WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY), a designated Republican appointee to the Truman Scholarship Foundation's Board of Trustees, introduced the Truman Scholarship Clean House Act which would affect top-down change and help rid the foundation of its deeply embedded left-wing bias.
"It is unfortunate and inappropriate that the Truman Scholarship Foundation continues to award scholarships to radical left-wing students—even criminals— rather than address the glaring political imbalance within its organization. Multiple data analyses have revealed the systemic underrepresentation of conservative scholarship recipients. I shared my concerns earlier this year at the board meeting. My legislation would finally reform the Truman Scholarship Foundation to promote an ideologically diverse class of recipients and ensure that only law-abiding students receive these scholarships," said Stefanik.
The Truman Scholarship Clean House Act would radically reform the scholarship program by:
- Firing the current Board of Directors
- Firing the current Executive Secretary
- Empowering President Donald Trump to select the majority of the new Board of Directors (with advice and consent of the Senate, consistent with current law)
- Requiring that interviewers who select Truman winners must be approved by a supermajority of the board to prevent highly biased individuals from serving as an interviewer
- Requiring that no more than half of each board of interviewers who select Truman winners may be from the same political party, to prevent interview panels from being dominated by one political party
- Codifying that only US citizens (or US nationals), not illegal immigrants, are eligible for the Truman scholarship
The legislation would also establish a code of conduct that scholarship applicants must meet with requisites including:
- Not serving as the leader of a student organization that has been suspended for misconduct
- Not having been suspended or expelled by their institution for violating the student code of conduct
- Not having been convicted of a felony
- Requiring that scholarships will be revoked from any Truman winner who fails to abide by the above terms
Stefanik released a letter last year to the organization's Board of Trustees, urging immediate action to address troubling patterns of political imbalance in the Foundation’s scholarship award process.
The House Education and Workforce Committee will mark up the Truman Scholarship Clean House Act next week, the first step toward advancing the legislation into law.
Read the bill text HERE.
