1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

I write to urge you to take immediate action to condemn and reverse the Trump administration’s freeze of $2.3 billion in federal funding to Harvard University. This punitive move, triggered by Harvard’s refusal to comply with demands that would compromise its academic independence, is an authoritarian overreach unlike anything seen in modern American democracy. Harvard President Alan Garber stated clearly that “no government—regardless of which party is in power—should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue” (Reuters, April 2025). This is not an isolated case. Similar action has been taken against other institutions, including Columbia and Princeton, as part of a broader effort to use federal funding as leverage to force compliance with a political agenda. Legal scholars warn that these moves violate longstanding norms protecting academic freedom and set a dangerous precedent that undermines both the autonomy of higher education and the separation of powers (Reuters, April 2025). Congress must not remain silent. I urge you to publicly denounce these actions, restore the funding withheld from Harvard and other institutions, and put legal protections in place to prevent this abuse of power. Our democracy cannot function when institutions are punished for refusing to fall in line with a ruling party’s ideology. Now is the time to draw a clear line: we will not tolerate authoritarianism in the United States.