Sponsors (2)
Blocks DoD funding for universities that sign contracts with specified foreign adversaries unless waived and bars PIs on DoD critical/emerging tech projects from working for foreign entities of concern for 10 years after PI service.
Official title: Prohibit contracts between certain foreign entities and institutions of higher education conducting Department of Defense-funded research and to impose post-employment restrictions for participants in certain research funded by the Department, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 5, 2025 by James E. Banks · Last progress February 5, 2025
The bill strengthens national security and public oversight of DoD-funded research by imposing restrictions, transparency, and conditional funding, but does so at the cost of economic disruption to universities and researchers, increased administrative burdens, and risks to commercial confidentiality and researcher mobility.
Students, researchers, and taxpayers benefit from reduced risk that DOD-funded research and partnerships will transfer sensitive technologies to hostile foreign actors because funding and participation are conditioned on compliance and some projects include post‑employment restrictions.
Taxpayers, Congress, universities, and researchers gain greater public transparency and oversight because DoD must publish waiver orders/contract texts, provide advance notices to defense committees, and produce an annual list of technologies that trigger restrictions.
The bill creates a formal waiver process (with advance notice to committees) that preserves flexibility for exceptional cases so some projects or researchers can be exempted under oversight.
Universities and researchers face substantial economic harm: lost or disrupted foreign collaborations, renegotiation/termination costs for multiyear projects, reduced grant opportunities, and a general risk of pushing collaborations overseas that could weaken U.S. research competitiveness.
Individual researchers (especially PIs) could lose career mobility and earnings because of a 10-year post‑employment restriction tied to covered projects.
Universities and the Department of Defense will face increased administrative and compliance costs (new compliance officers, filings, tracking, and reporting), raising bureaucracy and transaction costs borne partly by institutions and taxpayers.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Prohibits the Department of Defense (DoD) from awarding or continuing DoD funding to colleges and universities that enter into certain contracts with specified foreign adversaries or ‘‘foreign entities of concern’’ unless the institution obtains a DoD waiver; the prohibition begins January 1, 2027 and waiver applications must include full, unredacted contract text and be submitted at least 120 days before contract start. It also requires DoD to notify institutions about the timing and authority for any waiver and creates renewal and termination rules for multi‑year contracts covered by a one‑year waiver. Requires principal investigators (PIs) on DoD‑funded research in DoD‑designated “critical or emerging technologies” to agree not to accept compensated employment or in‑kind benefits from foreign entities of concern for 10 years after they stop being a PI for that DoD-funded project (with limited waiver authority and applicability rules). The Secretary of Defense will publish an annual list of technologies considered critical or emerging and may waive post‑employment restrictions for U.S. persons after 30 days’ congressional notice; the PI restriction applies only to research that begins on or after one year after enactment.