evidence: In an email obtained by Inside Higher Ed, Suzanne Day, Harvard’s senior executive director of federal relations, urged others to reach out to Democrats in Congress to reduce the endowment tax, a 2017 tax change passed by Republicans that imposes an excise tax on wealthy endowments, through the budget-reconciliation process this fiscal year. [...] Although Harvard is in support of a total elimination of the tax, the email from Day expressed support for a change to the tax that would allow colleges subjected to the endowment tax to be taxed at a lower rate if the college uses a substantial portion of tax-subjected income to provide grants to low-income students, as most do. This measure was included in the Build Back Better reconciliation bill, which died in the Senate after being passed by the House of Representatives in November. Senate Democrats have been negotiating to revive a different version of the reconciliation bill—and Harvard is hoping to get the endowment tax reform on the agenda of Senate Democrats. [...] Education Department data from 2019 show that Harvard’s endowment currently tops $39 billion. A 2019 Harvard financial report estimated that the university would be taxed nearly $50 million per year. Other wealthy private colleges, like Stanford University, with a $27.7 billion endowment in 2019, had an estimated tax liability of $42.9 million.