Hearing Focuses on Foreign Gifts

During a hearing held yesterday, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) probed on where foreign gifts to American higher education go, who provides the gifts, and what the funding actually supports.  

In his opening statement, HELP Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-LA) praised the Department of Education for updating the Section 117 Foreign Gift and Contract Reporting Portal but said that more needs to be done to follow the money.  Cassidy supports enacting the DETERRENT Act, introduced by Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), which lowers the reporting threshold for foreign gifts to $0 for countries of concern (China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia) and from $250,000 to $50,000 for all other countries.  The DETERRENT Act would also prohibit institutions from entering into contracts with countries of concern without a waiver. Cassidy wants to ensure the federal government closes loopholes for gifts and that institutions share information for national security purposes.  

Witnesses shared nuanced views on a wide-range of issues, including discussing what is actually known about where foreign funding on college campuses is coming from and how it’s used, and the idea that highly valued academic freedom and intellectual exchange of ideas in American higher education makes our institutions both desirable to attend and vulnerable to foreign threats.  Witnesses also offered specific suggestions to improve the Section 117 reporting portal, such as noting when donations were made instead of cumulative totals, and insights into the real threat of the Chinese government infiltrating institutions via their students and researchers.  

The DETERRENT Act was first introduced in 2023 and passed in the House twice. The bill has not passed the Senate.