SIGH

Fine, we'll do this the long way.

An amendment from Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, would have prevented any federal funding for colleges and universities that engage “in a practice that discriminates against Asian Americans in recruitment, applicant review, or admissions.” Sen. John Cornyn of Texas was added as a cosponsor of the amendment.

Hirono (who introduced the bill and is an AAPI, btw) called it a transparent and cynical attack on longstanding policies that promote diversity, and threatened universities for using policies that courts have upheld. The Senate rejected it 49-48.

The bill was first introduced by two democrats. Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Representative Grace Meng (D-N.Y.).

Source: https://www.hirono.senate.gov/news/press-releases/hirono-and-meng-introduce-bill-to-address-surge-of-anti-asian-hate-crimes-during-coronavirus-pandemic

An amendment to the bill was proposed by republican lawmakers that the democrats who introduced the bill (one of which actually is an AAPI) felt was going to conflict with an existing Supreme Court ruling and do more harm than good:

However, the amendment conflicts with a recent Supreme Court ruling that finds elite colleges like Harvard University do not discriminate against AAPI students when using race-based admissions.

Source: https://www.insightintodiversity.com/u-s-senators-vote-down-college-admissions-discrimination-amendment-to-asian-hate-crimes-bill/

To act as though dems voted against the bill because they don't want Asian Americans in college is patently false.

Democrats proposed the bill. What they voted down was an amendment to it that conflicted with existing diversity policies that they found did not discriminate against Asian Americans.