The Burton Amendment to the College Access and Opportunity Act would have required US institutions of higher learning to report funding received from Saudi sources. The Saudis have been pouring huge amounts of cash into our universities for decades to fund centers for Middle Eastern Studies. If ever there was a more obvious case of the wolf teaching the sheep what a wolf thinks (as he orders leg-of-lamb for dinner) it escapes me at the moment.
Contact your Representative and chastise him or her regarding the shameful vote on 609. Apparently it was a done deal as an anonymous yea/nay voice vote but a single nay from the floor forced a roll call vote for the record and, imagine if you will, with accountability on the line, support caved. Any restriction on funding for higher education, no matter the source, is bad karma. Never mind that the amendment would not have cut the funding but simply made its source a matter of public record. It seems that our universities are more than willing to take Saudi money but would rather not publicly admit it.
Lee Kaplan has a detailed post on the matter over at The American Thinker.
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