by Rep. Lisa McClain (MI), would require EBSA to submit an annual report to Congress on the status of open investigations. The Balance the Scales Act (HR 2958), introduced by Rep. Michael Rulli (OH), would require EBSA to disclose all common interest agreements it has entered into. The ESOP Association strongly supports both bills, and its advocates made these issues a priority during the Association's annual ESOP Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill in May. About The ESOP Association The ESOP Association is the largest organization in the world supporting employee-owned companies, the more than 10 million U.S. employees who participate in an ESOP, and the professionals who provide services to them. Headquartered at the International Employee Ownership Center in Washington, DC and operating as a 501(c)6 organization with the affiliated Employee Ownership Foundation, The ESOP Association conducts and funds academic research, provides more than 160 annual conferences and events attended by nearly 15,000 individuals, and advocates on behalf of employee owners and their businesses to federal and state lawmakers.
New York Times
15-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
What Is the House Committee That Is Questioning College Leaders?
The House Committee on Education and the Workforce is holding Tuesday's hearing on antisemitism in higher education. It is in charge of overseeing the Department of Education, including its role in enforcing anti-discrimination laws. It also supervises how billions of dollars in federal funding that goes to educational institutions is being used. Because of that oversight role, the committee can demand that the leaders of colleges and universities testify before them at hearings, and politicians can dangle the risk of being cut off from federal funding if educational leaders do not comply. Republicans have said they are willing to take such action if they find a university's policies and responses to behavior on campuses to be unacceptable. Since taking control of the House in 2023, Republicans have used the committee's hearings on antisemitism to criticize academia and progressive college campus culture — for decades among the chief targets of conservatives — and to capitalize politically on the debate over Israel's war in Gaza. Pointing to footage of pro-Palestinian demonstrations and encampments, Republicans have also hoped to use the issue, which has divided Democrats, as a wedge to sway voters. Representative Tim Walberg of Michigan, the committee's Republican chairman, said in a statement before Tuesday's hearing that the panel was 'building on its promise to protect Jewish students and faculty while many university leaders refuse to hold agitators of this bigotry, hatred, and discrimination accountable.' Democrats on the committee have argued that Republicans are selectively focused on some hate speech, and that they tolerate antisemitism in their own party while using it as a political weapon against others. 'This is our ninth hearing on antisemitism in 18 months,' Representative Robert C. Scott of Virginia, the top Democrat on the committee, said during Tuesday's hearing. 'We've not held a single hearing addressing racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia or other challenges affecting other student groups on American college campuses.'
New York Times
15-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Three Universities Will Face Congress Over Antisemitism Allegations
The heads of three universities will appear before Congress on Tuesday, becoming the latest batch of leaders who Republicans have called to Washington over allegations of campus antisemitism. In a hearing before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, leaders from the City University of New York, Georgetown University and the University of California, Berkeley, will testify about 'the role of faculty, funding and ideology' in antisemitism. The first hearings targeted Ivy League universities, but Republicans have widened their lens to other kinds of institutions, which they say also failed to keep Jewish students safe when pro-Palestinian protests swept campuses around the country. While the protests have died down substantially since last year, Tim Walberg, a Michigan Republican and the committee's chair, said in a statement that lawmakers 'continue to see antisemitic hatred festering at schools across the country.' Mr. Walberg echoed President Trump, who campaigned on punishing universities that he said had not done enough to curb antisemitism. The Trump administration has taken away major sums of money — billions in Harvard's case — from top universities. A federal task force on antisemitism has singled out many institutions for investigation, and federal agents have detained international students who were involved in pro-Palestinian activism. The Republican-led hearings began before the second Trump administration, months after Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023, which led to Israel's ongoing invasion of Gaza. The presidents of M.I.T., Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania were called in for the first hearing, which turned into a disastrous spectacle for the leaders. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
10-07-2025
- Business
How Trump's megabill affects student loans, school choice
President Donald Trump's signature tax and spending megabill could alter aspects of K-12 and higher education in the coming years, according to education advocates on both sides of the aisle. After a monthslong process on Capitol Hill, the highly anticipated law will significantly reform the student loan process and broaden school choice options for families and the education community at large. Here's how the new law, which also brings massive cuts to government benefits such as Medicaid and increases funding for immigration enforcement, potentially changes education for millions of Americans. Student loans The megabill pushed through several House Republican policies aimed at reforming higher education -- including with student loans. The new law terminates all current student loan repayment plans for loans disbursed on or after July 1, 2026. They will be replaced with two separate plans: a standard repayment plan and a new income-based repayment plan called the Repayment Assistance Plan, according to the text of the megabill. The Department of Education released a statement that said these new plans are currently impacted by legal challenges, urging borrowers on the Biden-era Income Driven Repayment plans to consider enrolling in an income-based repayment plan. With