The chairman of two congressional committees this week sought the information from 56 private institutions.

The Boston Globe reports.

Lawmakers ask colleges for details on billion-dollar endowments

Federal lawmakers are asking the nation’s richest colleges and universities for more details about their billion-dollar endowments, questioning whether the institutions’ stockpiling of wealth fits with their “charitable and educational” missions, which qualify them for tax breaks.

The chairman of two congressional committees this week sought the information from 56 private institutions around the country that had more than $1 billion in their endowments at the close of the 2014 fiscal year — including nine in Massachusetts and another five elsewhere in New England.