Summary

Requires colleges, universities, covered individuals, and certain large private institutions to disclose foreign gifts, contracts, and sizable foreign-linked investments to the Department of Education and to maintain public, searchable databases of many of those disclosures. Establishes definitions, thresholds, timelines for filing and public posting, and creates enforcement tools including civil actions and monetary fines for knowing or willful noncompliance. Creates separate disclosure streams: institutional reports to the Department about foreign gifts/contracts (with lower thresholds for foreign governments or entities of concern), individual disclosures and a campus public database for foreign gifts/contracts and contracts with foreign sources, and an investment-reporting regime for private institutions meeting high-asset and investment thresholds. The Secretary must maintain a public investment database and can seek civil enforcement and fines, with institutions paying investigation and enforcement costs when found to have knowingly or willfully violated the rules.

• Institutions must file annual reports with the Department of Education listing foreign gifts and contracts meeting set thresholds; lower thresholds or no threshold apply for designated foreign countries/entities of concern.
• Covered individuals and affiliated entities must file annual disclosures; institutions must publish a public, searchable, downloadable database of many disclosures and update it within 30 days.
• Large private institutions (assets > $6B and investments of concern > $250M) must report annual holdings, purchases, and sales of defined "investments of concern," with pooled funds treated as holding such investments unless certified otherwise.
• The Secretary must create a public investment database and has rulemaking authority for certification and reporting procedures for pooled vehicles.
• Enforcement includes Department investigations, referral to the Attorney General for civil action, cost recovery, and monetary fines tied to an institution’s federal funding (e.g., minimum percentage-based penalties for certain violations, increasing for repeat offenses).
• Reports must include granular information (recipient, intended use, restrictions, dollar values, dates) and, for some contracts, the full contract text and addenda.
• Gifts or contracts to affiliated entities count as institutional gifts/contracts, and institutions substantially controlled by foreign sources must report regardless of value.
• Retention requirements generally last at least five years after receipt of a gift or relevant contract dates; some records must be kept longer if state law or contract terms require it.