U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce, a Republican who represents Trumbull County, reintroduced a bill that targets Ivy League schools and other private universities by increasing the tax levied on their endowments and increasing the number that would pay the tax.

Called the Higher Education Accountability Tax (HEAT) Act, Joyce, R-Bainbridge, said the legislation aims to hold “wealthy, elite universities accountable for the role they have played in the student debt crisis and seeks to stop tuition increases incentivized by the president’s misguided student loan cancellation plan.”

The bill was referred to the House Ways and Means Committee.

Joyce introduced the same bill Sept. 19, 2022. It also was referred to Ways and Means, which never held a committee hearing on the proposal.

“President (Joe) Biden’s student debt bailout is designed to benefit America’s wealthiest elite universities,” Joyce said. “Instead of rewarding institutions for forcing increasing debt on students, we must address the root issue. The HEAT Act does just that by holding these universities accountable for the national student debt crisis.”

The bill seeks to increase the tax levied on annual private university endowment profits from 1.4% to 10%. It also would increase the number of universities that have to pay the tax by expanding the threshold to all private colleges and universities with an endowment valued at $250,000.

Those with endowments of at least $500,000 have to pay the 1.4% tax.

Joyce’s proposal would increase the tax rate to 20% on endowments of universities that raise the “net price-increase” for all its first-time, full-time undergraduate students at a rate higher than the Consumer Price Index over the preceding three years.

Student loan debt in the United States was about $1.7 trillion in 2023, with more than 40 million people having to borrow around $30,000 each to obtain a bachelor’s degree, according to Joyce’s office.