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Amendment to exempt medical graduate programs from endowment excise tax withdrawn after pledge to work with sponsor
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Summary
A member proposed exempting graduate medical programs from the endowment excise tax (section 4968) to protect medical training and research at four institutions; the sponsor withdrew the amendment after the chair and colleagues agreed to work on fixes.
A member of the House Ways and Means Committee proposed a narrowly targeted amendment to exempt graduate medical programs from the excise tax under section 4968, saying the change would affect four institutions and protect medical training and research that support regional health care workforces.
The sponsor said the amendment would provide an exemption for graduate schools only under section 4968 and listed the Medical College of Wisconsin (Milwaukee campus) as an institution that would benefit, saying 1,530 students are enrolled across its School of Medicine, School of Pharmacy, and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. The sponsor also cited research volume at the college — more than 3,225 research studies annually — and named Baylor (Texas), Mayo (Minnesota) and Sinai (New York) as other medical schools that would be affected.
The sponsor said the endowment tax, even at 1.2 percent, harms medical schools' capacities to train clinicians and perform clinical research and argued that, without a fix, medical graduate programs could face reduced class sizes or workforce reductions. The sponsor reported a bipartisan letter from the Wisconsin delegation (six Republicans and two Democrats) asking the committee for a fix for these medical schools.
Chairman Smith and other committee members engaged the sponsor in a brief colloquy about next steps and expressed willingness to work with the sponsor; the sponsoring member then withdrew the amendment. No roll-call decision was recorded on the amendment because the sponsor withdrew it.
The committee's discussion repeatedly referenced section 4968 of the tax code (the excise tax on certain university endowments) as the statutory provision the amendment would have modified.
