Sponsors
The bill strengthens federal visibility and speeds interagency response to foreign influence in higher education, at the cost of added reporting burden, potential chilling of international collaboration and donations, and increased risks to privacy and due‑process for donors, researchers, and institutions.
Colleges and universities will be required to disclose significant foreign gifts/contracts (and gifts from designated foreign sources), giving the federal government improved visibility into foreign influence risks on campuses.
The Department must share disclosures with the FBI and DNI within 10 days, enabling faster intelligence and law‑enforcement follow‑up on potential threats tied to foreign funding.
Requiring transmission of past and investigative records within 90 days consolidates institutional information for federal review and may improve enforcement of compliance rules.
Donors, researchers, institutions, and students may have privacy and due‑process protections curtailed because institutional records can be rapidly shared with the FBI and DNI without notice.
Colleges, universities, and research partners may see collaborations and donations decline because gifts tied to designated foreign nations become reportable, chilling academic partnerships and philanthropy.
Universities and research administrators will face increased administrative burden to identify, track, and report foreign gifts and contracts that meet the reporting threshold.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires covered colleges to file recurring disclosures about foreign ownership/control or foreign gifts/contracts (new thresholds) and directs the Education Department to share those records with the FBI and DNI.
Requires colleges and universities that are owned/controlled by foreign sources, or that receive gifts or contracts from foreign sources above new thresholds, to file regular disclosure reports with the Secretary of Education and requires the Department to share those reports and past relevant records with the FBI and the Director of National Intelligence. Sets a $250,000 annual reporting threshold for most foreign sources and no threshold for sources tied to specified "covered nations," and creates short timelines for the Department to transmit current and historical records to federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
Introduced April 9, 2025 by Erin Houchin · Last progress April 9, 2025