Sponsors (6)
The bill strengthens national security by pressuring colleges to cut risky ties with listed Chinese entities and provides DHS support and a waiver path, but it risks disrupting research, funding, and academic exchanges—especially at smaller institutions—while imposing administrative and reputational costs.
Colleges and universities that end or avoid covered ties with listed Chinese entities face lower risk of espionage and unauthorized technology transfer, strengthening national security.
A waiver process (with DNI consultation) allows critical collaborations to continue when national security considerations or robust safeguards justify them, reducing the likelihood of blanket cutoffs that would harm important work.
Institutions that comply by ending prohibited relationships can continue receiving DHS grants once those relationships are terminated, preserving federal research and security support for eligible schools.
Colleges with existing partnerships may lose DHS research and security funding if forced to abruptly terminate programs, disrupting projects, jobs, and local economies—an outcome that disproportionately threatens smaller institutions reliant on those grants.
Reduced research collaboration and academic exchange with China could limit opportunities for students and researchers in affected programs, slowing training, innovation, and scientific progress.
Institutions may incur significant administrative burdens and legal costs to assess relationships, terminate partnerships, or prepare waiver requests, diverting staff time and resources away from education and research.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Starting 12 months after enactment, colleges with relationships to Confucius Institutes, the Thousand Talents Program, or listed Chinese entities must end them to receive DHS funds, with a DNI‑consulted DHS waiver process and annual reporting.
Makes colleges and universities that maintain relationships with Confucius Institutes, the Thousand Talents Program, or certain listed Chinese entities ineligible for Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funds unless they end those relationships. Provides a DHS waiver process (with DNI consultation), requires outreach and reporting by DHS, and defines covered terms. Applies beginning 12 months after enactment, allows case-by-case waivers (renewable annually) when national security or robust safeguards justify the relationship, and requires DHS to notify congressional homeland security committees and to report annually on compliance and recipients with covered relationships.
Official title: To establish Department of Homeland Security funding restrictions on institutions of higher education that have a relationship with Confucius Institutes, and for other purposes.
Introduced January 31, 2025 by August Pfluger · Last progress May 8, 2025