Note: The House voted 246-170 to approve the DETERRENT Act on Dec. 6. The legislation now moves to the Senate, where the companion bill has been introduced by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Thom Tillis (R-NC).
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ACE and 17 other organizations sent
a letter Dec. 4 to House leadership opposing the Defending Education
Transparency and Ending Rogue Regimes Engaging in Nefarious Transactions
(DETERRENT) Act, which the House is scheduled to vote on this week.
The DETERRENT Act would amend Section 117 of the Higher
Education Act by lowering the reporting threshold for foreign gifts or
contracts from $250,000 to $50,000 for most countries and to $0 for “countries
of concern” (China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea), and creating massive new
reporting requirements for institutions. The bill would prohibit public
institutions from signing contracts with countries of concern unless the
secretary of education issues a waiver, require some institutions to create and
maintain public facing databases of foreign gifts and contracts to individual
researchers and staff, and require some private institutions to report
investments or holdings with countries of concern. The bill also would create
large new fines for non-compliance, some of which would be tied to an
institution’s Title IV funding. You can read ACE’s summary of the bill
here.
“We understand that Congress and policymakers are concerned
with research security, as well as foreign malign influence, at our
institutions,” the groups wrote. “However, the DETERRENT Act is the wrong
action to take to address these issues and we urge you to vote against the
legislation.”
Meanwhile, last week the Department of Education’s office of
Federal Student Aid highlighted the
significant reporting already happening on foreign gifts and contracts by
higher education institutions. According to the department, the “latest foreign
gift and contract reporting data set shows nearly 5,000 additional foreign
gifts and contracts transactions valued at nearly $4 billion since ED’s last
data release as of Oct. 13, 2023.”
“While we understand the concern regarding foreign funding
to U.S. institutions of higher education is bipartisan,” the groups stated,
“we believe the DETERRENT Act is duplicative of existing interagency efforts,
unnecessary, and puts in place a problematic expansion of the data collection
by the U.S. Department of Education that will broadly curtail important needed
international research collaboration and academic and cultural exchanges.”
The Republican-led House Education and the Workforce
committee approved
the bill in November, with three Democrats joining Republicans in voting
for it. ACE and other organizations sent
a letter outlining concerns before the markup, but the final measure
neglected to address any of the major concerns identified.
To read the full letter, click
here.