House Republicans subpoena Brown University and Penn in Ivy League antitrust probe

The House Judiciary Committee issued subpoenas Tuesday to Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania, demanding further documents from the schools arsenic portion of an ongoing probe into alleged antitrust violations successful Ivy League tuition and fiscal assistance policies.

The 2 subpoenas mirrored 1 that was issued by the committee past week to Harvard University.

Brown, Penn and Harvard are among a radical of 8 Ivy League universities that each received letters from the committee In April, demanding a immense tranche of documents and records.

It was unclear Tuesday whether the different 5 schools that had received demands would besides beryllium issued subpoenas. They are Dartmouth University, Princeton University, Columbia University, Cornell University and Yale University.

The committee says it is investigating whether the Ivy League universities collectively raised their tuition rates successful what amounted to a benignant of price-fixing.

It is besides weighing whether the schools utilized their cognition of applicants' idiosyncratic fiscal situations to pass tuition assistance packages that maximized however overmuch the schools collected. The committee described this signifier arsenic tantamount to terms discrimination.

In Tuesday's letters, committee seat Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio and subcommittee seat Scott Fitzgerald of Wisconsin wrote that some Brown's and Penn's responses to the archetypal papers requests successful April had been "inadequate."

Those requests laid retired 11 topics connected which the committee wanted each records and emails and interior documents from the schools dating backmost six years.

A spokesperson for Brown told CNBC the assemblage has "consistently cooperated" with the legislature investigation.

"While the House Committee's July 1 subpoena was unnecessary fixed our voluntary compliance," the spokesperson said, "We fully recognize the committee's oversight authorization and volition proceed to supply the committee with accusation it has requested."

Likewise, Penn has "promptly and consistently" engaged with the committee's requests, a spokesperson told CNBC. As portion of this engagement, the schoolhouse has provided much than 8,000 pages of documents to Congress truthful far.

Brown and Penn person until July 22 to comply with the subpoenas. Harvard was fixed until July 17.

According to the committee, the assemblage subpoenas and the documents they compel volition pass "potential legislative reforms" Congress is considering.

These see "whether existing civilian and transgression penalties and existent antitrust instrumentality enforcement efforts are capable to deter anticompetitive practices among higher acquisition institutions."