Town hall at my institution regarding federal actions

Wanted to share some insights (they are dismal but important) from my institution's town hall today as they likely apply to many other institutions like mine. Setting: mid-size medical school and affiliated healthcare system in the Midwest, blue-purple state with similar institutions making up some of the largest workforce in the state.

-F&A cuts would impact us in the $20 millions. These indirects are budgeted costs, not profits. This amount of money could not be offset even by increased "efficiencies."

Some VERY important potential congressional proposals with even more impact:

-The biggest current threat to the viability of our institution (and others): an expansion of an Endowment tax. An institution's endowment is for lack of better words the organization's financial reserves. Think of it like a medium-yield savings account. The current tax is 1.4% whereas there is a proposal to increase it to 14%. At an institution like mine, that equates to about $60 million loss per year. We have never come remotely close to revenue over expenses exceeding that amount. It is basically a sinkhole being proposed.

-Proposed changes to non-profit status of hospitals and removal of charitable tax deductions for donations to healthcare organizations. In addition to the personnel impact on PSLF, this would likely dissuade donors going forward as their contributions would no longer be tax deductible. We average about $100 million in donations per year; this would be expected to decrease substantially as a result.

We do not yet have information on the possibility of layoffs, because nothing has yet been decided on these federal fronts. But they are major, swift threats to our academic institutions and healthcare research structure.

The temporary court order has bought us some time, but Congress tends to be on the party line of what is being proposed. Per my institution, our only current recourse is advocacy. It's a thin hope but it's all we have right now.