ICYMI: Murphy, Chairman Smith Demand Answers on Penn Biden Center Funding

Washington, D.C. – Rep. Greg Murphy, M.D. (NC-03) joined House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) in a letter to University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) President Mary Elizabeth Magill regarding the university’s endowment investments in flagged foreign entities and its funding of the Penn Biden Center.

The letter reminds the University of the Ways and Means Committee’s jurisdiction over the taxation of endowments and raises concerns about revelations that the UPenn endowment fund, which has investments in adversarial entities, may have funded the Penn Biden Center.

“The classified documents found at the Biden Center at the University of Pennsylvania as well as the Center’s funding raise national security questions,” said Rep. Murphy. “Adversarial entities are contributing money to the university endowments as part of the Chinese Communist Party’s infiltration of our colleges and universities. We need to know if these funds are being used to gain influence over America’s current and future leaders. I am thankful to Chairman Smith for keeping up the pressure on institutions of higher education to disclose their relationships with China.”

BACKGROUND

• UPenn has previously admitted to investing its endowment in entities on the U.S.-government’s designated lists of foreign adversarial entities.
• UPenn is home to the Penn Biden Center where President Biden was previously employed and where classified materials were recently found in his former office.
• The Penn Biden Center’s creation and its potential funding by foreign entities through the UPenn’s endowments appear to coincide with Biden family business dealings with China.
• In June 2022, Congressman Murphy sent a letter to fifteen private colleges and universities with the largest endowments, including UPenn, calling on them to purge their investment portfolios of listed entities, including Chinese entities, deemed a threat to U.S. national security.

A link to Chairman Smith and Rep. Murphy’s letter can be found here.

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