Republican Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance and a group of GOP Senators introduced legislation Wednesday that would aim to curb Communist Chinese Party influence by targeting the millions of foreign dollars that go to American universities.
The Daily Caller first obtained a copy of the legislation, which is titled the Safeguarding American Education from Foreign Control Act. Currently, American colleges and universities are permitted to accept foreign donations and enter contracts with foreign entities.
Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 requires universities to disclose semiannually to the Department of Education any gifts received from and contracts with a foreign source that are valued at $250,000 or more.
In May it was reported that The University of Pennsylvania had received millions of dollars from Chinese donors with ties to Hunter Biden. Chinese donors donated millions to UPenn, where Joe Biden led the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, between 2018 and 2020. Another report showed that UC Berkeley failed to disclose $220 million in Chinese state funding for a joint tech venture.
The bill would specifically tighten the enforcement of Section 117 investigations at the Department of Education by doing the following:
- Lower the required reporting threshold (from the current $250,000) to gifts of any value for gifts from foreign adversaries to American universities.
- Require that the Department of Education share all open Sec. 117 reports with ODNI and FBI to force visibility and accountability into the process.
- Require, from enactment onward, that the Department of Education share any new Sec. 117 reports with those same national security agencies.
In the Senate, Vance was joined by Indiana Sen. Mike Braun, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, North Carolina Sen. Ted Budd and Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, all Republicans, as original cosponsors.
Banks introduced a House version of the legislation earlier.
“The institutions tasked with educating America’s future leaders have been repeatedly exposed for seeking money from our adversaries, especially the Chinese Communist Party. We cannot allow the CCP, or any hostile nation for that matter, to continue to infiltrate and exploit our higher education system,” Vance told the Caller before introducing the bill. “The American people deserve to see every single dollar of foreign donations going to U.S. colleges and universities, and that’s exactly what this legislation would do.” (RELATED: UPenn Raked In Millions From Chinese Donors Linked To Hunter Biden’s Business Dealings: REPORT)
READ THE LEGISLATION HERE:
(DAILY CALLER OBTAINED) — … by Henry Rodgers
“China has funneled nearly half a billion dollars into American universities since 2011. President Trump was the first president in my lifetime to get serious about tackling China’s influence on our education system, but President Biden has reopened our schools to illicit Communist Party soft power,” Banks told the Caller. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: House Republicans Demand Answers On Apple’s Censorship Policies In China)
“I’d like to thank Senator Vance for joining me to introduce this important bill in the Senate and for fighting back against President Biden’s efforts to appease Communist China,” he added.