What You Should Know About the Levin Amendment
Committee on Education & Labor
February 3, 2022
WASHINGTON, D.C., February 3, 2022
Democrats are trying to include a troubling amendment in their China bill that will give the Biden administration unprecedented control over Americans’ private and personal information. The Levin amendment will allow the Biden administration to create a data system that will track the personal information of EVERY college student for years into the future without their consent or any ability to opt-out. Here is what you need to know…
BACKGROUND:
In a bill that professes to push back on the influence of China’s authoritarian regime, the Levin amendment risks putting the personal information – including income, race, and disability information – for every one of America’s college students in the hands of Russia and the Chinese Communist Party. Additionally, it does nothing to close the skills gap that has only worsened due to the administration’s dismal pandemic recovery, impeding our competitiveness against China’s authoritarian regime.
This is the Democrats’ attempt at an end-run around the legislative process. Democrats have yet to hold legislative hearings or markups on either of these policies. In fact, Democrats have been so focused on spending billions of the taxpayers’ money, they haven’t held a substantive policy hearing on higher education issues all Congress.
COLLEGE “TRANSPARENCY” PROVISIONS:
It will allow the Biden administration to create a data system that will track every single student pursuing a postsecondary degree – or graduate – for years into the future without their consent or any ability to opt-out of such a system even if they don’t accept federal aid.
The Democrats are sneaking in an amendment that will hand over millions of Americans’ personal and sensitive information to the Biden administration. It will create the most robust database in history held by the Biden administration’s Department of Education, the same agency that labels parents as domestic terrorists, puts teachers unions above students’ needs, and pushes K-12 schools to adopt Critical Race Theory-inspired curriculum.
The amendment provides unelected bureaucrats with near complete autonomy to (without legislative action) add virtually any information on students and families they think may be interesting.
The federal government, including the Education Department, has proven their systems are vulnerable and inadequate to protect the data to which they have access. The Education Department cannot guarantee it can protect this data or ensure it won’t fall into the hands of criminals and foreign enemies.
SHORT-TERM PELL PROVISIONS:
This amendment harms America’s workforce. It fails to meet the needs of employers and excludes successful, career-focused programs by pushing out private sector involvement exacerbating the country’s skills gap of millions of un-filled jobs.
The amendment discriminates against career-focused and innovative online programs that help Americans seeking to make a better life for themselves and their families and allows Washington bureaucrats to determine winners and losers when it comes to what programs would serve students best.
BOTTOM LINE:
This amendment allows unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats to track the everyday lives of millions of Americans and sacrifices the privacy of every postsecondary student. It is the wrong approach to closing our nation’s skills gap. We must not allow Democrats to sneak these dangerous policies into an unrelated bill.
