During Thursday’s Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) questioned nominees about Trump's blockage of visas for Harvard international students.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Keeling, I am working with Senator Padilla to protect
00:06workers from excessive heat, and I hope you're going to commit to working with
00:11us to ensure that OSHA issues a final workplace heat stress prevention rule
00:18that includes the well-researched effective requirements of the proposed
00:25heat rule. And I hope you're going to work with us, Mr. Keeling, to make sure that
00:31gets done for the workers of our country. Ms. Ritchie, last night President Trump
00:38issued a proclamation barring Harvard international students from entering the
00:45United States. The proclamation, not even an executive order, is toothless. Any
00:53attempt to implement it would be illegal and unconstitutional. This is yet another
01:01page from Trump's authoritarian playbook. Over the last five months, Trump has
01:07demanded Harvard to bow to ideological demands and retaliated when Harvard
01:14refused to comply. The administration has terminated over 3.7 billion dollars in
01:20grants and contracts to Harvard and its research partners. The administration
01:25disqualified Harvard from future federal grants, threatened the school's tax-exempt
01:31status, and revoked its ability to issue student visas. The Civil Rights Act requires a
01:39clear process before ripping funding away from students, faculty, and staff. In fact, the
01:49office that you have been nominated to lead, the Department of Education's Office of
01:55Civil Rights, actually has a 32-page manual detailing the process that must be
02:06exhausted before any actions are taken. And this process is meant to protect people and
02:16institutions from abuses of power by the federal government. It is meant to protect
02:24people from losing the education they have dreamed of just because they are an
02:31international student and from having funding for their life's work ripped from
02:37them, all because of a president's vendetta against an individual school. So, Ms. Ritchie, if
02:47confirmed, do you commit to reversing any funding cuts or other sanctions imposed upon
02:56universities that were not afforded due process that they are entitled to under the
03:03Constitution and under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act? Senator, thank you for the question. As I've
03:13mentioned previously in this hearing, I cannot speak to current actions that have been taken by the
03:19Department, specifically by OCR leadership in my role as a nominee. I simply just don't have information to the basis for the decisions or the reasoning behind the decisions, the case files, the
03:31the investigatory record. I don't have access to information. I'm not asking you, I'm asking you the larger question.
03:41Will you object to anything that does not afford due process entitled under the Constitution or Title VI of the Civil Rights Act?
03:49Yeah, I reference that only, Senator, to say that I don't have enough information to commit to that.
03:53I appreciate that. I'm looking for your broader commitment to just upholding the Constitution of the United States.
03:59That answer should be a clear and unequivocal yes, that you will uphold the Constitution, that you will uphold Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
04:08That's all we want to hear from you. That is your job.
04:11Senator, thank you. What I can commit to is compliance with the case processing manual, which I've written several times, in compliance with OCR's regulations under Title VI.
04:20Let me continue that. Ms. Ritchie, yes or no? Do you endorse ripping funding from researchers and students, stealing educational opportunity from international students,
04:29abducting students from campuses for asserting their First Amendment rights and continuing to threaten colleges and universities that refuse to comply with lawless demands?
04:41Senator, I will commit to following OCR's regulations and OCR's case processing manual.
04:46Yeah, I'm still not getting the answer that I want because, again, this administration is treating American freedom and dissent as the enemy and students and faculty and staff are collateral damage.
04:59To be unwilling and unable to stand against this means that you are silent in the face of authoritarianism and it unfortunately makes you unqualified for this position of high responsibility.
05:12Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
05:14Senator Rick.