this new process, Education and Workforce Committee Chairman Tim Walberg, a Republican, said he believes struggling borrowers will receive the assistance needed to repay loans without saddling taxpayers with that burden. The new law also establishes loan limits for parent borrowers and terminates graduate and professional plus loans -- designed to help graduate and professional students pay for school -- for their degrees and certificates. Earlier this year, Education Secretary Linda McMahon applauded the megabill for simplifying the "overly complex" repayment process and reducing borrowing amounts to "help curb rising tuition costs." The Student Borrower Protection Center, which focuses on eliminating the burden of student debt, denounced the provisions in the bill. Aissa Canchola Bañez, the center's policy director, described it as a crushing blow to millions of Americans already struggling to cover college costs. "This bill is a dangerous attack on students, working families and communities across the country," she said, adding that it is "shredding the student loan safety net, weakening protections and pushing millions of students and families into the riskier and more expensive private student loan market." National Parents Union President Keri Rodrigues warned the new policies in Trump's megabill are leading to a "difficult moment for American families." Rodrigues fears a $65,000 lifetime limit on Parent PLUS loans -- which provide money to parents for their children to attend college -- could eliminate a pathway to "economic mobility." "It's going to mean a lot of hardship for kids and for families across the country," she said. School choice Conservatives are celebrating the law as it continues to deliver on a long-standing pledge from the Trump administration to give power to parents and reduce education bureaucracy in Washington through universal school choice -- something McMahon has pushed to see expanded nationwide. Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy's Educational Choice for Children Act tax credit, a provision included within the megabill, provides a charitable donation incentive for individuals and businesses to fund scholarship awards for students to cover expenses related to K-12 public and private education starting in 2027. Republican Rep. Adrian Smith, who co-sponsored the House legislation, told ABC News it removes the "politics" from school-funding formulas that haven't served students' best interests. "Students deserve the opportunity to succeed in the setting which best meets their needs, and this investment will open new doors for millions of American families," Smith said. Tommy Schultz, CEO of the conservative American Federation for Children, noted the change is a monumental step toward every state achieving school choice. "AFC will work to ensure that governors and state leaders listen to their constituents and bring educational freedom to every state in the nation, and to as many families as possible," Schultz said in a statement to ABC News. "We will continue to fight to ensure that this tax credit scholarship is well-implemented and expanded as soon as possible." Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono is a staunch opponent of the president's education policies and the Republican tax credit, saying it strips public schools of its resources and enriches wealthy families. "What [the ECCA] does is it is yet another big tax break for rich people who can afford to contribute these kinds of funds -- so mainly the people who will take advantage of this will be kids who are already going to private schools," Hirono explained. "Not much of a choice," she quipped. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten also slammed the bill for promoting a "massive and unprecedented transfer of wealth from everyday people to billionaires." "It writes a permanent school voucher scheme into the tax code that would redirect billions of dollars each year to private schools -- even as our public schools, which educate 90 percent of all students, remain woefully underfunded," Weingarten said in a statement to ABC News. Despite the public school debate, Sen. Cassidy and education advocates argue no child should be "trapped" in a failing school. Dr. Eva Moskowitz is the CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools, the highest-performing free public charter school network in New York City, and told ABC News that it's time to move on from the public education "monopoly." "We have a solution right in front of us: high-performing charter schools and a scholarship program for the private school choice," Moskowitz said. "This is the most concrete, pragmatic, thing we can do today to impact hundreds of thousands of children."
New York Times
02-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Columbia's Acting President Apologizes for Texts Disparaging Trustee
A congressional committee investigating antisemitism on college campuses has released private text messages from Claire Shipman, the acting president of Columbia University, that show her expressing distrust and dislike of a Jewish member of the board of trustees who had been outspoken about the treatment of Jewish students. The text messages, which were excerpted in a letter to Ms. Shipman demanding that she provide an explanation and included texts on other subjects, were from 2023 and 2024. The timing of their release this week seemed intended to question the leadership of Ms. Shipman as she negotiates with the Trump administration over the potential return of more than $400 million in federal research funding. The administration had said it cut the funding because of what it described as the school's failure to protect Jewish students from harassment. The committee 'is seeking clarity regarding several messages you sent that appear to downplay and even mock the pervasive culture of antisemitism on Columbia's campus,' Representatives Tim Walberg and Elise Stefanik, two Republican members of the House Committee on Education and Workforce, wrote in their Tuesday letter to her. Ms. Shipman sent an apology note on Wednesday to a limited group of alumni, board members and friends, saying she wanted to rebuild trust after the texts were made public. 'Let me be clear: The things I said in a moment of frustration and stress were wrong,' she wrote. 'They do not reflect how I feel. I have apologized directly to the person named in my texts, and I am apologizing now to you.' The university confirmed the authenticity of the apology note, a copy of which was provided to The New York Times by someone who received it. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
