Senate Republicans Introduce Legislation to Boost Transparency on Foreign Funding in Higher Education

‘If America’s adversaries are using these gifts to infiltrate college campuses, we need to know about it,’ Sen. Bill Cassidy said.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) speaks in Washington on Sept. 24, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

A group of Republican senators has introduced a bill to keep foreign influence out of U.S. higher education, after the House passed its version of the legislation last month.

The Senate bill, known as the Defending Education Transparency and Ending Rogue Regimes Engaging in Nefarious Transactions (DETERRENT) Act (S.1296), was led by Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), according to a statement on April 7.

Cassidy, chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, said the legislation would bring “important transparency and ensures our universities are not susceptible to foreign influence.”

“If America’s adversaries are using these gifts to infiltrate college campuses, we need to know about it,” Cassidy said.

“America’s foreign adversaries, including the Chinese Communist Party, are targeting our nation’s students by stealing research, spewing anti-American propaganda, and censoring free speech by providing American academic institutions with lucrative funding opportunities,” Tillis said in a statement.

“Too often, schools fail to report these foreign gifts and funding, leaving our adversaries with an unchecked influence over U.S. academic institutions.

“The DETERRENT Act is essential to countering this threat and safeguarding our educational integrity.”

One of the key features of the legislation is the reduction of the reporting threshold for foreign gifts and contracts by amending the Higher Education Act of 1965. The threshold would be adjusted from $250,000 to $50,000 for most countries, with a zero-dollar threshold for nations deemed “countries of concern,” such as communist China.

Additionally, the DETERRENT Act would require schools to disclose foreign gifts to individual staff and faculty members. Private institutions with large endowments would be required to report on foreign investments.

The bill also stipulates penalties for institutions that fail to comply, including fines and the loss of federal student financial aid.

The co-sponsors of the Senate bills are Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), and Eric Schmitt (R-Mo).

“There is no reason foreign adversaries should be buying influence on our college campuses,” Lummis wrote on social media platform X on April 7.

Cornyn, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on April 7 wrote on X, “Countries trying to use money to infiltrate our colleges & spread propaganda must be stopped in their tracks.”

The House passed the DETERRENT Act on March 27 with a vote of 241–169, with 210 Republicans and 31 Democrats supporting the legislation.

After the House vote, the National Association of Scholars (NAS), a New York-based advocacy group, issued a statement urging the Senate to take up the legislation.

“The DETERRENT Act is the best tool Congress has put forth to combat foreign influence in our universities,” NAS President Peter W. Wood said in a statement at the time.

“Our foreign adversaries have been able to prop up anti-Semitism and support the theft of American research and technology through gifts to American universities.

“By passing the DETERRENT Act, Congress deters further gifts from America’s adversaries who intend to undermine our national security, the academic freedom of students and faculty, and the integrity of American higher education.”

A 2024 report issued by the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and the House Education and Workforce Committee found that millions of dollars of U.S. funding have indirectly helped the Chinese regime develop technology in fields such as hypersonics, nuclear, and artificial intelligence.

In 2021, Zheng Songguo, a former professor at Ohio State University, was sentenced to 37 months for lying on National Institutes of Health grant applications in order to use $4.1 million in research grants to advance the fields of rheumatology and immunology for China.