Sponsor
Scott Perry
Representative · R-PA
Representative · R-PA
The bill increases transparency about foreign funding on college campuses and equips Congress and agencies with GAO-reviewed insights, at the cost of higher compliance burdens for institutions, potential reductions in foreign funding, and some privacy/confidentiality trade-offs.
Universities, students, watchdogs, and the public will get clearer, standardized disclosures of foreign gifts/contracts (including specific government department/agency, stated purpose or intended use, and recipient account/department), improving transparency about foreign influence and making data easier to analyze.
Colleges and Congress will benefit from a GAO-reviewed, objective assessment of how institutions implement Section 117 and how Federal efforts are working, producing actionable findings on common causes of noncompliance and effective corrective actions to guide oversight and support.
Standardizing reporting thresholds and formats (e.g., specified dollar formatting) will make enforcement, departmental analysis, and public data use more efficient for the Department of Education and oversight bodies.
Colleges and universities will face additional administrative burdens and compliance costs to collect, verify, and report more granular donor information.
Students and campus programs may lose funding if some foreign donors or government entities withhold gifts/contracts rather than disclose departmental details or purposes.
Universities, researchers, and donors could face privacy and contractual-confidentiality conflicts when granular reporting requires disclosure of sensitive donor or project details, creating legal and ethical tensions.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Standardizes the Section 117 disclosure threshold at $50,000 and requires more detailed reporting of foreign sources and intended use of gifts/contracts, effective one year after enactment.
Amends the Higher Education Act’s foreign gift reporting rule (often called "Section 117") to standardize the dollar threshold at $50,000, require colleges and universities to include more detailed information about the foreign source (when available) such as the specific foreign government department/agency/division, and require institutions to report the stated purpose or the institution’s intended use and receiving account/department for a gift or contract. The bill delays those changes until one year after enactment and directs the Government Accountability Office to study institutional compliance with Section 117 and report to Congress within one year of enactment.
Official title: To require an institution of higher education to file a disclosure report with the Secretary of Education whenever such institution receives a gift from or enters into a contract with a foreign source, the value of which is $50,000 or more, and for other purposes.
Introduced May 29, 2026 by Scott Perry · Last progress May 29, 2026